Or to get less
Labour economics can provide a valuable perspective in addressing the supply of doctors and access to care, says an article in the December 6 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). “Understanding and accurately predicting the response of physicians to incentives is essential if governments wish to increase the supply of physician services,” says [...]
The Paradox of the Disinhibited
Power can lead to great acts of altruism, but also corruptive, unethical behavior. Being intoxicated can lead to a first date, or a bar brawl. And the mask of anonymity can encourage one individual to let a stranger know they have toilet paper stuck to their shoe, while another may post salacious photos online. What [...]
Using Microsoft Kinect as a teaching tool
To video gamers, the name Microsoft Kinect is synonymous with the Xbox 360 video game console. To University of Toronto graduate student Uzma Khan, the motion-sensing input device offered a myriad of other possibilities. Khan, a master’s degree student in applied computing, used the course Topics in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to explore the ways Kinect might [...]
Lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago
A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies. Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, fossils reveal a tulip-shaped creature that is about the length of a dinner knife (approximately 20 centimetres) and has a unique filter feeding system. Siphusauctum has [...]
U of T physicists play key role in one of the most important quests of the decade
The international team of researchers that has been smashing high-energy protons together inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to re-create the conditions at the time of the Big Bang announced new evidence today pointing to an observation of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive elementary particle that is predicted to exist [...]
Literary theorist Marlene Goldman on how we narrate memory loss
When we talk about Alzheimer’s disease, what kind of story are we telling? A horror story, at least here in contemporary North America, says Marlene Goldman. “The media’s take on Alzheimer’s is very Gothic and apocaplytic,” she says, a story of the slow loss of mind and self. “The typical presentation is: we have a [...]
Urban Aboriginal population has high rates of illness and poverty
More than 60 per cent of Canada’s Aboriginal population live in urban areas and are experiencing high rates of illness, poverty and challenges in access to food and housing security, new University of Toronto and St. Michael’s Hospital research shows. “We all continue to be shocked by the living conditions in places like Attawapiskat, but [...]
Questioning when and where soybeans were domesticated
If you like tofu, tempeh, edamame or miso soup, you’re a fan of soybeans. But the significance of this legume goes far beyond a few culinary treats — soybeans rank seventh among world crops for tonnage harvested. Now, a new study led by researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga and the University of Oregon gets at [...]
Examining social networking among children and teens
iSchool Professor Sara Grimes’s background and expertise in children’s digital culture has led to a new, exciting collaboration with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (JGCC), the research division of the Sesame Workshop, makers of Sesame Street. In addition to the wealth of research the Sesame Workshop has generated over the past 4+ decades to inform [...]
Researchers often work with a narrow range of compounds when making organic electronics, such as solar panels, light emitting diodes and transistors. Professor Tim Bender and Ph.D. Candidate Graham Morse of University of Toronto’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry have uncovered compounds that exhibit unique and novel electro-chemical properties. “Organic solar cell need [...]
