Research

Profs. Brendan Frey of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department Electrical and Computer Engineering and Benjamin Blencowe of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Department of Computer Science and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research discuss the work that earned them the 2011 John C. Polanyi Award [...]

The University of Toronto won five major awards at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) awards ceremony at Rideau Hall on February 27. Pictured here (from left): Nobel Laureate and U of T Chemistry Professor John Polanyi (for whom the John C. Polanyi Award is named), Vice President, Research Professor Paul Young, Prof. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]