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Winsy Leung

A man looking up and seeing different colour and size spheres through a beam of white light in a dark space.

The Universe in the Dark

Let’s take a moment to imagine the vastness of our universe. All that is visible to us through our gigantic telescopes is unimaginable to our minds. Yet, all that is visible to us makes up a tiny slice of our universe – just 4 percent. The remaining is made up of dark energy and dark matter. Today, we focus on the illusive dark matter which constitutes around 23 percent of our universe. How did we discover matter we cannot see? How is dark matter different to ‘normal’ matter? Most importantly, what is dark matter? I’ll give you a hint for the last one. We don’t really know yet. Let’s forget you read that last sentence and quickly move on.

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.

person listening to music and having nostalgic feelings about her and her friend having a good time together.

Oh My God, I Know That Song!

You’re at a party. It’s pretty relaxed, people are chatting and you’re sitting in the living room with a friend. All of a sudden, “Last Friday Night” booms through the speakers. In a second, everyone is on the dance floor. “Yeah, we danced on tabletops, and we took too many shots / Think we kissed but I forgot / Last Friday night” Throwback after throwback plays, and by the end of the night your throat hurts from singing and you’re giddy from laughing with your friends. But what makes just one song capable of completely shifting the mood of so many people for an entire night? That’s a great question — it all has to do with the effect of nostalgia!

A pterodactyl, bird, bat, bee, and a butterfly are colourfully illustrated mid-flight. The background is entirely grey, and shows a tree and flowers in front of clouds.

Taking Flight: Aviators in the Animal Kingdom

Pterosaurs, birds, bats, and insects were the first to evolve the ability to fly, and in modern times, insects, birds, and bats are capable of true flight. So how exactly did this nearly 400 million year old process first start?

Illustration of Dr. Maydianne Andrade surrounded by dark background with spiderwebs.

Dr. Maydianne Andrade

Black widow spiders are a group of venomous spider species. Their venom contains a dangerous neurotoxin called latrotoxin that, while not fatal, can cause pain, cramps and vomiting in humans. While most of us would be nervous about working with these spiders, Dr. Andrade has been studying them since she obtained her Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

C for Climate — 2021 Science Literacy Week

For Science Literacy Week, we collaborated with the U of T Gerstein Science Information Centre to illustrate all things climate change-related in Canada.

Illustration of a lit light bulb. Inside it are houses powered by a wind turbine and solar panels

The Net-Zero Energy House

Plenty of heat comes from inside a house: people and pets generate body heat, and appliances like the oven can warm a whole room!

Five science-communicators, where four of five are women.

Gender Imbalance in SciComm (Op-ed)

In this op-ed, we take a look at gender imbalance in our club and what this might mean in the greater context of the science communication field.