A recovery plan for the threatened Algonquin wolf should have been in place two years ago. Recent amendments to the Endangered Species Act mean the Algonquin wolf faces an uncertain future.
Studying the genomes of mountain goats supports conservation efforts.
(Shutterstock)
As mountain goats face pressures from climate change and human disturbance, analyzing their genome provides useful information on their ecology and evolution.
The polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is used to copy strands of DNA.
(Pixabay/PixxlTeufel)
COVID-19 tests rely on a process developed at a biotech company co-founded by a Canadian. Canada’s current testing expertise needs to be channelled to prepare for the next wave, and the next pandemic.
Loneliness affects one in three people in the industrialized world, with racialized groups disproportionately bearing the burden.
(Pexels/EricW)
Vaccine development usually spans a number of decades. This is because there’s a need to understand the mechanisms of protection against the pathogen, and to minimise adverse reactions.
How governments handle pandemics relies on co-operation from the public and across borders.
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Countries closed their borders in response to COVID-19, but international cooperation and technology sharing could improve recovery against pandemics and potential bioterrorist attacks.
Bats are key pollinators and seed-spreaders, and keep pests away.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates global economic and health insecurities, opportunities to emulate the pandemic’s effects with bioweapons affords terrorists a new model.
Colourized scanning electron micrograph of a cell heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles.
(The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Flickr)
Fundamental research has informed what we know about coronaviruses up until the pandemic. With possible future outbreaks, continuing and developing this type of work is crucial.
Genomic sequencing can help in understanding viruses.
Gio.tto/Shutterstock
The variation captured in these genomes, when compared to genomes sampled elsewhere, provides a fingerprint that might be associated with a particular virus and a particular cluster of transmission.
An image of the popular Sandy Macpherson from circa 1958. Macpherson played soothing music for BBC listeners during Second World War.
(BBC Programming)
During the Second World War, anxious but also bored BBC listeners found comfort in the soothing sounds of Sandy Macpherson, Canadian-born organist.
Coronaviruses get their name from the crown, or corona, of spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, as seen on this illustration of a highly magnified virus.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Information collected from DNA samples can be used to identify species, track their movements and diagnose genetic diseases. This information is useful in conservation and management projects.
A landmark analysis of the genetic sequences of hundreds of different cancers offers crucial insights into the origins and growth of the disease’s myriad forms.
Medical workers talk with a woman suspected of being ill with a coronavirus at a community health station in Wuhan, China, in January 2020.
Chinatopix via AP
Through genetic detective work, scientists have identified missing links in the tomato’s evolution from a wild blueberry-sized fruit in South America to the larger modern tomato of today.
A seafood counter is shown at a store in Toronto in 2018. A study that year found 61 per cent of seafood products tested at Montréal grocery stores and restaurants were mislabelled. Fish is a common victim of food fraud.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Trust in our global food supply chains remains a concern. For the foreseeable future, much of Canada’s food fraud remains hidden in plain sight, sitting right there on our grocery store shelves.
He Jiankui is reflected in a glass panel as he works at a computer at a laboratory in on Oct. 10, 2018.
AP/Mark Schiefelbein
The scientist who announced the world’s first genome-edited twins received a prison sentence and a large fine for his research. But the systems that enabled him have not been held to account.