Biology

Everyday evolution: insects and plants

Author: 
Lanna Crucefix
Picture: 
photo of Marc Johnson

Take a good look around on your next nature hike. Not only are you experiencing the wonders of the outdoors – you’re probably also witnessing evolution in action.

New research from the University of Toronto Mississauga on the effect of insects on plant populations has shown that evolution can happen more quickly than was previously assumed, even over a single generation. The study appears in the Oct. 5 issue of Science.

Posted Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Using computer models to help our fragile ecosystem

Sub-title: 
From the northern boreal regions to the southern tropics
Author: 
Dana Yates
Picture: 
photo of Benjamin Gilbert with leaf

Global warming is well-known for its effect on the climate. But it also poses a threat to the world’s ecosystems. University of Toronto researcher Benjamin Gilbert wants to know more about that process.

Posted Monday, September 24, 2012

Inventors of the Year

Author: 
Paul Fraumeni

Their inventions range across a broad spectrum of necessity – from growing blood stem cells to creating a new class of drug molecules or developing software that allows children of all abilities to experience the joy of music.

They are U of T’s Inventors of the Year.

Posted Monday, June 11, 2012

Too warm, too early: the peril of summer in spring

Sub-title: 
Plants and trees may struggle, biologist warns
Author: 
Paul Fraumeni
Picture: 
Photo of forsythia

Research Communications Director Paul Fraumeni talks with acclaimed plant biologist (and U of T Scarborough’s vice-principal, research) Professor Malcolm Campbell about the dangers of weather that lets us wear shorts in March but threatens the healthy growth of plants and trees – and the entire ecosystem.

We’ve just experienced one of the warmest winters and early springs in Southern Ontario history. How has this affected our natural world?

Posted Wednesday, April 4, 2012

U of T works with alumnus to develop genetic plant technology

Sub-title: 
Building better crops and fairer deal for farmers
Author: 
Paul Fraumeni
Picture: 
Photo of cotton field

Growing crops is essential to virtually every nation on the planet.

Crop farming enables food to be produced and it creates and sustains jobs for farmers and numerous related sectors of the economy.

Posted Sunday, April 1, 2012

Human’s oldest ancestor found in Burgess Shale

Sub-title: 
Pikaia is most primitive vertebrate known
Author: 
Kim Luke
Picture: 
Pikaia Graciens

Researchers from the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the University of Cambridge have confirmed that a 505 million-year-old creature, found only in the Burgess Shale fossil beds in Canada’s Yoho National Park, is the most primitive known vertebrate and therefore the ancestor of all descendant vertebrates, including humans.

Posted Monday, March 5, 2012

University of Toronto/Royal Ontario Museum scientists discover unusual 'tulip' creature

Sub-title: 
Lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago
Author: 
Kim Luke
Picture: 
Reconstruction of Siphusauctum gregarium

A bizarre creature that lived in the ocean more than 500-million years ago has emerged from the famous Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies.

Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, fossils reveal a tulip-shaped creature that is about the length of a dinner knife (approximately 20 centimetres) and has a unique filter feeding system.

Posted Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Insects scared to death of fish

Sub-title: 
University of Toronto biologists find higher mortality among dragonflies exposed to undue stress
Author: 
Sean Bettam
Picture: 
Dragonfly

The mere presence of a predator causes enough stress to kill a dragonfly, even when the predator cannot actually get at its prey to eat it, say biologists at the University of Toronto.

Posted Thursday, October 27, 2011

Living among the chimpanzees

Sub-title: 
Primatology has taken UTSC's Westoll in unexpected directions
Picture: 
Book cover for The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary

UTSC staff writer Andrew Westoll’s latest book, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, explores the fraught relationship between two great apes: humans and chimpanzees. This exploration occurs in the context of Westoll’s personal account of the time he spent at Fauna Sanctuary in Quebec—a refuge for chimpanzees who had previously been used in research or in the entertainment industry, or had otherwise been raised and then rejected by humans.

Posted Thursday, October 20, 2011
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