Science + Tech – Views & Research

OpenAI’s newly launched Sora 2 makes AI’s environmental impact impossible to ignore

Robert Diab, Thompson Rivers University

a couple in bed on their phones facing away from each other

Smartphones manipulate our emotions and trigger our reflexes — no wonder we’re addicted

Stephen Monteiro, Concordia University

Two men sitting and one standing at a table in front of a screen with the headshots of the three Nobel Prize winners in chemistry in 2025 behind them. On the table sits a geometric model of a molecule.

Metal-organic frameworks: Nobel-winning tiny ‘sponge crystals’ with an astonishing amount of inner space

Stavroula Alina Kampouri, Rice University

An Australian chemist just won the Nobel prize. Here’s how his work is changing the world

Deanna D'Alessandro, University of Sydney

An older gentleman with glasses gives a talk in a lecture theatre.

Nobel chemistry prize awarded for crystal materials that could revolutionise green technology

John Griffin, Lancaster University

Three men sat at a desk in front of screen with images of three other men.

Nobel Prize in physics awarded for ultracold electronics research that launched a quantum technology

Eli Levenson-Falk, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

two planes, one above the other, containing sets of interconnected rectangles of various sizes

Nobel physics prize awarded for pioneering experiments that paved the way for quantum computers

Rob Morris, Nottingham Trent University

a young man watches a tablet showing YouTube with a computer screen in the background

YouTube shapes young people’s political education, but the site simplifies complex issues

Emine Fidan Elcioglu, University of Toronto

a teen boy using a laptop while sitting on a couch

More than a quarter of Canadian teens have experienced sexual violence online

Charlotte Nau, Western University; Christopher Dietzel, Concordia University, and Estefanía Reyes, Western University

Politically aggressive social media users are creating most of the anti-immigrant content

Nicholas A. R. Fraser, Toronto Metropolitan University

A background of pink social media thumbs-down.

The warning signs are clear: We’re heading toward a digital crisis

Dean Curran, University of Calgary

The American TikTok deal doesn’t address the platform’s potential for manipulation, only who profits

Andrew Buzzell, Western University

A man holds up a signed document, another man in a suit looks on, and there's an American flag in the background

Generative AI might end up being worthless — and that could be a good thing

Fenwick McKelvey, Concordia University

An AI-generated character smiles in an AI-generated image of an awards ceremony.

What AI-generated Tilly Norwood reveals about digital culture, ethics and the responsibilities of creators

Ramona Pringle, Toronto Metropolitan University

Gen Z protests brought about change in Nepal via the powers — and perils — of social media

Luna KC, University of Northern British Columbia

Three bare-chested young men on top of a building with their fists raised as smoke billows behind them.

How researchers are making precision agriculture more affordable

Samuel Mugo, MacEwan University and Mohammed Elmorsy, MacEwan University

‘AI actor’ Tilly Norwood is dividing Hollywood – but real acting requires humanity

Nicholas Scrivens, University of Surrey

An AI woman dressed in medieval clothes lit by candlelight

Real science from real scientists

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Reluctance to reach out to old friends is a common experience, but reconnecting can pay off

Kristina K. Castaneto, Simon Fraser University and Lara B Aknin, Simon Fraser University

AI and credit: How can we keep machines from reproducing social biases?

Norrin Halilem, Université Laval

Bill C-4 privacy enhancements are modest and fail to regulate politicians’ use of social bots

Sophia Melanson Ricciardone, McMaster University

A rendering of two robots in front of their computers.

When robots are integrated into household spaces and rituals, they acquire emotional value

Zhao Zhao, University of Guelph

a person looks at rows of small white robots placed on yellow shelves

The Earth

Our understanding of lightning has been driven by fear and shaped by curiosity

Peter Watson, Carleton University

White mold fungi split their genome across several nuclei, with implications for future gene editing

Xin Li, University of British Columbia; Edan Jackson, University of British Columbia, and Josh Li, University of British Columbia

Managing soil fertilization levels can make for more efficient and productive crops

JT Cornelis, University of British Columbia

a person's hand holding a plant pulled out from the ground

Gene-edited pigs may soon enter the Canadian market, but questions about their impact remain

Gwendolyn Blue, University of Calgary

Fossils are scientific evidence, and shouldn’t be auctioned for millions to private buyers

Jessica M. Theodor, University of Calgary; Kenshu Shimada, DePaul University; Kristi Curry Rogers, Macalester College, and Stuart Sumida, California State University, San Bernardino

a large skeleton of a dinosaur displayed in a museum

I’m a physicist who studies fossils, and I recently discovered preserved blood vessels in the world’s largest T. rex

Jerit Leo Mitchell, University of Regina

Size matters, but so does beauty and vigour — at least when it comes to peacocks

Rama Shankar Singh, McMaster University

a peacock with his tail feathers fanned out

We drilled deep under the sea to learn more about mega-earthquakes and tsunamis

Morgane Brunet, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)

It’s challenging to predict extreme thunderstorms — improving this will help reduce their deadly and costly impacts

David Sills, Western University and Gregory Kopp, Western University

Cubic zirconia only forms under extreme temperatures, like those produced when an asteroid impacts Earth

Neeraja Chinchalkar, Western University; Gordon Osinski, Western University, and Timmons Erickson, Curtin University

a satellite image showing two circles next to each other

Space

white abstract figures repeated in a pattern on a black background

Space-time doesn’t exist — but it’s a useful framework for understanding our reality

Daryl Janzen, University of Saskatchewan

silhouette of a human figure against a background of swirling lights

What, exactly, is space-time?

Daryl Janzen, University of Saskatchewan

Information collected by the world’s largest radio telescope will be stored and processed by global data centres

Simon Blouin, University of Victoria; Falk Herwig, University of Victoria; JJ Kavelaars, National Research Council Canada; University of Victoria, and Sébastien Fabbro, University of Victoria

rows of white hexagonal satellite dishes

10 years ago, gravitational waves changed astronomy. A new discovery shows there’s more to come

Simon Stevenson, Swinburne University of Technology

Drawings of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking in a collage with a black hole artwork.

A total eclipse of the Moon, Saturn’s rings ‘disappear’, meteors and more: your guide to the southern sky in 2025

Nick Lomb, University of Southern Queensland

Move over Mercury – Chiron is in retrograde. What even is Chiron?

Laura Nicole Driessen, University of Sydney

Image showing a comet-like object with a tail against a background of stars.

New age-gating laws aimed at making the internet safer actually threaten free speech

Neil McArthur, University of Manitoba

Smart textiles may soon be able to control devices or monitor health

Sara Nabil, Queen's University, Ontario

I’m a statistics professor who became embroiled in the world of online chess drama

Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, University of Toronto

a chessboard with the black king and queen standing surrounded by fallen white chesspieces

Censoring video games with sexual content suppresses the diversity of human desire

Jean Ketterling, University of Saskatchewan; Ashley ML Guajardo, New York University; Carl Therrien, Université de Montréal, and Kenzie Gordon, University of Alberta

close up of a keyboard with purple backlighting

‘Stop Killing Games’: Demands for game ownership must also include workers’ rights

Louis-Etienne Dubois, Toronto Metropolitan University and Miikka J. Lehtonen, Rikkyo University

A young man sits at a desk playing a video game on a desktop computer. He is wearing headphones

Québec’s school cellphone ban won’t solve the challenges of family tech use

Alex Baudet, Université Laval and Marie-Agnes Parmentier, HEC Montréal

Three girls at school are huddled together on stairs looking at two cellphones.

Online reviews influence what we buy, but should they have that much power over our choices?

Katie Mehr, University of Alberta

a miniature shopping cart and packages posed on a computer keyboard

a young girl covers her eyes against a black background

Child eyewitnesses can be unreliable, but new techniques can support them

Shaelyn Carr, University of Regina and Kaila C. Bruer, University of Regina

Expressing gratitude isn’t necessary, but a little appreciation may still go a long way

Lara B Aknin, Simon Fraser University; Anurada Amarasekera, Toronto Metropolitan University; Kristina K. Castaneto, Simon Fraser University, and Tiara A Cash, Simon Fraser University

a hand holding a handwritten thank you note

Biology is complex and diverse, so scientific research approaches need to be too

Thomas Merritt, Laurentian University and Allie Hutchings, Laurentian University

two scientists — a Black woman and a white man — in lab coats looking into microscopes

Is your diet influencing your dreams? Here’s what our research says about food and nightmares

Jade Radke, University of British Columbia; Claudia Picard-Deland, Université de Montréal; Russell Arnold Powell, MacEwan University, and Tore Nielsen, Université de Montréal

Improving human beings to make them perform better: Why is transhumanism so harmful?

Nicolas Le Dévédec, HEC Montréal

AI-generated misinformation can create confusion and hinder responses during emergencies

Ali Asgary, York University, Canada and Maleknaz Nayebi, York University, Canada

Social media is teaching children how to use AI. How can teachers keep up?

Johanathan Woodworth, Mount Saint Vincent University

a screen showing an image reading "SchoolAI"

The rise of humanlike chatbots detracts from developing AI for the human good

Mark Daley, Western University and Carson Johnston, Western University

Teachers are key to students’ AI literacy, and need support

Sue Mylde, University of Calgary and Barbara Brown, University of Calgary

Varied tech icons seen on a screen including one that says AI brainstormer.

More people are considering AI lovers, and we shouldn’t judge