Inside a bustling unit at St. Michael’s Hospital in downtown Toronto, one of Shirley Bell’s patients was suffering from a cat bite and a fever, but otherwise appeared fine — until an alert from an AI-based early warning system showed he was sicker than he seemed. While the nursing team usually checked blood work around noon, … Read more
As It Happens6:19What bad karaoke tells us about the science of blushing When researchers set out to learn what happens to our brains when we blush, they faced a conundrum — how could they sufficiently humiliate their study’s subjects as they lay alone in a dark MRI machine? “We were thinking, well, what can we … Read more
As It Happens6:21A brain implant reduced this boy’s epilepsy seizures by 80%. And he charges it with his headphones Before he got his new brain implant, 13-year-old Oran Knowlson’s whole life revolved around his seizures. The British boy has a rare, medicine-resistant form of epilepsy that caused him to have hundreds of seizures a day, … Read more
Tick experts are warning Canadians to be on the lookout for symptoms of a tick-borne disease whose case counts have been steadily increasing over the past 15 years. Anaplasmosis is an infection contracted by humans and animals caused by the Anaplasma phagocytophilum bacteria and spread by ticks. In the early 2000s, provinces and territories began reporting a handful … Read more
Tick experts are warning Canadians to be on the lookout for symptoms of a tick-borne disease whose case counts have been steadily increasing over the past 15 years. Anaplasmosis is an infection contracted by humans and animals caused by the Anaplasma phagocytophilum bacteria and spread by ticks. In the early 2000s, provinces and territories began reporting a handful … Read more
A diet promoting plant-based protein to help the environment now has a more human argument: It may lower your risk of dying from several major diseases. “It wasn’t just one cause of death. It was right across the board,” said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public … Read more
It all started with a few text messages in late April. Several well-known Canadian scientists — Toronto-based infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch, Saskatoon-based virologist Angela Rasmussen and Winnipeg-based microbiologist Jason Kindrachuk — were all chatting about the unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in U.S. dairy cows. By then, American officials had tracked cow cases … Read more
Cost of Living76:40:00The Great Exhaustion For years, Sabrina Royal worked with one of Canada’s big banks. She worked her way up from an entry-level job to a management position. But that’s when her hours started getting out of hand. “When it was good, I was working 8 a.m. to about 6:30 p.m.,” Royal, 42, told … Read more
Canada’s recruitment of international students has tilted strongly toward filling spots in business programs, while doing little to meet the demand for workers in health care and the skilled trades, according to a CBC News analysis of federal data. CBC obtained figures from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) showing the fields of education chosen … Read more
The Current23:55Retraining the brain to silence tinnitus For nearly 40 years, Ken Jones has heard a very loud hissing in his ears. “It sounds like [an] electrical power line,” he told The Current‘s Matt Galloway. “Mine is at about 92 dB on the decibel scale” — as loud as hairdryers and power tools. The sound … Read more
