Female pilots may perform better in high-pressure scenarios, University of Waterloo study finds
The study, which matched 10 female pilots with 10 similarly experienced male pilots, ran participants through three scenarios, including one emergency engine failure. The female pilots were significantly faster at identifying the emergency and landing the plane safely, and were better at maintaining the required speed for landing.
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CBC
5 hours ago
- CBC
Medical professionals weigh in as Londoners react to secret dog study at St. Joseph's hospital
As animal-loving Londoners express "horror" at a local hospital's use of dogs in scientific studies, medical professionals say there are ethical ways to reduce harm and death in animal-based research. A story published Wednesday by the Investigative Journalism Bureau, in partnership with Postmedia, found that dogs are being used in a heart study at St. Joseph's Health Care's Lawson Research Institute. Researchers are secretly inducing three-hour heart attacks in dogs and puppies, the investigative report said, before euthanizing them and removing their hearts for further study. The hospital has kept the research under wraps, wheeling in the animals in blanket-covered crates and playing loud music to drown out the barking, according to the report. "I was absolutely horrified and I was really, really angry," said longtime Londoner Orreanna Douglas. "The sting of this shock is basically like the stun these poor, suffering dogs are getting. I'm livid that this is going on here. Douglas, whose children were born at St. Joseph's and who has been getting physiotherapy at the hospital for the last four months, said she cancelled her latest appointment at the hospital due to her frustrations. "I can't go back now, nor will I until the situation is rectified," she said. St. Joseph's has refused interview requests. In a statement to CBC News, officials confirmed that dogs, rodents, fruit flies and other large mammals are used in research. Other Londoners have taken to social media to express their outrage and non-profit organization Animal Justice Canada is planning a Saturday vigil for the dogs outside of the hospital. Meanwhile, medical experts have differing opinions on the use of animals in scientific study and the ethics that surround the practice. "[Animals] are needed because they're complex systems," said Pierre Verreault, the executive director of the Canadian Council of Animal Care (CCAC), which develops standards for the ethical use and care of animals in science. Different types of animals are used to try new medical treatments, ensure medical products are safe to sell, and teach veterinarians different procedures, Verreault said, adding that dogs are often used for regulatory testing purposes. Research projects must be approved by a panel before being granted funding, Verreault said, and part of that includes presenting a protocol to an animal care committee which conducts an ethical review. The core of animal research ethics is referred to as the Three Rs: Replacement, reduction and refinement. "Is there an alternative method? If yes, you shouldn't use an animal. Reduction is, 'Do you need to use that amount of animals to conduct research?" Verreault said. The principle, refinement, aims to minimize pain and distress by using pain medication if possible and giving the animal comfort. St. Joseph's officials have been on the defensive since the report came out. In a note sent to staff and volunteers on Thursday, obtained by CBC News, officials said they "acknowledge how difficult this story is" and that it "evokes strong feelings," but that hospital is "committed to ethical research at every stage of the discovery and innovation process." "The care, treatment and welfare of animals involved in Lawson research is taken extremely seriously and every possible step is taken to ensure their comfort and minimize suffering," the note to staff said. However, other experts say there are no ethical methods to animal testing. "There are [ethics] that are written on paper and there are ones that are actually practiced in a laboratory," said Charu Chandrasekera, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Alternatives to Animal Methods, who previously worked in a lab that studied heart failure using animals. "The three R's have become rather unjustified. They've become a box-ticking formality in a system more focused on paperwork than real accountability," she said. "Humans are not 60 kilogram mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs or monkeys. We are not equivalent biologically…The differences are immutable," she said, adding that scientific facilities should look at alternatives to animal testing now that technology has developed. Alternatives exist, experts say "Justifying the use of animals because it has worked in the past at a time when new technologies weren't available is like praising the telegraph in the age of Zoom," Chandrasekera said. In a statement, St. Joseph's said the purpose of its dog research is to look at post-heart attack injury and healing, which cannot be done using other methods. "These techniques are essential for providing clinical teams with tools that permit proper diagnosis and treatment for heart attacks and heart failure, one of the leading causes of death in Canada," the statement said. Both experts say there are ways to reduce or rid animal testing in a scientific setting, and the technology is developing daily. Chandrasekera say there is a "toolbox" of alternatives, but recommends scientists who want to advance their research refer to already-published human studies that contain MRI and PET images. Verreault's suggestions for testing include developing cells to do research experiments, simulating experiments on chips, or reusing tissue from animals who were used in previous experiments. "Sometimes it can completely replace the animals in certain types of research, but sometimes it may only replace a certain part of it because an animal is like a human being. It's a very complex system that's still hard to replace," Verreault said.
CTV News
11 hours ago
- CTV News
Ancient viral DNA may play a key role in early human development, new study suggests
Our DNA contains remnants of ancient viruses that embedded themselves into our genetic code. TanyaJoy/iStockphoto/Getty Images via CNN Newsource The human genome is made up of 23 pairs of chromosomes, the biological blueprints that make humans … well, human. But it turns out that some of our DNA — about 8 per cent — are the remnants of ancient viruses that embedded themselves into our genetic code over the course of human evolution. These ancient viruses lie in sections of our DNA called transposable elements, or TEs, also known as 'jumping genes' due to their ability to copy and paste themselves throughout the genome. TEs, which account for nearly half of our genetic material, were once waved off as 'junk' DNA, sequences that appear to have no biological function. Now, a new study offers support for the hypothesis that these ancient viral remnants play a key role in the early stages of human development and may have been implicated in our evolution. By sequencing TEs, an international team of researchers identified hidden patterns that could be crucial for gene regulation, the process of turning genes on and off. The findings were published July 18 in the journal Science Advances. 'Our genome was sequenced long ago, but the function of many of its parts remain unknown,' study coauthor Dr. Fumitaka Inoue, an associate professor in functional genomics at Kyoto University in Japan, said in a statement. 'Transposable elements are thought to play important roles in genome evolution, and their significance is expected to become clearer as research continues to advance.' There are many benefits to studying how TEs activate gene expression. It could help scientists understand the role that the sequences play in human evolution, reveal possible links between TEs and human diseases, or teach researchers how to target functional TEs in gene therapy, said lead researcher Dr. Xun Chen, a computational biologist and principal investigator at Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With more research, 'we hope to uncover how TEs, particularly ERVs (endogenous retroviruses, or ancient viral DNA), make us human,' Chen added in an email. Embedded ancient viral DNA When our primate ancestors were infected with viruses, sequences of viral genetic information would replicate and insert themselves in various locations in the host's chromosomes. 'Ancient viruses are effective in invading our ancestral genomes, and their remnants become a big part of our genome. Our genome has developed numerous mechanisms to control these ancient viruses, and to eliminate their potential detrimental effects,' said Dr. Lin He, a molecular biologist and the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair professor in stem cell research at the University of California, Berkeley, in an email. Chimps New research suggests that ancient viruses could have contributed to the evolutionary process that resulted in humans, chimpanzees and macaques. Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource For the most part, these ancient viruses are inactive and are not a cause of concern, but in recent years, research has shown that some of the transposable elements may play important roles in human diseases. A July 2024 study explored the possibility of silencing certain TEs to make cancer treatment more effective. 'Over the course of evolution, some viruses are degenerated or eliminated, some are largely repressed in expression in normal development and physiology, and some are domesticated to serve the human genome,' said He, who was not involved with the new study. 'While perceived as solely harmful, some ancient viruses can become part of us, providing raw materials for genome innovation.' But because of their repetitive nature, transposable elements are notoriously difficult to study and organize. While TE sequences are categorized into families and subfamilies based on their function and similarity, many have been poorly documented and classified, 'which could significantly impact their evolutionary and functional analyses,' Chen said. Ancient viral impact on human development and evolution The new study focused on a group of TE sequences called MER11 found within primate genomes. By using a new classification system as well as testing the DNA's gene activity, researchers identified four previously undiscovered subfamilies. The most recently integrated sequence, named MER11_G4, was found to have a strong ability to activate gene expression in human stem cells and early-stage neural cells. The finding indicates that this TE subfamily plays a role in early human development and can 'dramatically influence how genes respond to developmental signals or environmental cues,' according to a statement from Kyoto University. The research also suggests that viral TEs had a part in shaping human evolution. By tracing the way the DNA has changed over time, the researchers found that the subfamily had evolved differently within the genomes of different animals, contributing to the biological evolution that resulted in humans, chimpanzees and macaques. 'To understand the evolution of our genome is one way to understand what makes humans unique,' said He. 'It will empower us with tools to understand human biology, human genetic diseases, and human evolution.' Exactly how these TEs were implicated in the evolutionary process is still unclear, Chen said. It is also possible that other TEs that have yet to be identified played distinct roles in the evolutionary process of primates, he added. 'The study offers new insights and potential leverage points for understanding the role of TEs in shaping the evolution of our genomes,' said Dr. Steve Hoffmann, a computational biologist at the Leibniz Institute on Aging in Jena, Germany, who was not involved with the study. The research also 'underscores how much more there is to learn from a type of DNA once slandered as a molecular freeloader,' he added in an email. Hoffmann was the lead researcher of a scientific paper that first documented the nearly complete genome map of the Greenland shark, the longest-living vertebrate in the world that can survive until about 400 years old. The shark's genome was made up of more than 70% jumping genes, while the human genome is composed of less than 50%. While primate genomes are different from those of a shark, 'the study provides further evidence for the potential impact of TEs on genome regulation' and 'is a message with relevance for all genome researchers,' Hoffmann said. By investigating how genomes have evolved, researchers can determine which DNA sequences have remained the same, which have been lost in time and which have emerged most recently. 'Taking these sequences into account is often critical to understanding, e.g., why humans develop diseases that certain animals don't,' Hoffmann said. 'Ultimately, a deeper understanding of genome regulation can aid in the discovery of novel therapies and interventions.'
Vancouver Sun
13 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
B.C. climate news: Wildfire smoke causing health issues across North America
Here's the latest news concerning climate change and biodiversity loss in B.C. and around the world, from the steps leaders are taking to address the problems, to all the up-to-date science. Check back every Saturday for more climate and environmental news or sign up for our Climate Connected newsletter HERE. • Vancouver Island resident still nervous after wildfire evacuation • How Canadian wildfire smoke is jeopardizing health across North America • Scientists now know what's causing billions of sea stars to die • New studies tie unrecognized deaths and health problems to Maui and L.A. wildfires Human activities like burning fossil fuels and farming livestock are the main drivers of climate change, according to the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change. This causes heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere, increasing the planet's surface temperature. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The panel, which is made up of scientists from around the world, including researchers from B.C., has warned for decades that wildfires and severe weather, such as the province's deadly heat dome and catastrophic flooding in 2021, would become more frequent and intense because of the climate emergency. It has issued a code red for humanity and warns the window to limit warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial times is closing. According to NASA climate scientists, human activities have raised the atmosphere's carbon dioxide content by 50 per cent in less than 200 years, and 'there is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.' As of Aug. 5, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 427.87 parts per million, slightly down from 429.61 ppm last month, according to NOAA data measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory, a global atmosphere monitoring lab in Hawaii. The NOAA notes there has been a steady rise in CO2 from under 320 ppm in 1960. • The Earth is now about 1.3 C warmer than it was in the 1800s. • 2024 was hottest year on record globally, beating the record in 2023. • The global average temperature in 2023 reached 1.48 C higher than the pre-industrial average, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, it breached the 1.5 C threshold at 1.55 C. • The past 10 years (2015-2024) are the 10 warmest on record. • Human activities have raised atmospheric concentrations of CO2 by nearly 49 per cent above pre-industrial levels starting in 1850. • The world is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement target to keep global temperature from exceeding 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the upper limit to avoid the worst fallout from climate change including sea level rise, and more intense drought, heat waves and wildfires. • On the current path of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature could increase by as much 3.6 C this century, according to the IPCC. • In June 2025, global concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 430 parts per million, a record high. • Emissions must drop 7.6 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 C and 2.7 per cent per year to stay below 2 C. • There is global scientific consensus that the climate is warming and that humans are the cause. • Scientific information taken from natural sources (such as ice cores, rocks, and tree rings) and from modern equipment (like satellites and instruments) all show the signs of a changing climate. (Sources: United Nations IPCC , World Meteorological Organization , UNEP , NASA , ) A Vancouver Island artist who had to leave from her home studio near an out-of-control wildfire says she remains nervous despite being allowed back this week. Ina-Griet Raatz-von Hirschhausen, whose home is a few kilometres from the Wesley Ridge wildfire near Cameron Lake, says she is waiting a bit longer to bring back half of her art collection, which was taken to a friend's home when her family was told to evacuate late Sunday. She left with her husband and two cats, and says she thought her home was lost as soon as the evacuation notice was issued, calling it 'the very worst moment of the whole thing.' A B.C. Wildfire Service information officer, Madison Dahl, told a news conference Friday that the fire's behaviour overnight was 'minimal' and was monitored by night-vision-equipped helicopters. 'Temperatures are forecast to increase through the weekend, and as temperatures rise today and into the weekend, we can expect fire behaviour to increase,' she said. 'That's going to be producing visible smoke as the fire consumes available fuels from within the fire perimeter.' Read the full story here. —The Canadian Press B.C. researchers have unlocked the mystery of why billions of sea stars have died over the past decade from B.C. to Alaska and to Mexico. An international study, published Monday in Nature Ecology and Evolution and led by researchers at the University of B.C., the B.C.-based Hakai Institute, and the University of Washington, found that sea star wasting disease is caused by a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida — one that is related to cholera in humans. Other vibrio species can cause disease in corals and oysters. Sea star wasting disease is considered one of the largest marine epidemics documented, said Alyssa Gehman, senior author of the study and a marine disease ecologist at the Hakai Institute and UBC. Gehman said they estimate about six billion sunflower stars have been lost, and that's just one of 26 species of sea star affected by the disease. Sea stars are important to the ocean ecosystem because they are what scientists call a keystone species, keeping nature in balance. With the loss of sea stars, one of their main food sources — sea urchins — began to thrive and when that happened urchins munched on kelp forests, decimating some of these important carbon sinks. Read the full story here. —Tiffany Crawford The hazy air hovering over U.S. metropolises, including Chicago and New York, this summer is reminding Americans of just how connected they are with their Northern neighbour, regardless of how much relations have deteriorated under President Donald Trump. Canadian provinces have evacuated towns and struggled to contain the second-worst wildfire season in 30 years, while residents of some U.S. cities have endured unhealthy air as smoke from the blazes wafts across the border. The scenes of smoke-choked cities are reminiscent of 2023, when skies turned orange over New York City amid what was Canada's worst wildfire season on record. They also come as the U.S. West's wildfire season worsens, with blazes burning in California, Arizona and Nevada, and France deals with the fallout from its worst fires in seven decades, including smoke-damaged grapes across wine-growing regions. The cross-border smoke drifting from Canada to the US, though, poses a particularly unique geopolitical issue. With climate change increasing the odds of extreme fire weather, it could mean more seasons of flames and smoke ahead. Read the full story here. —Bloomberg News France's largest wildfire in decades was contained Thursday after burning more than 160 square kilometres in the country's southern wine region and claiming one life, local authorities said. The blaze erupted Tuesday and tore through the Aude region, spreading rapidly due to hot, dry weather. Cooler overnight temperatures and calmer winds slowed its advance and allowed firefighters to make headway. Late Thursday, the region's top government official said the fire was contained. However, residents were warned not to return home without authorization, as many roads remained blocked and dangerous. The fire swept through 15 communes in the Corbières mountain region, destroying or damaging at least 36 homes, with a full damage assessment still underway. One person died at home, and at least 13 others were injured, including 11 firefighters, according to local authorities. Three people who were reported missing have been found safe. Read the full story here. —The Associated Press A wildfire in the mountains north of Los Angeles continues to burn after it tore through thousands of acres and forced evacuations after igniting Thursday afternoon, according to a CNN report. The report said it's one of several notable fires that have exhibited explosive growth in recent weeks, spurred by searing heat and dry, gusty wind. The Canyon Fire started around 1:30 p.m., and had burned through more than 5,300 acres of land by Friday evening, CNN reported. —CNN The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed a First Nation's bid to stop a tailings dam from being raised at the Mount Polley mine site, which suffered a catastrophic dam collapse that spilled millions of litres of waste and water 11 years ago. The Xatsull First Nation claimed the province's approval of the plan to raise the level of the dam in B.C.'s Interior by four metres was improper and done without 'meaningful' consultation with the nation. But Justice Michael Tammen ruled Wednesday that the provincial government's consultation with the Xatsull was proper. 'I view the consultation here as deep and, importantly, the process employed by the province provided Xatsull with ample opportunity to present their perspective,' Tammen said. The First Nation said in a statement it was disappointed in the ruling. 'This is the same facility that breached and devastated Xatsull's territory in 2014 — the worst mining disaster on record. Its impacts are still harming our nation's rights, culture and way of life today,' it said. Read the full story here. —The Canadian Press An iconic Argentine glacier, long thought one of the few on Earth to be relatively stable, is now undergoing its 'most substantial retreat in the past century,' according to new research. The Perito Moreno Glacier in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field for decades has been wedged securely in a valley. But it's started losing contact with the bedrock below, causing it to shed more ice as it inches backward. It's a change, illustrated in dramatic time lapse photos since 2020, that highlights 'the fragile balance of one of the most well-known glaciers worldwide,' write the authors of the study in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. They expect it to retreat several more kilometres in the next few years. 'We believe that the retreat that we are seeing now, and why it is so extreme in terms of values that we can observe, is because it hasn't been climatically stable for a while now, for over a decade,' said Moritz Koch, a doctoral student at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and one of the study authors. 'Now we see this very delayed response to climate change as it is slowly but surely detaching from this physical pinning point in the central part of the glacier.' Koch and his team did extensive field work to get the data for their calculations. To measure ice thickness, they flew over the glacier in a helicopter with a radar device suspended beneath. They also used sonar on the lake and satellite information from above. Read the full story here. —The Associated Press Drought conditions have beset Atlantic Canada with wildfires raging in some locales, with no relief in coming days, according to Environment Canada. The conditions are increasing the wildfire risk. Three significant wildfires are already raging in Newfoundland and Labrador where fines for violators of the provincewide fire ban were increased Friday afternoon from $50,000 to $150,000, as well as up to a year in prison. (A first offence previously meant a $75 fine. Now it's $50,000 for a first offence and payment defaulters risk imprisonment of six months.) 'It's very clear that these penalties for violating the regulations needed to be higher, and everyone needs to take this seriously,' Premier John Hogan told CBC News. Members of the Canadian Armed Forces and Coast Guard are being deployed to help fight the fires. New Brunswick also has a burn ban in place, while dry conditions have prompted the provincial government to restrict forestry industry activity until at least August 12. Read the full story here. —Stewart Lewis The toll of wildfires is usually counted in acres burnt, property destroyed and lives lost to smoke and flames. But three studies published Wednesday suggest the cost to human health from the Maui and Los Angeles wildfires was substantially higher. Two of the papers explore what happened after the Hawaii fire in August 2023 — one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires in a century. A third looks at the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. The Maui fire was directly blamed for more than 100 deaths. But it also left 1 in 5 with lung damage and as many as half with symptoms of depression, the new research found. The month of the fire saw 13 suicide and overdose deaths, translating to nearly double the normal suicide and overdose death rates. The study of the Los Angeles fires concluded that in addition to at least 30 deaths attributed to the fire, more than 400 other deaths could be blamed on the event, due to interruptions in health care and other factors. The studies, published in two American Medical Association journals, add 'a really important piece to the understanding of the true health risks from these extreme climatic events,' said Dr. Jonathan Patz, a University of Wisconsin environmental public health researcher who was not involved in the papers. Read the full story here. —The Associated Press While promoting his agency's recently released climate report, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has said that climate change is not making extreme weather more intense and more common. That's counter to authoritative climate science research. His statements come amid a push by the Trump administration to eliminate climate programs and scientist positions and to reduce access to past US-produced scientific reports, while issuing new material that goes against mainstream findings. 'There is now a large body of scientific research documenting that global warming has intensified several types of extreme weather events,' said Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford University. In a post this week on X, formerly Twitter, Wright said that reports that 'climate change is making weather more dangerous and severe is just nonsense. That is just NOT true.' He underscored the point on Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro's podcast. Scientists now regularly tease out the effect of climate change on specific heat waves, droughts and rain and flood events. The methods used in what's known as attribution research have been refined over the course of two decades, and build on a much longer history of climate modelling. Read the full story here. —Bloomberg News
