Nivretta Thatra

Mikelberg, a UBC professor, found his skepticism piqued by a 2012 study associating erectile dysfunction with glaucoma. Now he's shown that patients with glaucoma are 2.58 times more likely to also have ED.

At Vancouver’s annual Interior Design Show, UBC PhD student Felix Böck stood in front of a slab of 100,000 chopsticks, which weighed 450 kilograms. It is a conservative estimate for how many chopsticks the Vancouver metro area discards daily.

You’re an early-career scientist — a UBC undergraduate sitting in HEBB 100 or a graduate student thrown into an unfamiliar field — and your state of perpetual confusion stands in sharp contrast to your competent, confident mentors.

Early on, Gardy used her interests to guide her. She naturally found herself engaging in sci-fi as a young adult, reading books like The Coming Plague or The Hot Zone in her spare time, which helped to inspire her Bachelor’s degree in microbiology.

For some, politics is something people either choose to engage with or not. For others, engaging in politics is not a choice but a necessity. Jessica Wang, a science historian at UBC, is happy to be the latter.

Sci-fi readers will know the feeling of reading a book written decades ago that reads like a premonition of our current lives. Thinking about the societal effects of technological innovations can be fun. For Illes, it's a job.

Dr. Warren Code, the acting director for the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) at UBC, works with faculty and students to research and implement curriculum, teaching methodology and if students are actually meeting course objectives.

I am weary and wary of grand scientific agendas. Promises of curing neurodegenerative diseases, abating international poverty or engineering a completely disaster-proof building make me squirm with skepticism.

“I would love it if everyone out there who is voting had some background in evaluating evidence,” said Sara Harris, professor of teaching at UBC, paleo-oceanographer and co-author of Understanding Climate Change: Science, Policy, and Practice.

Need inspiration? Heed the advice of Dr. Stravos Avramidis, the head of wood science. “You cannot lock yourself in a room — talk to your colleagues. Talk to whoever uses what are you are doing. That’s the only way to get ideas,” he said.

UBC is a diverse community — we are multinational, many-gendered and religiously varied. Sometimes we honour our differences and sometimes we fall short of doing so. Whether we want to be or not, we are all shaped by our shared environment.

The scientific community often operates under the assumption that it is destined to succeed simply because it is committed in principle to noble aims. But noble aims mean nothing if scientists do not perform the actions to support them.

Scientists around the world have been late to lab meetings, classes and social events because we’re reacting with horror to Trump’s first six weeks. Crucially, we should all remember that a shocked reaction is the first step towards resistance.

Peak flu season is supposedly waning, but your voice is scratchy, your back hurts and your nose is runny. Are your symptoms related? Where should you go for help? What practices are safe and regulated?

A few years ago, researchers at Tsinghua University in Beijing approached UBC SPPH researcher Dr. Michael Brauer with a proposal for a massive study linking global air pollution and international trade.