Visitors pepper the length of Utah Beach in Normandy, France, some pausing to take photos, others simply staring out across the English Channel. One passerby in a bright orange windbreaker stops to scoop a handful of sand into a plastic bag and tucks it into his satchel. “Dad always wanted to come back. He just … 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
Tech giant Google has announced upgrades to its artificial intelligence technologies, just a day after rival OpenAI announced similar changes to its offerings, with both companies trying to dominate the quickly emerging market where human beings can ask questions of computer systems — and get answers in the style of a human response. It’s part of … Read more
The Current23:09What dying people see in their dreams As Charlotte Good was dying of pancreatic cancer in a Toronto hospital in 2007, she experienced a dream or vision of her own mother — who had died years before. Charlotte’s daughter, Cynthia Good, was staying over that night and sensed that she’d sat up. “I got … Read more
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and Jay Baruchel feels fine. On the second season of his Crave series We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel), which launched last week, the host and namesake explores several possible apocalyptic scenarios, from insect extinction to a world ruled by artificial intelligence. “I think we are all understandably … Read more
The housing market could soon get “interesting,” economists say, as home prices and sales start to edge up, according to a pair of new reports released Friday. In its latest quarterly Home Price Update and Market Forecast, Royal LePage is forecasting that the aggregate price of a home in Canada will increase nine per cent in the fourth … Read more
Eleanor Catton is among the five North American authors shortlisted for the second iteration of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. The $150,000 USD ($203,971.50 Cdn) prize recognizes the best fiction book by a woman or non-binary writer from the U.S. and Canada. It is presently the largest international literary prize for women writers. Each of the four remaining finalists will … Read more
The natural world is full of gender diversity: female hyenas have pseudo penises used for sex and urination, many species of fish and plants change their sex over their lifespan, and female lions have been known to grow manes and develop a masculine growl. Those are among many examples in a new episode of CBC’s The Nature … Read more
Canada’s record-setting wildfire season hiked the country up global pollution rankings — and for the first time made its air quality worse than the U.S., according to a new report by air quality technology company IQAir. “In previous years, Canada had the cleanest air quality in all of North America,” said Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of … Read more
An elementary school initiative that explores math concepts while incorporating Indigenous practices is making its way into classrooms across Canada. The Métis-math collaboration is part of a larger collection spearheaded by mathematics education researcher Ruth Beatty of Lakehead University in 2012. It’s called First Nations and Métis Math Voices. “One of the main reasons we started … Read more
