Evidence suggests laser-based fusion energy could actually be a viable
A beam of protons painlessly penetrates human tissue until it terminates inside a cancer tumour, where each particle deposits a micro-explosion of radiation energy. The beam is precisely calibrated, targeting only the tumour and leaving surrounding tissue unharmed. Called “proton therapy,” this revolutionary medical treatment is just one application of a relatively new technology using…
Hormones alone are not enough to explain the difference
Female astronauts could avoid knee injuries during space flight – and better tests, prevention and treatments could be developed for knee osteoarthritis in women on Earth – based on newly published research on the sex differences in knee meniscus tissue. Knee osteoarthritis is more common in females than in males, but hormones alone are not…
The most complex scientific spacecraft ever built reaches its destination a million miles away
As the James Webb Space Telescope reaches its destination, a million miles from Earth, University of Alberta space historian Robert Smith will be watching almost as closely as scientists in NASA’s control room. Smith has staked his career on documenting every phase of the Webb and Hubble telescopes over the past four decades and is recognized as the on-the-scene historian…
Speeds up search to observe collisions in first hours when scientists can learn most
University of Alberta physicists have created a new, simpler way to model collisions between neutron stars. The model will enable scientists to predict the brightness of early neutron star mergers more reliably than before – allowing telescopes to gain more information from these events. “Studying the light and electromagnetic waves emitted from these collisions allows…
Kirtan Dhunnoo credits the scholarship for giving him incredible experiences and job-ready skills
Even as a student at Edmonton’s Strathcona High School back in 2014, Kirtan Dhunnoo had a keen understanding of the potential for leadership in each of us. “Not only are there leaders by labels, but there are leaders by virtue of their widely different personalities,” he wrote in his application for a Schulich Leader Scholarship.…
Device built by U of A team could help researchers learn how osteoarthritis develops
Members of a University of Alberta student club are walking on air after testing samples of bioengineered knee cartilage in a reduced-gravity experiment competition. Amira Aissiou and Kirtan Dhunnoo of the University of Alberta Space Design Group strapped themselves in and went for a wild ride in the Canadian Space Agency’s Falcon 20 parabolic aircraft to get a…
The observers of these phenomena are sober professionals who seek to understand what it is that has been detected and recorded
The venerable television program 60 Minutes aired a segment recently focused on a topic that has been examined before, but not with the same widespread receptivity and credibility. It had to do with UAPs. And the Pentagon, directed by the United States Congress, recently released its file on UAPs, or unidentified aerial phenomena. These sightings…
U of A scientists use fireball monitoring network to capture images of the meteor that lit up the skies over Western Canada
Western Canadians caught a glimpse of a bright flash overhead this week as a fireball lit up the sky on the morning of Feb. 22. Now, University of Alberta researchers have used Western Canada’s most advanced fireball network to capture images and trajectory of the fireball – revealing it to be a small piece of…
A pressure-packed recovery mission in the harshness of space featuring the ingenuity of the University of Alberta’s satellite team and a race against time played out high above Edmonton on Jan. 19, sending notice that the future of Canada’s designs on exploration of space is in good hands. The saga began in November as DESCENT,…
U of A physicists discover surprising new findings about how our planet’s magnetic field controls space weather as it shields us from solar wind
University of Alberta physicists have discovered a surprising imbalance in how the Earth responds to space weather driven by the sun. Energy generated as the electrically charged particles in solar wind hit the Earth result in more electromagnetic energy heading towards the magnetic north pole than to the magnetic south pole. The sun bathes our…