Firstly, there are no Venezuelan voices featured in the piece – the writers should have at least reached out to the local Venezuelan community at McGill or in Montreal for their insight. Instead, several third-party, including one-sided (pro-regime) and dubious, sources were used. All in an effort to make the point that the Venezuela uprising is nothing but a product of Western powers trying to overthrow a “legitimate” Latin American government.  As a result, the article comes across as a propaganda piece expressing solidarity for a brutal and corrupt regime that is torturing its own populace through hunger and keeping it hostage through a self-imposed siege.

Shockingly, nearly one-third of the sources in the article are directly from Venezuelanalysis.com, founded by Gregory Wilpert who has been described as “perhaps the most prominent Chavista.” The Maduro regime supporters refer themselves as Chavistas. The site features articles written by anonymous authors “various” and the Bolivar and Zamora Revolutionary Current – CRBZ, an activist branch and strong supporter of Maduro’s United Socialist Party (PSUV). The Daily is not alone in following the Maduro narrative that the uprising is the culmination of foreign powers orchestrating a coup:  The Guardian, PBS, and Al Jazeera have also subscribed to the same disproportionately one-sided narrative. In Venezuela information flow is sparse given the regime’s strong influence over all types of media. In support of the uprising, Venezuelans who live abroad are fighting back by taking to social media to call out false-narratives being shared online, arguably by Maduro sympathizers – as is the case with this article published by the Daily.

Finally, while the article proposes several lengthy theories to explain the “illegal right-wing coup” it fails to mention the conditions and reasons that led to the grass-roots uprising. Not to mention the numerous human rights violations by Maduro’s regime that have been meticulously documented and published by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International.

The Daily owes an apology to the Venezuelan community and to its readers for publishing this easily-debunkable falsehood. We have come to expect more from The McGill Daily, an icon of journalism on campus, than propaganda.

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While biodiesel generates significantly less environmental pollution than fossil fuels do, it has been widely disregarded as a viable alternative fuel because it is most often produced from edible crops; common sources for biodiesel include canola oil and soybean oil.

Adewale tells The Daily,  “When you are using edible canola oil, you are competing with human [consumption]. Down the road, it will lead to either high cost or scarcity.” To become a more viable alternative fuel, biodiesel would need to be made from non-edible sources such as animal fat waste, generated by the meat processing industry and tanneries.

“When you are using edible canola oil, you are competing with human [consumption]. Down the road, it will lead to either high cost or scarcity.”

Biodiesel can be made from either vegetable oil or animal fat. The conversion process takes time, ranging between one hour and a few days, depending on a variety of factors, such as the type of catalyst and mixing apparatus used. To get the shortest production times, companies use alkaline catalysts, because they speed up the reaction more than acid- or enzyme-based catalysts.

Originally, Adewale was interested in creating models of the interactions of methanol and animal fat to see how those two reagents mix with each other to produce biodiesel. According to Adewale, after spending two years trying to learn how to use the modelling software COMSOL, he was told by the software’s producers that what he was trying to do was simply not possible. The level of modelling needed to simulate the particles mixing was too complicated, given the software that was available at the time. “Eventually, I had to drop the idea,” Adewale explains.

And so, two years into what he had hoped would be a three year PhD, Adewale decided to try an experimental approach, since dropping his theoretical modelling approach. He started by studying the characteristics – like the free fatty acid content and melting points – of different animal fats, such as tallow, lard, choice white grease, and yellow grease, all of which could be used to make biodiesel.

Adewale noticed tallow had a high saturated fat content which made it semisolid at room temperature, unlike the others, which were mostly liquid. Curious as to how this would affect the ultrasound mixing, he chose to use waste tallow as the biodiesel source for his experiment.

The importance of time in biodiesel production

The main challenge in using animal fat waste to produce biodiesel lies in the time it takes to make it. Animal fat waste, such as tallow, contains high amounts of free fatty acids. This poses a problem, because, as Adewale explains, “Free fatty acid is one of the major disadvantages of alkaline transesterification [a process involved in biodiesel production], because free fatty acid can easily bond with alkaline to form soap, […] which will hinder the production of biodiesel.” As a result, acid- or enzyme-based catalysts must be used, though both are slower than alkaline based catalysts.

Although acid-based catalysts do not form soap when animal fat waste is used, they leave behind a toxic mix of chemicals as a byproduct, which needs to be treated before being disposed. On the other hand, when enzyme-based catalysts are used, they only leave behind enzyme residue that is not toxic and can be disposed safely, as it is biodegradable. The glycerin that is produced in the process is used in soaps and other cosmetic products.

There is also the possibility of reusing the enzyme catalyst, in contrast with alkaline and acidic catalysts – which are typically discarded as they mix with the waste products – something which Adewale plans on looking into next

Time is of the essence when it comes to biodiesel production. The more time it takes to make biodiesel, the more costly it becomes at the pumps. To make tallow-based biodiesel competitive, Adewale decided to try a new mixing method: instead of using the conventional mechanical stirring, he used ultrasonic cavitation mixing. In a lab setting, this meant sticking an ultrasound probe into a beaker. The ultrasound waves create bubbles and as their size increases with time, the bubbles burst and cause a large amount of dispersion. Adewale explains that “the bursting of that bubble is what is actually called the mixing effect.”

Possible industry applications

It’s been known for years that using ultrasonic mixing decreases the production time of biodiesel, and there have been plenty of research papers published that document this phenomenon. What makes Adewale’s research unique is the combination of ultrasonic mixing and the use of an enzyme catalyst. One study conducted at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, published in 2007, found it took thirty hours to produce biodiesel from lard using conventional mixing methods. Another study from 2008 conducted by the University of Agriculture in Pakistan in conjunction with Pakistan’s Ayub Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) produced biodiesel from waste tallow using an acid catalyst and mechanical mixing and found it took 24 hours.

“Alkaline [catalyzed biodiesel production] at the moment is the fastest – within an hour you have biodiesel, but for conventional enzyme[s], it’s like a day. But now, since we’ve been able to reduce it to twenty minutes, we’re going to compete with alkaline in terms of reaction time,” said Adewale. However, the procedure must be improved for it to be used in industry, as the biodiesel yield in Adewale’s study was 85.6 per cent, which is slightly lower than that of conventional methods used to make biodiesel.

Whether or not companies will start using tallow to make biodiesel will ultimately be determined by production costs. Enzyme catalysts are expensive, and it is not yet clear whether or not they can be reused, and if they can, for how long.

Nonetheless, Adewale remains optimistic. He notes that some major Canadian biodiesel companies have already reached out to him to discuss his research findings. The next step for Adewale is comparing the different non-edible animal fat sources in terms of their yield and production time, and perhaps one day seeing his research used in industry to produce more sustainable biodiesel.

—With files from La Bianchi

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What started out as an ambitious idea became reality for a group of students on June 17, when the McGill Rocket Team presented its first rocket. The team held a public exhibition of the rocket, named “Peregrine” after the falcon, at Lower Field throughout the day, followed by an official unveiling ceremony at the Frank Dawson Adams building in the evening.

The McGill Rocket Team is the latest addition to the numerous engineering design teams on campus. The team worked over the span of four months to build a recoverable rocket capable of reaching an altitude of 10,000 feet and releasing a 10-pound payload. These are the requirements for the basic category of the tenth annual Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC), which took place near Green River, Utah from June 24 to 27.

The rocket, which measures 9.5 feet in length with a diameter of 5.5 inches, is made of fibreglass and weighs approximately 40 pounds. The team used 3D-printed fins and a Von Karman nose cone to reduce aerodynamic drag. The rocket will be using solid fuel as propulsion and activate gunpowder charges to release the payload at 10,000 feet. The team chose a solar-powered glider as their payload which contains various sensors and instruments and will transmit data as it descends. If all goes well, parachutes will deploy once the payload has been released and both the rocket and payload will be recovered.

“We are in an era where there is talk of space exploration and commercial space travel. It’s very exciting to have the possibility of contributing to this.”

The McGill Rocket Team was founded by engineering students Aissam Souidi and Muhammad Hamza Tikka in October 2014. The team has picked up momentum since and grown to its current size of 70 students from a variety of faculties, including Science, Management, Arts, and Engineering.

Aissam Souidi, cofounder of the team, said, “When I came to McGill, I really wanted to get involved with something that has a real impact on the community. […] We are in an era where there is talk of space exploration and commercial space travel. It’s very exciting to have the possibility of contributing to this,” in an interview with The Daily.

Souidi believes the insights gained by the team experimenting on small scale rockets could potentially have implications “for bigger rockets made by [aerospace] companies like SpaceX.”

With one of the main costs in space expeditions being rockets, which are used to launch cargo and shuttles, building a reusable rocket would significantly reduce the cost of going to space. According to Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, “If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred.” The reduced costs could make space tourism and even space colonies on Mars a reality. SpaceX is currently testing its reusable rocket, Falcon 9, by trying to land it on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean after completing International Space Station resupply missions. The company has made two unsuccessful attempts so far; however, in the second attempt, SpaceX managed to land the rocket on the barge briefly, before it toppled due to the high speed of descent. More attempts to land the rocket have already been scheduled.

Unfortunately, unlike SpaceX, the McGill Rocket Team does not have millions to spend, nor does it have experts working for it. Instead, it depends on community fundraising efforts and its members’ motivation to learn and contribute. The team has relied on sponsors and crowdfunding on sites like Seeds of Change, an online fundraising platform for student groups at McGill.

Among the faculty in attendance at the unveiling ceremony was James Nicell, dean of the Faculty of Engineering. Nicell told the Daily “In all our design teams, students are on a very voluntary basis outside of the classroom. [They are] taking all the knowledge they gain in the classroom and are actually putting it into action in their designs […]. There is no better learning opportunity than that,” Nicell said.

“For sure in the next couple of years we would like to to improve on it, make it more efficient, and hopefully start winning the competition, [IREC], on an annual basis.”

Andi Rayhan, a U2 Computer Science student and a member of the McGill Rocket Team, spoke to The Daily about the self-learning involved in the project. “I am proud of the team, because this was our first year and to have finished this project in such a short time is, I’d say, impressive.” Rayhan added, “Not many of us had any previous experience, so we had to a lot of learning, self learning. [For example,] I had to learn about sensors and how to build circuits since I am not an electrical engineer.”

Kyle Weissman, a U2 Mechanical Engineering student, is part of the payload sub-team. With little prior experience in rocket-building, Weissman often reached out to professors, as well as advisors from high school. “Engineering is not a closed environment. You really have to be comfortable communicating and asking,” he said. “We are a team of 70; there is no assumption which we [make] do by ourselves, it’s a constant back and forth between team members and friends.”

Despite the challenge, for Weissman, “having an idea, designing it on Computer-Aided Design (CAD), and moving through physical iterations to have a beautiful product,” is worth the extra effort.

Looking ahead, Souidi acknowledges there is currently a low ratio of women to men on the team and says he will try to improve this next year by collaborating with Promoting Opportunities for Women in Engineering, also known as POWE.

The team members recognize that this is only their first rocket and believe their product will only keep getting better with time.

Steven Crisafi, a U4 Mechanical Engineering student who worked in the aerodynamics sub-team said, “This is a very basic rocket, we only had a few months to design and build it. For sure in the next couple of years we would like to to improve on it, make it more efficient, and hopefully start winning the competition, [IREC], on an annual basis.”

A previous version of this article stated that the IREC took place at Utah State University, while it actually occurred near Green River, Utah. The Daily regrets the error.

The post Ready to launch appeared first on The McGill Daily.

“There is no health without mental health.”

Michael Meaney
Associate Director of the Douglas Mental Health University Institute

It has been an interesting year for neuroscience, with several breakthrough moments in research – from the discovery of a protein that could increase your long-term memory, to advancements in brain scanning that could potentially change what it means to be human. This year also marked the thirtieth anniversary of the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre. We looked at the importance of our brain in relation to our wellbeing, how to supply it with healthy nutrients (whether vegetables or insects), and highlighted the interconnectedness between mental health and our overall health.

Even with a busy lifestyle, eating a nutritious diet should be high on your list of priorities, though researchers found this to be more difficult than expected with current Canadian nutrition labels. We also learned more about ourselves as humans and the role of empathy when it comes to pain. Despite advancements in neuroscience, it is evident there is still a strong need for more interdisciplinary research and collaboration when it comes to understanding mental health, since psychiatric disorders are still poorly understood and the traditional treatment of chemical cocktails is no longer enough.

—Zapaer Alip

Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccines are safe and effective, there continues to be a prevalent and dangerous public distrust in them.

Rackeb Tesfaye
“A dose of reality”

From vaccines to climate change, scientific knowledge continues to be misrepresented in the media. Confusion over the Ebola virus was far more rampant in Canada and the U.S. than instances of the disease itself, though this was not true in West Africa, where Ebola had been a problem long before the fearmongering of the corporate media. The anti-vaccination movement returned to the media spotlight with the outbreak of measles and controversy with Queen’s University instructor who was teaching anti-vaccine rhetoric as real science. As a result, some communities (mostly upper middle class) have decided that their suspicions of vaccines are more valid than decades of scientific research that clearly debunks the myths of their supposedly harmful ‘side effects.’

The public mistrust of scientists was compounded by a Harper government campaign to silence the voices of government scientists doing research on climate change, retracting funding and otherwise preventing them from sharing freely their work with the public they supposedly serve.

Overall, the general misrepresentation of science in the media and the oppression of scientific knowledge continues to be a problem. However, this year has also seen renewed engagement by scientists in novel ways, including a local radio initiative named Science Faction that aims to share science research using only the 1,000 most-used words. This year’s events have been a stark reminder to scientists that effectively communicating their research is often as important as the results themselves.

—Jill Bachelder

One of the beautiful aspects of the hacker community is its general willingness to take in anyone interested to learn.

Andrea Horqque
“The case for hackathons”

Technological literacy has been a trending topic this year, highlighted by U.S. President Barack Obama writing his first line of code during an Hour of Code event as part of the 2014 Computer Science Education Week. Whether in the form of large-scale hackathons – like MHacks, McHacks, or PennApps – or local initiatives led by smaller groups such as HackMcGill’s Hack101, the efforts of the hacker community to communicate their knowledge to people and get them involved, have not gone unnoticed. Knowing even a modicum about technology can have a real impact on your life. The information security and domestic espionage scandals that have popped up throughout the year are a reminder that it’s preferable to understand some of the inner workings of the gadgets we use every day as they often serve as channels for very sensitive information.

While the way private information is handled needs to be much more transparent, especially with respect to corporations and government entities handling large databases of private information about individuals, we have to be proactive about protecting ourselves, and stop relying entirely on other people to keep our confidential data from prying eyes. In November, McGill’s IT security was put on the hot seat for storing passwords in insecure ways, and throughout the year, the Snowden leaks have revealed more and more of the NSA’s dark plans to keep a close eye on everyone’s private information. To top all this, the debates over net neutrality, a key concept that could make or break the internet’s future, are far from over, and the risk of having corporate interests and conservative groups obtain vast power over the internet as we know it is very real. To be able to understand these issues, avoid pitfalls, and take the right decisions for ourselves and for the next generations, we’ll need to be tech-savvy, we’ll need to cease to be simple consumers, and we’ll need to be interested in learning and embracing technology, ultimately becoming hackers ourselves.

—Marc Cataford

 

The post Year in review : SciTech appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Current status
The report declared, “We see the widespread adoption of AVs as being a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’” It predicted that AV technology will sweep across the world in as little as five years – in fact, the first generation of AV technology is already upon us. Two-seater vehicles are on the streets of California by way of Google’s ‘Chauffeur Project,’ and in Alberta, Suncor is already using autonomous large dump trucks on private properties for work in the oil sands.

The state of Nevada has passed legislation to allow AVs on highways, while the governments of Singapore, the European Union, and the U.K. are actively promoting the testing of AV technology. Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Nissan, and Tesla are all developing AVs that can rival a human-driven car in all functions and capabilities.

Semi-automated cars, such as the Mercedes Benz S-class, are already commercially available.

Car manufacturers plan to add Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to familiar vehicle models, rather than create fully autonomous vehicles from scratch. Current ADAS technology includes lane-keeping, intelligent cruise control with braking, and automated parking. ADAS systems will first appear in higher-end models, with the goal of being universally implemented in all models in the near future.

The current research behind AV technology is keen to keep it a modifying technology rather than a replacement technology, for easier integration socially, economically, and infrastructure-wise. It could also be useful for legal purposes – for example, the current technology favours retaining a driver for purposes of private ownership of vehicles. However, legislation is predicted to move toward giving greater freedom and scope of AV technology, and thus full automation amongst other vehicles remains an eventual possibility.

The potential benefits
There are a host of benefits, the most significant one being safety. AVs are expected to eliminate traffic accidents caused by human error, which account for 93 per cent of all traffic accidents, and, as a result, could save up to 1,600 lives in Canada every year.

AVs can be considered as one of the first classes of autonomous robots that could potentially be owned by the masses, and they could replace conventional cars in the taxi industry. Barrie Kirk, co-founder of the consulting company Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence and one of the authors of the report, told The Daily that “if you have your own car, for most people that car sits idle for 95 per cent of the time. It’s very inefficient.”

Kirk believes AVs could generate interest in the transportation-as-a-service model, where cars are rented rather than owned. The overall effect would be to reduce the number of conventional cars on the road, meaning decreased space needed for parking, a smaller ecological footprint due to the reliance on electricity rather than oil, and reduced traffic. AVs can also free up time spent at the wheel, as people will be able to perform other tasks while travelling; according to Statistics Canada in 2011, Canadians spent on average 32 days in traffic.

Kirk notes AVs would reduce the cost of transportation by introducing a shared ownership model for cars through transportation-as-a-service. Instead of a conventional car, people would use driverless taxis and pay a monthly or daily rate, and since the cost would be distributed over many different customers, it would be cheaper than owning a car.

Concerns with the new technology
Wajeeh Syed, mechatronics engineer intern at Tesla, noted some challenges facing AV technology, such as “detecting construction areas […] reading the speed limit, if signs are dirty [the AV] wouldn’t pick up the right speed. Heavy weather conditions are also proving to be difficult.” Kirk, however, is confident that with time the challenges will be overcome. “The technology is moving ahead very well.”

If AVs were to be fully implemented, the job losses would be monumental. It could severely affect the livelihood of more than 500,000 Canadians who rely on conventional cars to earn a living. There are also concerns regarding the security of AVs; as the technology becomes more complex, it also becomes more vulnerable to bugs and being compromised by third parties. Finally, there is also the risk of future generations becoming too dependent on the technology and thus being unable to function without it. It is evident that AVs will become a reality within the decade, this is all the more reason to start considering the implications and possible ethical issues now.

The post On the road with a robot appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The resulting discrepancy between the calories we think we consume and the actual amount has resulted in an epidemic of over-consumption. According to Statistics Canada, 50 per cent of women and 70 per cent of men in Canada consume more calories than needed on an average day. The health implications are worrying; 6 in 10 Canadians are either overweight or obese, and almost 8 in 10 Canadians are consuming salt at levels associated with an increased risk of negative health outcomes such as heart disease.

The current labelling system

Naturally, everyone wants to know what they are eating, and nutritional information like the salt, sugar, and fat content could significantly influence our decision-making when it comes to choosing what food products end up in our basket and eventually inside of us.

The current nutrition label system regulated by Health Canada is the Nutrition Facts table. It provides a lot of useful information including the sodium, fat, vitamin, and fibre content in terms of the Percent Daily Value — the proportion of what the item represents in terms of the amount you need each day – in addition to sugar, protein, and calorie content. In theory, consumers should easily be able to use the Nutrition Facts table to make healthy choices.

A recently published study by researchers at McGill found the exact opposite. According to the researchers, the Nutrition Facts table is both ineffective and too complex to be used while shopping. It provides too much information and does not resolve any nutrition conflicts, leaving consumers to make complex decisions such as choosing between high sugar versus low sodium content.

According to the researchers, the Nutrition Facts table is both ineffective and too complex to be used while shopping.

The study entitled “The effects of nutrition labelling on consumer food choice: a psychological experiment and computational model,” was conducted by Peter Helfer, a PhD student in psychology and neuroscience, and Thomas Shultz, a professor of psychology. They compared four different nutrition labelling systems: the currently-used Nutrition Facts table, the NuVal label, the UK Traffic Light Signpost label, and a binary label (heart symbol or health check) indicating healthier food items.

The research study

The independent study, funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), assessed the different labelling systems based on their validity, if the labels lead to healthier choices, and usability, or how easy they are to use.

In an interview with The Daily, Shultz explained that the study involved psychological and computational parts. The psychological part of the experiment focused on measuring people’s ability to compare the nutritive value of food.

To start their experiment, Shultz and Helfer created an online survey and advertised it on food and nutrition-related websites. Participants in the online survey had to choose between pairs of food based on product images, taste scores, and one of the four nutrition labelling systems. They also had to answer factual questions to make sure they were not making up their data.

“In each case, participants were asked to choose between four food items, either four different yogurts or four different cereals. There were two additional manipulated variables: time limit (20 seconds or unlimited) and accompanying visual information (showing the actual product photo or generic clip art that indicated only the food category – cereal or yogurt),” said Shultz.

The computational model of the decision-making provided insights into why people made the choices they made. The researchers used decision field theory (DFT), which is considered to be one of the most successful models of human decision-making. DFT works with the idea that decision-making is about comparing options to your wanted outcomes and in the process gradually building up preference for an option. Once a certain threshold is reached, the decision is made. One of the insights gained is that time didn’t affect nutrition choices because preferences often emerged quite early.

The computer neural network models were provided with the same information as the participants and generated many of the same choices, Shultz said the computer model “captured the general qualitative pattern in data.”

In short, the computer-generated data and the results from the psychological component came to the same conclusions. The binary labels such as the health check are fast to use but also tend to produce not-so-nutritious choices. The Traffic Light labels take more time to use and result in only a mediocre increase in nutrition. The most commonly used Nutrition Facts table takes the most time and results in the least nutritious choices. The NuVal label was found to take the least time to use and result in the most nutritious choices.

A much better alternative

NuVal is a novel labelling scheme in several respects; it remains one of the only nutrition labelling schemes to have been scientifically tested for validity, and it does not classify foods in the traditional categories of healthy and unhealthy. Instead, it provides a score on a scale from 1 to 100, based on the Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI) algorithm. The score is positively influenced by the presence of fibres, vitamins, minerals, and the quality of fats and proteins; and negatively influenced by saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, added sugar, and cholesterol.

“NuVal is fairly unique in considering the positive aspects of food, which provides an important advantage over other labelling schemes. 

In 2011, researchers at Harvard published a paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine which concluded that people who ate according to the NuVal scores would be less likely to be overweight or obese, and less likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. However, several of the researchers who conducted the validity studies are from Harvard and Yale. Both universities are involved with NuVal to varying degrees, with Harvard’s School of Public Health using the algorithm to conduct its own research and Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center having funded the initiative to create NuVal.

According to Shultz, “NuVal is fairly unique in considering the positive aspects of food, which provides an important advantage over other labelling schemes. Many nutrition-labelling schemes focus only on the negative aspects, in the manner of warning labels on tobacco products.”

NuVal has its flaws and is in no way is a perfect system. For one, the ONQI algorithm developed by experts at prestigious universities such as Harvard and Yale is kept secret as it is patent pending. It also poses challenges to mainstream adaptation, as Shultz points out that “sensible governments are unlikely to mandate or fund research into anything that is not transparent.” Additionally, NuVal is limited in its scope to only products and does not provide any information for overall dietary quality. While it makes it easy to compare between same food types like two brands of pretzels or between different food types like apple juice and strawberry yogurt, it doesn’t provide any information as to how it will impact your overall diet.

The future of nutrition labelling

Ideally, there would be an alternative labelling scheme like NuVal, but more transparent. This highlights the need for continued research in finding a scheme that is both easy to use and actually beneficial to your health. The research by Shultz and Helfer, which started out as a side project, highlights the need for science-based evidence when it comes to implementing nutrition labelling schemes. With advances in computational modelling, it is no longer too expensive nor difficult to assess the nutrition and health merits of different schemes as proven by this recent study. Consumers are directly harmed when essential nutrition information is not provided in an accessible manner. You shouldn’t have to be a dietician to make nutritional choices. It’s time to radically revamp the current labelling scheme, because simply put it’s evident it wasn’t designed with consumers in mind.

The post Nutrition should not be this hard appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The show is the brainchild of Dalal Hanna and Andrea Reid, who met while they were graduate students at McGill.

“After we both had our research featured on a prominent Canadian science radio show [CBC’s Quirks & Quarks], we got to talking one night at a bar about how we would both jump at the chance to start our own science radio show. It just clicked and we never looked back,” said Reid in an interview with The Daily.

According to Hanna, ‘science faction’ is a term used to describe advancements that are so hard to believe as fact, that they are often mistaken for science fiction. It is also the name of their new ten-part podcast series that aims to make cutting-edge and complex scientific research more accessible to audiences by using the Up-Goer Five Text Editor, which allows its users to use only the 1,000 most common English words to describe difficult- to-understand ideas – in this case, scientific concepts. Each episode will cover one recent discovery, and the first three episodes will span three very different fields: biomechanics, chemical engineering, and astrophysics.

Science Faction is hosted by Nick Schofield, who Cult MTL declared as Montreal’s number one radio host of 2014, and who also has a weekly radio segment called Underground Sounds on CKUT. As a pre-produced podcast, Science Faction will be released on the first Monday of each month, January through October. It is currently funded by Jeunes Volontaires, an Emploi-Quebec program that enables young adults between the ages of 16 to 29 to dedicate more than 20 hours per week to a project of their own design while receiving funding to cover project costs and living expenses.

However, Hanna and Reid cannot reapply for Jeaunes Volontaires for future episodes and the show is currently set for ten episodes, Hanna notes they are open to the idea of continuing after the initial ten episodes for another season depending on the funds they are able to collect from listeners.

You can listen to Science Faction on their website, and follow the show on Facebook and Twitter @scifactradio.

The post Science Faction, not fiction appeared first on The McGill Daily.

However, only a few media outlets presented the findings of the study accurately, while most sensationalized them. For example, both the Huffington Post and the Telegraph reported on the story, each spinning the findings by implying men who sleep with more women reduced their chances of developing prostate cancer. Yet the study never actually claimed causality, a fact which many media outlets have not mentioned or clearly explained in their articles.

Marie-Élise Parent, a professor in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit at the INRS-Institut Armand-Frappier, and one of the three researchers involved in the study, told The Daily in an interview that, “One of the conclusions [of the study] was that males who had over twenty female sexual partners over their lifetimes had a lower risk of prostate cancer. […] It could be an independent indicator of something else like the frequency of ejaculation. […] But this was just an observation, an association. […] One study cannot call for causality.”

Parent’s study was part of a larger initiative to investigate the risk factors of prostate cancer. She explained that “we are contributing to one piece of the puzzle.” It compared 1,590 individuals diagnosed with prostate cancer and 1,618 randomly selected Canadian males living in Montreal. Each individual was interviewed about their socio-demographic factors (like family income and highest level of education), their lifestyle (including their sexual activity and exposure to STIs), and medical and environmental factors.

This can often become like playing a game of broken telephone; the information is passed along from scientists to the public but is often corrupted either intentionally, or accidentally, en route.

One of the study’s conclusions was that males who had more than twenty female partners during their lifetime had a lowered risk of prostate cancer while having more male partners increased risk. However, the study only looked at the correlation between number of partners and cancer risk. This does not prove causation. For causation to be proven, more data would need to be collected, and further studies conducted, to replicate the findings. It is important to distinguish between correlation and causality. Just because variable A increases when variable B increases does not necessarily mean the increase in variable B is causing the increase in variable A. In the case of this study, having observed that men who have more than twenty female partners have a lower tendency to develop prostate cancer does not mean that sleeping with more women will reduce your risk of prostate cancer.

To prove causality, the study has to be replicated several times and repeatedly show association between sleeping with more than twenty women and decreasing prostate cancer risk.

When the study was published, it resulted in a wide spectrum of reactions. Parent noted that the study has created insightful discourse within the scientific community. However, Parent has also received negative reactions in the form of harassing phone calls and emails from “people who think we are promoting promiscuity, which is not what we are doing.”

This experience has left Parent frustrated. “The media can turn a story [into] quite a monster. We [scientists] have no way to influence that. We do a lot of excellent interviews and press releases, but what people are using is often second-hand information. At the end of the day, it becomes distorted, and that is worrisome.”

This worry was echoed by Timothy Caulfield, a law and public health professor at the University of Alberta, who in 2013 gave a talk about the accuracy of health-related headlines at McGill’s Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium. In this talk, he stated that “non-science sells more than science” when it comes to the mainstream media, resulting in an abundance of bad science being propagated among the general public. He urged members of the public to be cautious when it comes to scientific headlines.

Ideally, scientific literature would contain accessible language and be available without a paywall. However, this is not the case, and a vast majority of people rely on the mainstream media to learn about scientific research. This can often become like playing a game of broken telephone; the information is passed along from scientists to the public but is often corrupted either intentionally, or accidentally, en route.

Currently, once a scientific article goes through the peer-review process and is accepted for publication, scientists have to pay several thousand dollars if they want to have their research freely available to the public. This is a fee that many like Parent feel is too expensive to bear, especially in this day and age, when scientific funding is being cut drastically. Instead, scientists often publish summaries of their research on their websites and give talks at public conferences in an effort to communicate their findings with the public directly, while avoiding media involvement.

Parent is still receiving several interview requests daily, but has decided to stop conducting them due to the time commitment, and because she fears it will contribute to the misconceptions already perpetuated by other media outlets.

Science journalism tries to bridge the gap between scientists and the public by acting as a translator, converting scientific literature to be more accessible to those who are funding it – the public. Science journalists have the task of accurately portraying scientific research while making it more accessible to people who do not have science degrees. However, next time you read a headline about science – especially on outlets known to sensationalize results – treat it with a healthy dollop of skepticism.

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The room remains a less than ideal space, with its limited access, poor sound insulation – try meditating with the Top 40 songs being blasted from Gerts – and lack of washroom facilities to make ablution. When the building is closed or access is limited, such as during Activities Night and other events, Muslim students are left with no viable alternatives. Those who can go home to pray, while long-distance commuters are left with the choice of praying under stairwells, in isolated corners, or between library bookshelves. This photo essay aims to highlight some of these desolate spaces, and reiterate the need for a larger, permanent prayer space.

“Part of being on a diverse campus, if you want to truly represent multicultural values, [is to] create a space where everybody feels welcome as they are. As practicing Muslims, prayer is a part of our identity and it’s never an issue in terms of interfering with people’s productivity. We are very flexible as Muslims, within the bounds of our faith.”
– Omar Edaibat

“It’s a question of just having a space on campus that is accessible and easy for us to be able to pray and worship. We’ve seen it across other campuses and it works very well – multi-faith prayer rooms or [rooms] specific to Muslims.”
– Omar Edaibat

[flickr id=”72157648418909618″]

“It was [midday] prayer time, and we were getting ready to pray [in the Redpath basement]. A security guard approached us and said we are not supposed to [pray there]. He pointed to a notice that said the basement area is only for getting books and that the study space is upstairs. I think he was reading between the lines because it didn’t say explicitly we couldn’t pray there. But another security guard said it’s fine, because formally there is no such [rule].”
– Bilal Ahmad

“Most of the time I pray in the Musalla [the prayer room]. I live really close; if the Musalla is closed I just go home to pray. The problem for some girls is when praying outside the Musalla they may need headscarves and skirts which they have to carry around or find.[Girls] might not feel comfortable, because they want a closed and isolated space not a public space.”
– Sara Kassem

“Praying in public, you feel a bit more uncomfortable. Technically it shouldn’t be, but I feel like it is. I’ve had situations when I am praying [in the library] and then someone comes in because they want to take a book out of the shelf. It’s really awkward because they don’t want [to interrupt] and I can’t say anything, or do anything while I am praying. So when I finish I have to apologize to them and tell them I was praying. It’s sort of embarrassing at times, but its good too because they get to know something about me. Still, it’s inconvenient.”
– Youmna Sayyidah

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“Evolution is a fact!” exclaimed Dajani. She paused and added, “There is no contradiction between Islam and evolution.” Yet there are still many Muslims who refuse to accept evolution. Dajani mentioned that although On The Origin of Species was published in 1859, Arabic versions of the text were only published in the 1960s — nearly a century later. Even after the translations were in circulation, there were still many language barriers present with terminology such as “creationism” being widely misunderstood.

In addition to the linguistic barriers, Muslim communities in the sixties lacked scientists and scientific institutions to verify and explain Darwin’s findings. Lacking the necessary linguistic and scientific tools, Muslim communities instead adopted the Christian stance on Darwin’s proposed theory of evolution, mainly because of Islam’s close ties to Christianity. Both are monotheistic religions and Muslims recognize the prophethood of Jesus. It was determined that Darwin’s theory was in direct contradiction with holy scriptures, and so human evolution was dismissed in both Christian and Muslim communities. A literal interpretation of religious texts resulted in instant, perfect creation being the predominant idea back then; questioning it was seen as blasphemy. Dajani notes, “Evolution doesn’t counter the existence of God. Darwin never discussed the creation of life but rather its evolution.” This demonstrates the need for healthy questioning in both religion and science to dispel false notions and encourage intellectual growth. Although today many Muslims accept evolution, there are still misconceptions.

Muslims who refuse to believe in evolution often cite their interpretation of religious verses from the Holy Quran such as the creation of Adam. The story of Adam and Eve, if taken literally, is thought to imply the instant creation of humans as we are today. However, Dajani believes the story of Adam and Eve is metaphorical and cautions against using holy scriptures as scientific textbooks.

The Holy Quran is a guide, not a science textbook, meant to inspire humanity to seek knowledge; supporting scientific claims through associating verses from holy scripture sets a dangerous precedent. First, discussing and questioning the claims can become taboo due to its association with a religion. Secondly, scientific theories could be disproven as time passes and in the process undermine the religion. Dajani noted “that the beauty of the Quran is that people can have different opinions.” In Islam, personal interpretations of religious texts are allowed and encouraged. It is also acknowledged that interpretations may change over time. Dajani strongly advocates for the need to separate religion from the scientific process to avoid contradictions and pseudoscience.

McGill Centre for Islam and Science

The lecture was hosted by MCIS, which was officially launched on a provisional basis this semester. According to its website, the centre aims “to explore the interactions of science and religion in Islamic societies, both past and present, and to advance policy and educational proposals based on that exploration.” Professor Ehab Abouheif, a founding member of MCIS and Canada Research Chair in Evolutionary Developmental Biology, explained that the centre is branched into three components: policy development, history, and education.

The centre will aim to propose policy to encourage scientific development in Muslim countries. In an interview with The Daily, Abouheif said “If Muslim countries don’t embrace basic science and build upon their scientific capabilities, they will remain technology consumers and not technology innovators.” This reliance on predominantly Western nations for development is noticeable in the Middle East, with governments in countries such as the United Arab Emirates often being reliant upon expatriates within academia and industry. Local scientific development could help build confidence and inspire innovation to ease the reliance on imported technologies. However, innovation and technological independence remain a distant future.

Scientific development is significantly hindered with the majority in many Muslim countries not ready to accept evolution, an organizing principle of biology. Abouheif added, “There are going to be other issues that are very difficult in challenging Muslims and the way Muslims think.” He argued for the need for centres and initiatives like MCIS, which provide platforms for experts from various disciplines such as the sciences, religion, and history to have open discussions, to address topics such as evolution, and counter public misconceptions.

In the Islamic Golden Age from 662 to 1258, Muslim scholars were at the forefront of scientific innovation in fields such as medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. They made revolutionary advances such as inventing the use of oral anaesthesia and the pinhole camera. History proves both religion and science are able to interact harmoniously. Islam inspired Muslims to actively pursue knowledge, as can be seen in the creation of the House of Wisdom in modern-day Baghdad where both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars gathered to translate academic literature to Arabic and exchange ideas. Abouheif noted that, “To understand, in the modern context, how Islam and science can work together you have understand the past.” Like Dajani, Abouheif agrees that religion should be separated from science. But Abouheif believes there are things religion can offer other than inspiration. “We [Muslims] recognize our problems, we know that there are issues we have to solve; we want to modernize without falling into the emptiness of secularism.”

Currently, science remains a predominantly Western system with North American and European epicentres. This begs to question whether you can take a Western system of science and put it in a Muslim country that operates on different ideals. “I don’t think that is going to work, because scientists, after all, are human. Science is a cultural practice just as much as it is an objective method. Different cultures can bring different scientific practices to the table,” Abouheif said.

In the current secular society, there is an expectation for research results to provide clear applications in the real world and immediately benefit society to its justify funding. This suppresses scientific investigations where there are questions, whose solutions are without any obvious merit to society. But investigating such questions helps us gather new facts and accumulate knowledge which then leads to innovation. Unfortunately, basic science is experiencing a problem with due to a shortage in funding.

Islam encourages and rewards the pursuit of knowledge. In Islamic countries, investment in the sciences would be a priority, the motivation for investment being philanthropic instead of result-oriented. Religion and science can compliment each other. For example, religion can act as a catalyst for scientific research, a motivation, and a spark for ambition. Scientific discoveries can then provide new insights of understanding in religious texts.

Unfortunately, the current Western scientific system remains inaccessible, especially to scientists from developing countries due to the lack of access to necessary equipment and colleagues. Even with better communications due to the advent of the internet and tools like Skype, the inaccessibility gap is still present, posing challenges to universities in the Middle East and countries like Pakistan.

There are intricate boundaries between science and religion, and while there are differing opinions on how they can work together, everyone agrees more discussions are needed.

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In recent months, Ebola has been portrayed as a serious epidemic in West Africa. According to the presentation, the epidemic was declared last March, and the first cases were reported in Guinea. After this, the epidemic spread rapidly throughout Guinea and to the surrounding countries. Since then, the outbreak has affected Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Liberia, and has killed more that 3,000 people, causing panic in West Africa and raising international concerns.

Lacombe addressed the Ebola scare created by media outlets, which have been exaggerating facts and spreading paranoia ever since the outbreak started. At the time, the healthcare system of the region was extremely weak, which is why doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had already been established and working in West Africa for some time. Lack of knowledge about the virus as well as misconceptions about its contagiousness led to widespread fear – the local media in Guinea even stated that contracting Ebola would result in certain death. “Fear and incomprehension led to patients not going to treatment centres, hence spreading the virus further, and causing cases of contact [to be] hidden, as well as the ostracization of the survivors,” said Lacombe.

While there is no cure for Ebola, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) the mortality rate of Ebola can vary between 25 and 90 per cent. Lacombe explained supportive treatments, such as maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, making sure the patient is hydrated, and keeping their electrolytes balanced, can greatly increase the survival rate of the disease. This shows the essential need for treatment centres in affected regions.

The recent outbreak came as a shock to many as it occurred on a larger scale than previous ones. Addressing this shock, Lacombe stated that in addition to “fear of the disease, there are also cultural implications and operational implications.” Time reported that cultural practices that involve physical contact such as burial rituals largely account for the increase in cases of people contracting Ebola, as the virus is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids. In addition, there is a limited number of deployable medical teams. On this note, Lacombe also mentioned how the high turnover rate of international medical and logistical staff created a lack of institutional memory over time in dealing with the outbreak.

“We need to find new ways to communicate about the disease […] and to improve our understanding about it.” Realizing this, MSF has since changed its approach to the disease, tackling it as a social rather than a medical problem. The organization been meeting with local community leaders to provide them with information on Ebola, as well as increasing transparency by giving patients cell phones so they can communicate with concerned relatives. They have also filmed raw footage to show what happens in treatment centres, all in an effort to counter misinformation, false perceptions, and panic.

Yansouni spoke about the harm in taking too many medical precautions, and warned how the hysteria in trying to contain the spreading of Ebola is raising concerns about the preparedness and ability of the healthcare system here in Montreal. “A lot of the time more protection gives you either a false sense of security, or it displaces your attention to where you really need to be careful,” he said. For example, in the case of Ebola, taking the extra precaution of assuming it is airborne could lead to accidental transmission by bodily fluids, which is actually how the virus is transmitted.

The crux of the issue in Montreal lies in the worry that people from affected regions are at risk of having the disease and potentially spreading it. This belief has a significant effect on the way Montreal hospitals treat people from West Africa. In an overwhelming number of cases, the patients may not have Ebola, but may have something else like malaria or leukemia. But because of the recent West Africa outbreak of Ebola, anyone who has visited the region is automatically suspected of Ebola. Yansouni warns that a false assumption could lead doctors to inaccurately diagnose patients and recommends everyone take reasonable precautions.

Although it remains to be seen whether or not this recent Ebola outbreak will transmit to Canada, it has served as wake-up call to our healthcare system and sparked questions on how it deals with infectious diseases.

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Cutting Edge is a science lecture series, where every month a professor is invited to give a talk on their research, why it’s important, and why we, as a society, should be interested in it. The lectures are tailored to the public but are also useful for scientists from other disciplines.

The series remains one of the only forums in place to counter the barriers that exist between scientists and the public. Barriers such as scientific literature laden with heavy jargon are both inaccessible due to the presentation of the concepts and the financial cost of subscriptions needed to access them in the first place as an individual.

The need for Cutting Edge came from scientists who wanted to have a stronger basis of understanding between disciplines. As one organizer explained, “These lectures were conceived back in 2003 because a number of people here at McGill got […] fed up trying to understand what our colleagues in other departments were saying, and finding [their presentations] incomprehensible.” This frustration resulted in the creation of Cutting Edge.

The topic of this month’s lecture was green chemistry, featuring Audrey Moores, an associate professor from the chemistry department, as the main speaker. Green chemistry aims to minimize the hazardous effects that chemical products and processes have on human health and the environment. Moores believes sustainable chemistry can aid in the global project of sustainability.

Moores began her talk with an open question to the audience: “What do you know about sustainability?” Answers came in from confident and eager audience members and the question evolved to “What do you find unsustainable?” One audience member shouted “mobile phones,” another person “fisheries,” and someone else added “CO2 emissions.” Moores acknowledged that these answers all fall into the common perceptions of sustainability: biodiversity and the carbon cycle. She added “the problem of sustainability goes far beyond just carbon.”

Unbeknown to most, many electronics contain precious elements such as gold, silver, and platinum.The iPhone contains eight rare earth metals alone. Although mobile phones may use minute quantities of elements and rare earth metals, they are sold in extremely large quantities; Apple has sold more than 500 million iPhones since 2007. The high demand for electronics has resulted in a scarcity for certain elements and an excess in electronic waste, which is often mixed and thus very difficult to recycle – creating an unsustainable cycle. This has resulted in experts predicting metal and element shortages in the near future.

Phosphorus is an element that suffers from unsustainable usage. “We are talking about a resource that is essential for agriculture to allows us to grow food.” said Moores. Phosphorus can only be mined, and most of the world’s supply comes from four countries: China, Morocco, South Africa and the U.S.. Its high demand has caused global concern, with China stopping the exporting of its supply. While there is a scarcity in terms of obtaining phosphorus for agriculture, there is also an excess in terms of phosphorus leaching into lakes and rivers causing eutrophication, a type of water pollution that can disrupt an entire ecosystem by overloading it with nutrients. Recently, in August, a toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie caused hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio to switch to bottled water – the cause was linked to run-off phosphorus from fertilizers that leached into the lake. The overload of phosphorus, a nutrient, fed the algae and caused the bloom. Another example of scarcity and excess resulting in unsustainability.

A parallel can be drawn with the mining industry where the extraction of the minerals cause scarcity on one end, and the mixing and dilution of minerals result in excess on the other as the product becomes near- impossible to recyclable.

Tackling sustainability in chemistry, Moores’ research group focuses on specializing in the use of Fe0 (or iron zero) nanoparticles in traditional reactions such as hydrogenation. Fe0 nanoparticles are non-toxic and cheap due to the relative abundance of copper, and can be produced by grinding old iron scraps.

Hydrogenation, the addition of a hydrogen atom to a molecule, is used in a variety of fields from petrochemistry to pharmaceutics when producing ibuprofen. The problem with hydrogenation is its reliance on heavy metal catalysts such as palladium, platinum, and rhodium, which are all toxic and very expensive. In theory, heterogenous catalysts can be infinitely reused, but in reality they become deactivated over time and, like a printer cartridge, need to be replaced. In pharmaceutics, the heavy metal catalysts need to go through scavenger columns, which are costly machines with complicated polymers to filter out the metals that leached into the ibuprofen, to meet regulatory requirements on heavy metal concentration in the final product.

Using naked Fe0 nanoparticles is not a new phenomenon; however, they are impractical due to the extreme reaction with oxygen and water, creating a rust coating larger than the nanoparticle, and making it unreactive. Moores and her group are using Fe0 nanoparticles coated with a iron oxide, rust, shell that protects the Fe0 from oxidation with water allowing, it to maintain its reactivity. Moores pointed out another method for making Fe0 water-resistant including using a polymer block coating, making the use of Fe0 particles feasible in industry.

In the case of pharmaceutical hydrogenation, using the Fe0 nanoparticle coated with a iron oxide shell as an alternative catalyst to heavy metals provides a more economical and sustainable solution as the nanoparticles can be recovered due to their magnetic properties, and have a lower toxicity than the heavy metals. Moores mentioned several further applications of the nanoparticles she designed with her team, such as in biology, where it can be used to simplify the tracking of testosterone for researchers studying breast cancer development. The nanoparticles could also be used to purify contaminated ground water where the shelled Fe0 nanoparticles can transfer their electrons to destroy contaminants or sequester metals.

Moores’ research shows us there are ways to move away from precious metals in chemistry and replace them with abundant and environmentally friendlier metals such as iron, rust, and copper. The potential benefits of using iron oxide shell-protected Fe0 nanoparticles include reducing element scarcity by using more abundantly available elements, reducing pollution by using fewer elements and reusing chemicals, and improving food and drug safety by using non-toxic reagents. However, the human health and safety implications of nanoparticles remain vastly unexplored. Moores agrees more research is required to get a better perspective on the impact nanoparticles could have on humans in the long term.

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Soup and Science is popular among students and professors alike. For Clare Lyle, a U0 physical sciences student, Soup and Science was “a really cool way to get to know what’s going on at McGill and what people are doing for research.” This sentiment was echoed by Tami Pereg-Barnea, an assistant professor in physics, who said Soup and Science provided an “informal way for students to approach professors,” something which is more difficult to do in a lecture-room setting where professors can seem inaccessible to students. 

Pereg-Barnea admitted to the intimidating aura professors can project to their students. “Naturally, there is a feeling of distance [in a course setting] because I give them marks and assignments,” she said.

However, inaccessibility can also present itself in a physical form; many first year courses have more than 600 students, which means long queues, back-to-back lectures, and preoccupied professors. These can quickly become a physical barrier between student and professor. “I talked to my general chemistry professor after his presentation [at Soup and Science],” said Lyle. “It was the first time I got to talk to him.”

Soup and Science provides a rare opportunity on campus to directly network with professors in a casual setting. However, even this  space can be inaccessible, with students being refused entry due to the limited seating capacity of the Redpath Museum. 

“Naturally, there is a feeling of distance [in a course setting] because I give them marks and assignments.”

Tami Pereg-Barnea, assistant professor of physics

“I think there are too many people [at Soup and Science], but that’s the way things are. Sometimes its hard to approach the prof because there are ten students around them,” Alexandra Djait-Paulien, a U3 physiology student, told The Daily. Djait-Paulien found her research job by emailing professors, like the majority of undergraduate students, and said she thinks “[professors] are accessible, but you have to take the initiative.”

Many students were attracted by the brevity of the presentations. Pereg-Barnea, who presented again in this edition of Soup and Science, told The Daily that after presenting for the first time she “made many changes in the presentation” because of the three-minute time constraint. This time she took a different approach by explaining a single topic, superconductivity, in depth, rather than broadly discussing her research on theoretical condensed matter. 

For Pereg-Barnea, the three minutes are just enough to get students curious about their research. “I think it’s a good compromise because I accept any invitation to speak to people who are interested in science, to show people what science is about and what research is.”

Many of the students at the event were first-year students curious about research at McGill and how to get involved. Although imperfect in terms of accessibility, Soup and Science continues to play a crucial role in introducing students to the research sphere at McGill, and will probably continue to overcrowd the Redpath Museum with science undergraduates for the foreseeable future. In the words of one student, “Science and free food is always good.”

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The event was organized by Divest McGill, Divest Concordia, the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), the Concordia Student Union (CSU), and international environmental organization 350.org, featuring talks from two guest speakers: Ellen Gabriel, a human rights activist from Kanehsatà:ke, and 350.org founder Bill McKibben. The speakers explored issues related to the fossil fuel industry, such as the contamination of natural resources and the disproportionate effect of climate change on people of colour.

SSMU VP External Amina Moustaqim-Barrette opened the talk by connecting the issue of sustainability to broader social justice issues, speaking from her experience at a conference on climate justice in the Philippines. Moustaqim-Barrette said that “doing migrant justice work is a form of climate justice work,” as people are often displaced by climate change and subsequently migrate to places, like Canada, where they are likely to be taken advantage of by migrant worker programs.

In the speeches, Gabriel focused on Indigenous views and practices for sustainability, while McKibben focused on the scientific proof of the damaging effects of climate change. Both speakers outlined the necessity of immediate action in order to combat these issues.

“Indigenous groups,” Gabriel said, “have criticized the way colonizing peoples have been treating the earth long before scientists discovered problems associated with unsustainable extraction practices.”

Gabriel also condemned political leaders such as Stephen Harper, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush for encouraging environmentally damaging extraction methods, such as fracking and pipeline projects. “It is the role of government to protect the people; it is not the role of the government to trample on the rights of the people. It is the role of government to always be the one to look out if there is any danger for the people. And they have failed you, miserably.”

Jon Milton, an audience member and student at Champlain Regional College St. Lambert, echoed these criticisms of how politicians have dealt with climate justice to The Daily after the event. “Indigenous treaty rights are some of the only legal mediums for environmental defense, after Stephen Harper gutted the environmental regulations of Canada.”

Gabriel concluded on an apologetic note, acknowledging the fact that it is the current generation of young people who will have to grapple with issues left by the detrimental practices of the past, and urged the audience to instill immediate change.

According to McKibben, scientists sounded the alarm bells about climate change 25 years ago and have shown that, in particular, Canada will be severely affected by climate change since it is so close to the disappearing ice of the Arctic.

“They told us that was going to happen, and nobody did anything – none of our leaders, none of our systems reacted the way that you would think that they would,” said McKibben.

He said that 350.org was founded in response to the need to heed these warnings at a grassroots level. The organization aims to bring all people together, but especially those with less power – such as young people and the economically disadvantaged – in a collective manner that will be much more effective than people trying to create change individually.

While the event was popular – tickets sold out – it did not conclude without criticism. A member of the audience interrupted McKibben during the talk. The audience member criticized the way that the People’s Climate Tour is being run, citing a lack of Indigenous involvement and overrepresentation of “zionist organizations which are [carrying out] the genocide of Palestinian people.”

McKibben responded by recognizing the importance of Indigenous involvement, saying that it has been an important aspect of how 350.org has been organizing, and added that it will take everyone working together in order to combat climate change.

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Since then, Bill C-11, also referred to as the Copyright Modernization Act, implemented new amendments to the Copyright Act. One such change was the inclusion of education under fair dealing – a set of users’ rights that permit the use of copyrighted material for certain purposes.

David Lametti, an associate professor in McGill’s Faculty of Law who specializes in the field of intellectual property and theory, says, “[As a result of C-11] there is now a stronger claim for uploading and trading notes with other students, provided that they do not infringe [on] the economic and moral rights [of the professor].” However, he also notes that “in the commercial realm, the fair dealing argument becomes weaker as copies are made for the purposes of gaining money.” With more companies entering the business of buying and selling course notes, often providing incentives for students to contribute material, the legality of uploading this material can lead to turbulence.

The main issue with uploading content lies in ownership. It is essentially all about proving who owns the intellectual property in question. The materials produced throughout a course belong to the professor or student who produced them. For example, in the case of course notes, if the notes are taken verbatim, the intellectual property rights would belong to the professor; however, if a student were to take non-verbatim notes or explain a concept in a unique way, the student would be the producer of original content and, as a result, would hold the copyrights and ownership.

Many professors are reluctant to return major assessments such as exams, fearing that students will post the questions online.

The copyright only protects the fixed expression of an idea whereas the idea itself is open for public use. As explained by André Costopoulos, Dean of Students, “If you post […] the work you did to solve the problem posed by the professor, that’s fine. If you post the professor’s solutions, then there is a problem because you need the permission of the professor.” He recommends checking with the instructor to avoid any potential copyright infringement.

A variety of factors other than intellectual property ownership are also involved in copyright laws. These include the intention of the uploader, where the content is made available, and who is able to access it. Each factor can influence the decision of a civil court in determining if any copyright infringement has been committed.

When the administration threatened disciplinary procedures against the students accused of copyright infringement in 2011, they did so using the Student Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures. While the code does not specifically mention the uploading of course content, under the Rules of Conduct, in the section entitled “Relationship with Civil Law and Authority,” any offence under federal or provincial laws that occurs in the university context and is not specifically described in the Code is considered an offence if it “adversely affects the functioning of the University.” Additionally, under the Code, uploading your previous assignments or answers to quizzes or exams could potentially fall under plagiarism. The University can act independently of civil law when it comes to disciplining students for violating federal laws such as copyrights infringements. The civil law is concerned with investigating the violation of copyrights, while the University’s disciplinary procedures determine how the act has affected the functioning of the university.

“We are meant to be curators of knowledge, we are meant to develop knowledge, and I think we are moving increasingly toward sharing and open source models.”

David Lametti, Associate Professor in Faculty of Law

According to Costopoulos, “There is no offence against any article of the code for [students uploading their work]. In order to say that is an offence against the code, if [professors] want me to act on this under the code, they are saying that this material is the property of the University. That usually gets them to change their mind.” This perhaps signals a change in the University’s attitude – instead of intervening with threats of disciplinary procedures, the administration now seems to prefer communication between students and professors to resolve issues.

Many professors are reluctant to return major assessments such as exams, fearing that students will post the questions online. Costopoulos believes professors have a responsibility to design exams and assignments in a way that will prevent cheating and plagiarism – for example, changing the details of problems even when maintaining the same structure to test for certain skills or knowledge.

Mariam Hachem, Engineering Peer Tutorial Service U1 math tutor and U2 Chemical Engineering student, offers an alternative to uploading coursework. “[The] Chemical Engineering Student Society makes coursepacks of previous quizzes and assignments [for some courses] with the professors knowing about it,” Hachem told The Daily. She stresses the importance of professors being kept in the loop and asking for their permission before sharing any coursework on sites like Docuum, a message echoed by Andrea Gideon, EUS VP Academic.

Gideon recalls an incident where a professor got upset when a student put up notes they took in class for others to see. “The prof claimed them as his property and asked the student to take the website down. They came to an agreement where the student would send the prof his draft of notes and the prof edited them before making them available on MyCourses with his name on them,” described Gideon.

Everyone agreed that the best solution to avoiding potential copyright infringement suits or disciplinary procedures is to be ethical when using other people’s work and practicing good communication. Simply put: ask before posting.

When questioned about the role of copyright within academia, Lametti responded, “I think we are meant to be curators of knowledge, we are meant to develop knowledge, and I think we are moving increasingly towards sharing and open source models.”

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