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A cell frantically running way from the common cold virus. The cell says, "If only I could remove that protein!" while the virus says, "I need to invade that protein!".

The Cold Cure?

We’ve all had a cold at least once, with the average person getting it 2 to 3 times a year! Could there possibly be a cure for this bothersome sickness?

An illustration of a brilliant blue ocean. The text reads "Sink or Swim?".

Sink or Swim

When you think of climate change, you likely think of glaciers melting, stranded polar bears, or ocean levels rising. It’s pretty clear that rising sea levels threaten to plunge us all underwater, but why should we care about the other stuff, like ocean acidification?

A hamburger on a plate. Surrounding the hamburger are bubbles. From left to right, the bubbles show peas, beans, and grains. The text reads "We can't believe it's not meat!".

We Can’t Believe It’s Not Meat!

For years, fast food chains have hailed their burgers and patties as 100% beef, often tacking on an ‘organic’ label for more flavour. More recently, however, many chains have been proudly selling 100% meatless burgers. What has changed?

A car driving down a road, leaving a trail of exhaust that reads "air pollution". Large skyscrapers fill the background.

Breathing to Death

Breathing isn’t supposed to be dangerous, it gives us life. But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Smoking isn’t considered socially acceptable now but our health is still in jeopardy with every breath we take, and the culprit is more insidious than we could’ve ever expected.

An illustration of a forest fire. In the foreground, there are trees that are charred black. In the background, a large fire continues to burn in the distance.

The Burning Amazon

2019 has been quite remarkable in terms of raising awareness for climate change and environmental issues. Not only did people from over 150 countries participate in climate strikes in September, but thanks to social media, the burning of the Amazon forest also gained an incredible amount of attention.

An animation of wind turbines spinning in the wind with a city skyline in the distance. The text reads "Wind's Got This".

Wind’s Got This

The advent of Britain’s Industrial Revolution in 1760 changed the world drastically. With machinery replacing human labour, goods were manufactured faster and with better quality. Unfortunately, this also changed our relationship with the environment forever.

Blueprints of different robot designs. In the background, blueprints of hard, rigid robot designs are crossed out in red marker. The blueprint in the foreground shows an inchworm-like design.

Inching Towards Soft Robotics

Beloved characters like Pixar’s Wall-E and Star Wars’ R2-D2 are portrayed as bulky, rigid robots that can easily interact with humans. However, in the real world, such robots are rarely safe and effective enough to be used around humans and delicate objects. This is where soft robotics comes in!

A grey rat in a blue convertible car.

A Scientific Look at Real Life Rat Races

It’s the year 2019, and although flying cars and hover boards are not yet a reality, you can rest assured knowing that rats can now drive cars! That’s right, scientists at the University of Richmond in Virginia have succeeded in teaching rats how to operate tiny, rat-sized vehicles.

A desktop computer. On the monitor, there is an image of a sparrow bird and a prompt that reads "Are you ready?". There are two choices for the user to input, "yes" or "no".

Artificial Intelligence in Video Gaming: Sparrow

“Sparrow” is a student startup at the Entrepreneurship Hatchery at the University of Toronto. Their plan? Build a League of Legends “personal gaming coach” that incorporates AI into video gaming.

An animation of a hand fading in and fading out.

Phantom Limbs

We all take our limbs for granted. They allow us to perform many tasks, from hugging our friends and playing our favourite sports to flipping the pages of a book. But when you lose a limb, your brain may keenly feel its absence, and even deny it altogether.