Cannabis flowers. Canada’s cannabis industry is worth five billion dollars a year. Photo: istock.A year and a half after legalization, researchers are just starting to understand a crop worth $5 billion a year in CanadaBy Silvia Moreno-Garcia, UBC ScienceIn 2017, University of British Columbia botanist Lacey Samuels applied for her first permit from Health Canada to study cannabis. It was a complex process–even the smallest detail, like the size of frames and type of lock used on her…

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Sarah Dier-McComb monitors breeding behaviour and egg presence at the colony. Photo: Joanna WongTiny transmitters can tell us much about the epic foraging behavior of penguins — and help us protect them from climate changeBy Sarah Dier-McComb, Master of Science in Zoology at the University of British Columbia, Statistical Ecology Research GroupNear the bottom of the world, on the Falkland Islands, the fierce wind scours my face and the musty smell of animals mixes with fresh sea air.As the sun begins…

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We are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day under conditions we couldn’t have imagined in 1970. But there’s hope for the future.A lot has changed since the fist celebration of Earth Day in 1970. Scientific knowledge has advanced at an incredible pace. Governments around the world have modified legislation in order to protect our environment. People have started to change how they live to conserve resources. But it’s still not enough, and new challenges are…

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Social media is awash with misinformation and fact checking is crucial in the digital age. Photo: iStock.Battling fake news is incredibly difficult at the best of times — but now it’s more crucial than ever. Mirroring how careful social media users separate real and fake stories can help us create automated processes that do the same.By Laks V.S. Lakshmanan (Computer Science), Michael Simpson (Postdoctoral Research Fellow Institute for Computing), University of British Columbia and Saravanan Thirumuruganathan (Data Analytics) Qatar…

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By Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Koby MichaelsLooking for online science education activities and resources for children and youth online? We’ve got you covered with a curated collection of some of the best.Start off by visiting STEM Outreach UBC, a website that brings together some of the outreach activities conducted across UBC. It includes online exhibits by the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Physics and Astronomy demos.Other resources:Geering Up at UBC, an engineering program for children and youth, has family…

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By Tracy Pham and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, UBCFor centuries, women have been making significant contributions to science. Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer program in the 1840s. In the 1920s, botanist Ynes Mexia collected important specimens throughout Latin America, discovering a number of new species and a new genus. Hedy Lamarr co-invented spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology in the 1940s, which is now used in WiFi and GPS. Rosalind Franklin was the first to see…

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Close-up of stars in Caldwell 86 using the Advanced Camera for Surveys, 2005. These observations helped astronomers identify white dwarfs in Caldwell 86 and indicated that white dwarfs are kicked out of the cluster’s core when they form. Photo: NASA, ESA and H. Richer, UBC.Why are white dwarfs, the last stage of life for most stars, not where we expect them to be? What could solving this mystery tell us about the universe and our place…

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Figuring out what species live in a city can turn into a game of Guess Who? Data science could help us build a better biodiversity snapshot. Illustration: istock.A prototyped data science project at UBC could help city planners envision healthy ecosystems, not just healthy neighborhoods. The challenge? Data integration and data gaps.By Silvia Moreno-Garcia, UBC ScienceHave you ever wondered what species might be living in your local park? Wondered why coyotes have suddenly appeared in your neighborhood?…

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UBC Science best of 2019We’re taking a moment to run down some of the best UBC Science stories and happenings of the year. Have a holiday season filled with the joy of discovery, and stay in touch in 2020!Celebrating women in CS, craft brews, and alumniThanks to the 5,500 UBC Science alumni and more than 300,000 visitors who connected with us in 2019! We learned about Southern Resident Killer whales, Canada’s biodiversity crisis, and the science of craft…

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Moon jellyfish can be recognized by their four horseshoe-shaped gonads and small tentacles. Photo: istock.Jessica Schaub’s fascination with marine life started with The Little Mermaid and two small aquariums. Now, her research on jellyfish could inform global ocean ecosystem conservation.By Jessica Schaub, Master of Science in Oceanography student at the University of British Columbia, Pelagic Ecosystems Lab.Imagine you’re standing on a boat in northern British Columbia, with cedars along the shoreline and an emerald green ocean…

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