Skip to content

scc

A cartoon drawing of a frozen zombie head encased in a cube of ice. The ice is melting and forms a puddle of water on the ground.

Awakening Ancient Viruses with Climate Change

We hear about zombies all the time in movies, books, and TV shows. They often start with a corpse coming back to life and passing a virus onto others, who then get infected and pass it onto more people— and suddenly you’ve got a zombie apocalypse on your hands. But what happens when the virus itself is a zombie, resurrected from its thousand-year underground slumber? While they might not be the bringers of the apocalypse, the release of ancient viruses that were previously frozen underground is a new and unprecedented consequence of climate change that has researchers wondering if they might cause issues for us in the future.

Girl with long red hair with an anesthesia mask. Text above the girl saying "Myth or Fact: Do people with red hair require more anaesthesia"

Do People with Red Hair Require More Anaesthesia?

Most of us have become well acquainted with the term “anaesthetics”- whether it’s from personal experience, anecdotes from friends, or portrayal on TV. Even though its use has become commonplace, there are many mysteries surrounding anaesthesia waiting to be explored.

Album cover depicting a top-down view of the arctic with glaciers with mini album covers to the left depicting whales, seals, and glaciers. Text reading "Polar Sounds" and "where ecology and music collide" border the album.

Polar Sounds: The New Album where Ecology and Music Collide

Orcas and Ross seals accompanied by a violin? A bowhead whale’s call remixed as a love song? Colliding icebergs combined with synths and electric guitars? These are all songs that feature in Polar Sounds, a newly released album from the sound project Cities and Memory.

A digital drawing of planet Earth surrounded by falling pink particles. Golden rays radiate out from the planet's surface into space.

The Particle Shower That is Changing The Way We See The World

Life on Earth exists under a constant particle shower. Tiny invisible particles form in the
atmosphere and fall towards the Earth’s surface, passing through our bodies and everything around us on their way. From the Great Pyramids of Giza to Mount Vesuvius, one such particle, the muon, is being used by particle physicists to make new discoveries about the physical structures that surround us on Earth.

a baby surrounded by speech bubbles with various country flags in each bubble representing a different language. These languages include portuguese, english, chinese, arabic, german, russian, spanish, hindi, japanese and french.

Polyglot Prodigies

How many times have you downloaded Duolingo, fired up to learn Portuguese or Korean, only to give up after losing your 40-day streak? Even after 40 days, you think, I still only know how to say “Hi, how are you?” It’s easy to get discouraged, but if it’s any solace, our struggles with learning new languages are mostly biological.

Orange juice is poured into a glass that is overflowing. PFAS, drawn as its chemical molecular structure, is shown in the orange juice. Text reads “Some Things Weren’t Meant to Last”.

Some Things Weren’t Meant to Last: The Harmful Impacts of Forever Chemicals

Earlier this year in the US, a lawsuit was taken against the popular juice product Simply Tropical for containing levels of dangerous chemicals called PFAS. It turns out that these chemicals were at levels “hundreds of times” greater than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory limits for drinking water.

a disproportionately large nuclear fusion tube containing spherical fuel is shown being hit with lasers, powering a futuristic city.

Powering a Brighter Future with Fusion Ignition

On December 13, 2022, the world of clean energy changed forever with a groundbreaking announcement from the US Department of Energy. Fusion ignition had been achieved for the first time in history on December 5, 2022. Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) at the US National Ignition Facility successfully achieved one of the largest scientific milestones of the 21st century by producing an excess of energy – even more than they put in.

New york city night time skyline in background with King Kong hanging off the top of the Empire state building, Godzilla at the bottom left corner, and Mothra flying in the sky at the top left corner. The words 'colossal creatures, the science behind size' are written across the skyline.

Godzilla, Mothra and Other Gigantic Creatures: The Science Behind their Size

In the 1933 classic King Kong, a giant gorilla terrorizes New York City, towering above trucks and houses and standing menacingly atop the Empire State Building. Since then, the idea of animals larger than human-made structures has fascinated us. From the giant reptiloid Godzilla and insectoid Mothra to the fish-like Sea Kings in One Piece, colossal creatures are a recurring theme across media.

A half-transparent, shadowy man is attempting to tiptoe away, leaving behind black footprints on a red background. a large eye is looking at him and the light rays that bounce off his figure. Text: Invisibility, hidden in plain sight.

Hidden From Plain Sight: Can Science Create Real-Life Invisibility?

The power of invisibility has been wielded by countless fictional heroes—and many have wondered about bringing that power into the real world. Making the body turn invisible on its own sounds out of the question, but what about instances where characters disappear with the help of special invisibility-granting clothing or covers? Would it be possible to harness technology to invent something similar? Numerous scientists have been diving deep into optics—the study of light—to answer that question.

A digital painting of a zoomed up mutable rainfrog resting on a leaf. It is green with brown spots and has distinguished spikey texture on its skin. "Shapeshifters" is titled at the top.

Shapeshifters of the Animal Kingdom

Shapeshifting creatures are amazing, and they’re not just in our favourite books or movies— they’re all around us. Many animals have the ability to change size and shape, allowing them to do things from scaring off predators to unlocking new abilities. Some of them, like the pufferfish, are famous for their ability, but there are other lesser-known shapeshifters that are just as awesome. Here’s a look at some of the lesser-known members of this shapeshifting team—and the ways they perform this fantastic feat.