Investment in iconic Bay Building preserves city’s heritage while creating a vibrant hub for innovation The City of Edmonton is in the midst of a major drive to breathe new life into its downtown core, investing $4.7 billion since 2015 in new residential, office, cultural, educational and entertainment space. A key part of that revitalization…
Portraying views opposed to those held by health experts stokes needless controversy When they launched their study, Timothy Caulfield and Marco Zenone could hardly have anticipated how the issue would capture headlines in Alberta. And yet they decided to examine how the common COVID-19 vaccination requirement for organ transplant recipients is represented in the popular…
Making faster, safer decisions in real-time would enhance the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles Imagine a child jumping out in front of your car as you drive down a residential street. Now count to three. That’s how long it could take a self-driving car with insufficient data – confused over whether to brake or…
Tantalizing hints that descendants of an early human species might still exist on an Indonesian island Ever since several small skeletons of an early human species were excavated in Indonesia in 2003, we have known that creatures astonishingly like Tolkien’s fanciful, furry-toed characters once walked the Earth. Standing erect at just over a metre in…
Show should be reclassified as “science fiction” rather than “documentary” Since the controversial documentary series Ancient Apocalypse dropped on Netflix last November, academics and journalists around the world have been incensed at its false claims and misinformation. Earlier this month, the Society for American Archaeology wrote a letter to Netflix urging the platform to reclassify…
It would hardly have been a stretch for Amy Kaler to write a cogent social analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a sociologist, Kaler has a background in population health and the sociology of infectious diseases. As the pandemic advanced relentlessly in the early days of 2020, she received enough requests for media commentary that…
Early diagnosis can lead to better treatment A University of Alberta engineering professor has designed a portable ultrasound system that can detect scoliosis in adolescents without the risks associated with frequent X-rays. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis is a deformity of the spine that occurs in two to four per cent of those between the ages of…
More family time can foster resilience in children affected by the disruptions The survey results were considered a loud and clear “cry for help” from high school students suffering from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, more than a third reported poor mental health, and about 44…
Overburdened emergency physicians tend to order more tests for less-severe patients
It’s no secret that emergency health care in Canada is in crisis. Staff shortages have caused some emergency departments to close temporarily as already stretched resources are pushed to the breaking point by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the crisis has been brewing across the developed world for decades, says University of Alberta business professor Mohamad…
The underlying principle when it comes to assigning homework is balance
As students return to the classroom full-time and workloads ramp up, you might wonder: What’s the right amount of homework? How much is too much? Those might be the wrong questions, say educators. What matters more is whether homework serves a clearly defined purpose, is properly scheduled and encourages students to think independently. “Some teachers…