By Neil Guppy, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of British Columbia
A given name holds the spark of identity. It is ours — we wear it — yet it is also the primary label by which others know us. Names are inherently both personal and public.
Some choices are idiosyncratically memorable. Two of Elon Musk’s children are named X Æ A-Xii and Exa Dark Sideræl. Recent name registrations in Alberta include Coyote, Rebel and Teal’C.
More broadly, these parental…
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By Nadia Delanoy, Assistant Professor, Leadership, Policy, and Governance and Learning Sciences, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary
Artificial intelligence has moved quickly from being an emerging technology to one that is rapidly forcing universities to make consequential choices.
The federal government is investing heavily in university-based research in artificial intelligence, and has introduced an AI literacy strategy that includes a commitment to reaching one million entry-level post-secondary students.
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By Heather McLaughlin, Senior Lecturer: Creative Arts Therapies Department, DIrector: Concordia Arts in Health Centre, Concordia University
As autumn brings shorter days and new routines, creative activities can support well-being, connection and curiosity in families, schools and communities.
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By Prakash Gawas, Researcher, Polytechnique Montréal
Camille Pinçon, Doctorante en mathématiques de l'ingénieur, Polytechnique Montréal
Antoine Legrain, Professeur au département de mathématiques et génie industriel, Polytechnique Montréal
Okan Arslan, Professeur agrégé en recherche opérationnelle, HEC Montréal
Olivier Bahn, Professeur en sciences de la décision, HEC Montréal
We’ve never had a better understanding of how cities move, but turning that knowledge into smoother, cleaner and more equitable trips remains a challenge. The main obstacle to sustainable mobility may not be technological, but rather political and organizational.
Apps track buses in real time, sensors count cars and pedestrians and algorithms predict traffic jams. Advances in data-driven analytics even promise to let bus networks adjust service frequency to demand or to co-ordinate deliveries with fewer vehicles. And yet, getting across a city is often still a struggle: breakdowns,…
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By Tim Jackson, Professor of Retinal Research, King's College London
If you’ve delved into the worlds of Star Trek, The Terminator or William Gibson’s cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, you’ll know that enhanced, electronic vision is a staple of science fiction. Now, what was once futuristic fiction is becoming a reality.
Researchers have developed bionic eyes that can restore some lost vision. These devices’ capabilities are currently basic, but they have been steadily improving in recent years.
One day, they might even offer features that transcend the limits of…
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By Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of Nottingham
Two giant pandas recently landed in Atlanta, a week after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping met in Washington.
The summit produced no immediate breakthrough on trade deals, Taiwan or AI, but it did produce something cuddly for the American public: a pair of giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, which are on a ten-year loan to Atlanta’s zoo. Both were born in 2020 at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, the showpiece…
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By Francesco Grillo, Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University
Is AI a climate change villain, whose insatiable hunger for electricity will roast the planet? Or will it help predict where the next climate disaster will strike and what to do about it?
In order to weigh these questions up, a good starting point is with AI’s energy consumption.
The 2015 Paris agreement was a deal among almost 200 countries to keep “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature…
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By Charikleia Sinani, Associate Professor in Physiotherapy, School of Science, Technology and Health, York St John University
Greg Wood, Reader in Sensorimotor Control, Manchester Metropolitan University
Kate Wilmut, Professor of Psychology, School of Psychology, Social Work and Public Health, Oxford Brookes University
Tasks such as writing, dressing and PE can demand far more effort, leaving some children tired, anxious and less active.
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By Kelsey Williams, Associate Professor of English, University of Stirling
In 1790, the London bookseller Thomas Payne sold a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the earliest printed book, to George John, 2nd Earl Spencer. He charged him £370 – an enormous sum at the time, roughly equivalent to £878,000 today – as part of a package deal which included two other early theological works. As part of the deal, Payne had the old book rebound in sumptuous midnight blue goatskin. In the process, signs of earlier provenance (ownership annotations, stamps or other marks which might have revealed the Bible’s history) were carefully removed.
Nearly 230 years later, multispectral…
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By Daniel O'Brien, Lecturer, Department of Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex
As the new Netflix thriller Animals began, I wasn’t sure how its 106-minute runtime was going to keep me sympathetic to the plight of a wealthy American politician. Ben Affleck, directed, co-wrote and stars in the film as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate.
Animals begins with Kimball staking much of his wealth and financial security on an election campaign. The final hurdle to securing the seat involves winning over the city’s Latino voters. The film opens to a montage of Kimball feigning his affability for votes, which results quite quickly in a hollow and unlikeable protagonist,…
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