Science & Technology
Discovery
An ecosystem for AI collaboration
Artificial intelligence is transforming the world in ways that are both exciting and troubling. The McGill Collaborative for AI and Society wants to ensure that AI is used in a positive way – and the best way to do that is to bring together experts with different sets of skills.
Discovery
A Nobel laureate on the possibility of life on other planets
In his recent book Is Earth Exceptional?, Jack Szostak, BSc’72, DSc’11, the director of the University of Chicago’s Center for the Origins of Life, examines the latest research on how life started – and whether it could exist anywhere else in the universe.
People
Big ideas are his business
Mark Godsy. LLB’82, has built several companies and he has developed a formula for the process. Team up with smart people who have ideas for making the world better in some way and do everything you can to help them succeed.
Society
The final frontier… for law
The rise of space tourism, an increase in potentially dangerous space debris, the possibility of asteroid mining – as the technologies associated with space exploration continue to advance, an award-winning book by legal scholar Michael Byers asks if international law is keeping pace.
Discovery
Exploring queer and feminist food culture
In her research on feminist restaurants and queer cuisine, Alex Ketchum, MA’13, PhD’18, an assistant professor at McGill’s Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies, examines underexplored areas of culinary history and food culture.
People
A marriage of art and technology
Chloë Ryan is an artist, a McGill-trained engineer, and the CEO/founder of Acrylic Robotics. Her company plans to partner with artists to make high-quality reproductions of their work – right down to the brushstrokes – by using robots and AI. The goal is to help artists find new markets for their creations.
On Campus
Combatting quackery
Dedicated to promoting science literacy and to pushing back against misinformation, McGill’s Office for Science and Society (OSS) regularly reaches large audiences through a variety of means (podcasts, newspaper columns, YouTube, online courses) to further its mission of “separating sense from nonsense.”
Webcasts
The magic of a solar eclipse
Don’t miss the latest edition of the McGill News webcast where the focus is on the celestial event of a lifetime.
People
Science with ‘a funky, cool vibe’
As an immunologist, Frederic Bertley, BSc’94, PhD’00, once worked on vaccines for HIV/AIDS at Harvard. Now, he shares his passion for discovery as the head of an award-winning science museum in the U.S.
Society
Reflecting on a year without the internet
For a full 12 months, McGill faculty lecturer Aron Lee Rosenberg, MA’19, PhD’23, avoided smartphones, social media and email. His new book raises questions about how we interact with the internet
Health
Betting big on open science
The Neuro and its Tanenbaum Open Science Institute are committed to making its research as freely available and transparent as possible, while encouraging other neuroscience institutions to do the same.
Discovery
Innovative depression app gets million-dollar boost
Created by four McGill alums, Aifred Health is developing an app that uses AI to speed up the process for finding the right medications to treat patients with clinical depression. Aifred recently scored a huge win, earning $1 million USD in the international IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition.