UNews - scientist

5 Questions with Dr. Claudia Gonzalez

trevor.kenney — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:36:24 +0000

Dr. Claudia Gonzalez (MSc '00, PhD '04) is a Canada Research Chair in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Born and raised in Mexico, she earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the National Autonomous ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Mexico before continuing her education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where she earned both her master's and PhD degrees in neuroscience. She has taught and researched at the U of L since August 2009, and is funded by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

Ever since I can remember, I was interested in science. I was, and still am, fascinated by animal behaviour, particularly human. In middle school, I remember spending hours simply watching people. Later on it became a habit to observe people's actions and to wonder what led those people to act in a certain way. I decided to take psychology in university and it became clear that if I wanted to understand behaviour I had to first understand the brain. I pursued a career in neuroscience and I continue to be baffled by how the brain – a mere three pounds of mush – determines the complexity of our thoughts and actions. My research looks at multi-sensory integration like eye-hand coordination and sensory and cognitive interactions such as visuospatial abilities.

Dr. Claudia Gonzalez looks to unlock the mysteries of how the brain controls movement.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

I often tell my students that I do science for the love of science. My research is motivated by the big question of how the brain works to produce behaviour. In the lab we ask questions such as how does the brain compute the location, size and orientation of an object so that every morning you can pick up your cup of coffee with remarkable ease. We use cutting-edge technology that allows us to break down a hand or an eye movement into hundreds of components so that we can take a really good look at how it is executed. In addition, we look at how these visuomotor interactions are modulated or affected by cognitive functions such as attention and spatial abilities. We are starting to conduct research in neurological populations (i.e.: stroke patients) hoping to gain some further insight into the neural mechanisms underlying visuomotor and visuospatial functions. At the end of the day we hope to understand how the brain integrates sensory, motor and cognitive information. With this knowledge we can begin to develop strategies that translate into better outcomes for patients suffering from neurological conditions.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

I guess that was when I overheard one of my supervisors say: "she will do fine" when discussing my future in science. Really, as a scientist I am very proud when my work is published, cited or funded. Also, it is always a pleasure and an honour to receive inquires from students who want to know about the work that I do and whether they can volunteer or work in my lab.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Students are the heart and soul of my research program. Students' curiosity and excitement about learning and discovery is the best motivating force in the lab. Students don't only carry out the experiments but they help in the design and interpretation of them. It is often in the latter that students' contributions are invaluable; they bring a fresh and unbiased perspective to science and research.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

Two: Early education and translation. "Scientia potentia est" which commonly translates from the Latin as "knowledge is power". So I would invest in teaching children from an early age about their brain and how to take care of it. I think that if children learned some general principles of brain function early in their life, they would be less likely to engage in activities that would endanger their brains such as drug use, or checking from behind in a hockey game.

With respect to translation, I recently spoke to a medical doctor from a different country who told me that she goes to international conferences and brings back with her what she has learned to apply it directly into her patient population. Her story got me thinking that perhaps we don't do enough of that. As a basic scientist I would like to see that more of our findings could be put into practice, which is ultimately where it matters most.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the November 2012 issue of the Legend. To view the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Dr. Zen makes his pitch

trevor.kenney — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 21:10:20 +0000

He's got a cool name, a quirky video, is plugged into social media and is looking for your support. It might not sound like a pitch for a scientific study but
Dr. Zen Faulkes (BSc '89) is like any other researcher – he's just found a new way to grab your attention.

Faulkes, an associate professor of biology at The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Texas-Pan American, has just concluded his second SciFund Challenge fundraising project through the crowd-funding site rockethub.com. On each occasion, Faulkes earned enough donated cash to fund his projects, which involve the behavioural characteristics of crayfish and sand crabs.

"It's a concept that every charity has been using for years," says Faulkes, whose interest in aquatic species was cultivated at the U of L by Dr. Jennifer Mather (psychology). "It's pretty simple, get everybody to kick in a small amount of cash and then pool the money for a common aid."

It's a model that has been adopted with great success by artists, and one that science is just beginning to test.

"It is an ideological change in that there has been some resistance to self promotion to people outside of your professional community," says Faulkes of the public pitch concept. "It's not a change in that pretty much every scientist is going to tell you the importance of self promotion, networking and getting your work out there. The only difference is a slight shift in target."

Dr. Zen Faulkes with one of his Amazon Crayfish.

Faulkes uses an Indiana Jones-themed video in one of his pitches (Doctor Zen and the Amazon Crayfish Civilization) and admits it is offbeat.

"It's goofy, quite intentionally so, but that's just me and I'm not pretending that my approach is going to be the right approach for everyone," he says, adding that people don't necessarily have to understand your science to fund it, rather they might just follow it because it's cool.

"That's something I think we have undervalued in the past. People will support stuff just because they think it's cool," he says. "I think that has been highly underestimated, the willingness of people to support things just because."

Originally from Lethbridge, Faulkes moved around a lot as a kid before eventually returning to take his undergraduate studies at the U of L. He credits Mather for setting him on his career path, when he simply expressed an interest in the pending arrival of some octopuses for one of her studies.

"I was just talking to her about class and she mentioned she was getting some octopuses in and I made the mistake of saying, "That sounds interesting", and suddenly the door closed behind me and before I knew what was going on, she had recruited me," he laughs.

She later nominated Faulkes for a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) grant and he was on his way. That opportunity to participate in research as an undergraduate student would shape his studies years later.

"I'm in a university that has, in some ways, a similar kind of mindset to the
U of L," says Faulkes. "It has graduate studies but is still mostly an undergraduate institution, and people wondered how I could conduct studies without doctoral students at my disposal. I told them I came from a place where you can work with undergraduate students and have a research career and you can do research that's the equal of any place in the world. That's one of the things I learned from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge."

Faulkes will head to Florida in November to conduct his research funded by the SciFund Challenge. His website at doctorzen.net details his studies, while his SciFund projects can be viewed at www.rockethub.com.

This story first appeared in the June 2012 issue of the Legend. For a look at the entire issue in flipbook format, follow this link.

Mather receives Ingrid Speaker Medal

trevor.kenney — Wed, 18 May 2011 22:00:07 +0000

This year's winner of The Ingrid Speaker Medal is helping science understand the cognition and behaviour of octopuses and other cephalapods.

A world-renowned authority on octopus and squid behaviour, Dr. Jennifer Mather has been profiled in publications like the New York Times and Discover magazine, spoken at the prestigious TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference, and conducted research around the world.

Dr. Jennifer Mather is a world-renowned authority on octopuses.

It's these achievements – and many others – that led to Mather's most recent accolade: The Ingrid Speaker Medal for Distinguished Research, Scholarship or Performance.

For almost three decades, the psychology professor and one-time CAETL Teaching Fellow, has taught thousands of undergraduates at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge everything from child development to the psychology of aging, while maintaining a rigorous research program defined by international collaboration and jet-setting to tropical locales. And, at 67, Mather's still as busy as ever.

"I'm probably trying to model what I teach, which is that we have a full lifespan, thank you, and we should use it," she says.

As one of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's most accomplished and longest serving faculty members, Mather is an intuitive choice for the prestigious Ingrid Speaker Medal. But the idea of an international expert on squids and octopuses residing at a land-locked university in southern Alberta's dusty prairies is unintuitive, to say the least.

Mather's fascination with cephalopods – a category of boneless marine creatures which includes octupuses, squids and cuttle fish – began long before she set foot in Lethbridge. Growing up in Victoria, B.C., she spent a lot of time at the ocean shore, investigating the critters that dwelled in the water and sand.

As a child, she was certain she'd study marine life in some capacity, but wasn't sure how. Finally, in the last year of an undergraduate biology degree at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia, Mather took an animal behaviour class that clarified her path.

"Bingo. I said, 'Okay. This is what I want to do.' "

After completing a biology master's degree in octopus behaviour at Florida State ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, she went on to begin a PhD in psychology at Brandeis ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in Massachusetts. Upon completion of post-doctoral research at Brandeis in 1978, Mather and her husband looked to return to Canada with their two children. In 1980 she took up a prestigious ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Research Fellowship at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of western Ontario, then spotted a tenure-track position at the U of L five years later and took the leap.

Lethbridge is nowhere near the natural habitats of cephalopods, but it's never been an impediment to Mather. She conducts field work related to squid displays (for instance, how they use their skin colour or tentacle movement to communicate) at the Caribbean island of Bonaire. At the Seattle Aquarium, she collaborates with Roland Anderson to study octopus cognition.

While many of us know octopuses mainly as odd, unique sea creatures, they're a far more intelligent and creative species than given credit. Researchers first realized the octopus's ability to solve problems in the 1960s, but the matter wasn't explored in breadth until the last couple of decades. In the course of her career, Mather has helped prove that octopuses have different personalities, can solve problems (like opening jars to eat food inside) and play.

While Mather is best known for her work on cephalopods, her research is broader: she's also explored how motor control problems can indicate brain dysfunction (like schizophrenia), care issues related to Alzheimer's disease, and successful university teaching. She's also recently co-authored a book about octopuses for the general public, entitled Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate.

"I have my fingers in a lot of pies," she admits. "I think it came about by accident, but I'm glad it did. I didn't want to be the kind of researcher to sit in a lab and do nothing else. I also think, as a scientist, I have an obligation to help people understand these animals."

This story first appeared in the Legend. For a look at the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Measuring the odds

trevor.kenney — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:31:26 +0000

Greg Christie (BFA '05) knows his way around graphic-design programs. It just so happens he also knows his way around neuroscience research labs. While on paper his polar interests seem an unlikely pair, in practice Christie's love of art and science melds perfectly in his research that uses neuroimaging to study addictive behaviours.

After attending high school in Cochrane, Alta., Christie enrolled in the engineering program at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. It didn't take him long to realize he didn't want to be an engineer, so Christie transferred to the U of L to explore the artistic side of his science-inclined personality.

"I really liked computers and computer graphics, so I thought I would combine the technical with the artistic and study computer arts," Christie recalls.

Christie graduated with a BFA in computer arts in 2005 and worked as a professional graphic artist for two years before the lure of the science lab drew him back.

"I discovered that art is something I love to do as hobby, not a livelihood," Christie says. "I'm a scientist at heart. I knew the neuroscience program at the U of L was exceptional, and I loved my time here, so it was an easy decision to go back."

As a master's student in the neuroscience program at the U of L, Christie has been studying brain dynamics related to feedback processing. He conducts tests on subjects to see how their brains react during gaming activity, watching the electrical responses to both positive and negative feedback – what happens when people win, and when they lose. So far, Christie's research has focused on people who don't have any issues with gaming. Now, with a good understanding of the brain dynamics of that group under his belt, Christie feels the time is right to turn his focus to a group of people that epitomizes the study – compulsive gamblers.

Interestingly, compulsive gambling hasn't been unanimously accepted as a form of addiction in the scientific community. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (published by the American Psychiatric Association) lists pathological gambling under the category of impulse control. While the manual alludes to the fact that compulsive gamblers have other addictive tendencies, it does not label gambling itself as an outright addiction. Christie isn't comfortable with the sidestepping. He's out to show, one way or the other, if compulsive gamblers are afflicted with a problem beyond their control, and hopefully change public opinion about addiction in the process.

"There is a notion that willpower can overcome anything, that addiction is something people should be able to handle," Christie says. "We glorify stories of people who quit something 'cold turkey.' The reality of addiction is much more complicated than that. We don't really understand or legitimize addiction, particularly with compulsive gambling, because it hasn't been studied much. If we don't understand it, we can't really treat it."

Since returning to his scientific roots and to the U of L, Christie has dedicated his time and investigative talents to finding out why some people know when enough is enough, while others don't. Christie knows what should be going on in the brain during gaming; what he wants to find out is why it doesn't happen in certain individuals. Ask him why the research is important, and Christie doesn't hesitate in his response.

"I remember one day when a participant came into the lab," Christie recalls. "When I asked her if it would be OK to participate in a gambling experiment, she was contemplative for a minute and then agreed, saying that someone in her family was an addictive gambler. She obviously had great contempt for gambling, but agreed to participate in the study in the hope that it might help to find a solution to a problem that had greatly affected her. Compulsive gambling isn't just a problem for the gambler, it's a problem for their family and friends, too."

While Christie's research is geared specifically toward gaming, he sees the applications of his findings having much greater reach.

"We all receive dozens of positive and negative feedback messages every day," Christie says. "If you look at how you discipline your children, for example, some methods work and others don't. If you continue to use a method that doesn't show good results, you have to wonder why you go back to it."

The next phase of Christie's research took place throughout the spring 2010 semester. Findings are expected to be published in NeuroImage, a journal available on the U of L campus.

To view the entire issue of SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Gambling on education

trevor.kenney — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:25:06 +0000

Greg Christie (BFA '05) knows his way around graphic design programs. It just so happens he also knows his away around neuroscience research labs. While on paper his polar interests seem like an unlikely pair, in practice Christie's love of art and science melds perfectly in his research that uses neuroimaging to study addictive behaviours.

After attending high school in Cochrane, Christie enrolled in the engineering program at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. It didn't take him long to realize he didn't want to be an engineer, so Christie transferred to the U of L to explore the artistic side of his science-inclined personality.

"I really liked computers and computer graphics, so I thought I would combine the technical with the artistic and study computer arts," Christie recalls.

Greg Christie, left, has returned to the U of L to pursue his masters of neuroscience.

Christie graduated with a BFA in 2005, and worked as a professional graphic artist for two years before the lure of the science lab drew him back.

"I discovered that art is something I love to do as hobby, not a livelihood," Christie says. "I'm a scientist at heart. I knew the neuroscience program at U of L was exceptional, and I loved my education here, so it was an easy decision to go back."

As a masters student in the neuroscience program at the U of L, Christie has been studying brain dynamics related to feedback processing for the last couple of years. He conducts tests on subjects to see how their brains react during gaming activity, watching the electrical responses to both positive and negative feedback – what happens when people win, and when they lose. So far, Christie's research has focused on people that don't have any issues with gaming. Now, with a good understanding of the brain dynamics of that group under his belt, Christie feels the time is right to turn his focus to a group of people that epitomize the study – compulsive gamblers.

Interestingly, compulsive gambling hasn't been unanimously accepted as a form of addiction in the scientific community. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (published by the American Psychiatric Association) lists pathological gambling under the category of impulse control. While the manual alludes to the fact that compulsive gamblers have other addictive tendencies, it does not label gambling itself as an outright addiction. Christie isn't comfortable with the sidestepping. He's out to show, one way or the other, whether compulsive gamblers are afflicted with a problem beyond their control, and hopefully change public opinion about addiction in the process.

"There is a notion that willpower can overcome anything, that addiction is something people should be able to handle," Christie says. "We glorify stories of people who quit something 'cold turkey.' The reality of addiction is much more complicated than that. We don't really understand or legitimize addiction, particularly with compulsive gambling because it hasn't been studied much. If we don't understand it, we can't really treat it."

Since returning to his scientific roots and to the U of L, Christie has dedicated his time and investigative talents to finding out why some people know when enough is enough, while others don't. Christie knows what should be going on in the brain during gaming; what he wants to find out is why it doesn't happen in certain individuals. Ask him why the research is important, and Christie doesn't hesitate in his response.

"I remember one day when a participant came into the lab," Christie recalls. "When I asked her if she would be willing to participate in a gambling experiment, she was contemplative for a minute and then agreed, saying that someone in her family was an addictive gambler. She obviously had great contempt for gambling, but agreed to participate in the study in the hope that it might help to find a solution to a problem that had greatly affected her. Compulsive gambling isn't just a problem for the gambler, it's a problem for their family and friends too."

While Christie's research is geared specifically toward gaming, he sees the applications of his findings having much greater reach.

"We all receive dozens of positive and negative feedback messages every day," Christie says. "If you look at how you discipline your children for example – some methods work and others don't. If you continue to use a method that doesn't show good results, you have to wonder why you go back to it."

The next phase of Christie's research took place throughout the course of the spring 2010 semester. Findings are expected to be published in NeuroImage – a journal available on the U of L campus. For more information on the study of neuroscience, follow this link.

Curiosity drives young epigenetics scholar

trevor.kenney — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:55:43 +0000

At a time when most kids were glued to TV shows about talking purple dinosaurs, Kristy Kutanzi was exploring the inner workings of the world around her.

"I have always had a curious mind," she explains. "As a child, I loved to experiment. My parents bought me a book with basic science experiments and explanations for general phenomena – a book that I read from front to back countless times."

Kristy Kutanzi is making a difference with her research focus.

They also bought her a microscope to indulge her fascination with "things too small to be seen by the human eye," says the Grassy Lake, Alta., native.

But it wasn't until she began her undergraduate degree at the U of L and had an opportunity to work in the lab of Dr. Olga Kovalchuk for her honours program, that Kutanzi realized her sights were set on becoming a scientist.

"The practical training that I received in labs during my undergrad was a turning point for me," says Kutanzi. "Dr. Kovalchuk fostered my interest in science and encouraged me to pursue a higher level of education in the field. Undoubtedly, she has provided and continues to provide me with invaluable tools and advice to succeed in my research career."

These days, Kutanzi is well on her way to realizing her ambitions. She's now in the MSc/PhD transfer program, which allows students with research potential to enter the PhD program without defending their master's thesis. She continues to work with Kovalchuk on a project to unravel the epigenetic changes that precede the development of cancer.

While traditionally researchers have studied the genetic influences of cancer, Kutanzi is working to understand the epigenetic factors that "turn on" cancer genes. Through funding from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (Prairies-NWT chapter) and the Alberta Cancer Research Institute, Kutanzi is looking at how estrogen may trigger genes that cause breast cancer, the leading cause of death for women 30 to 55 years of age.

Kutanzi's work on the topic has not gone unnoticed and her amazing aptitude for science has earned her high praise. In addition to being an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research scholar, Kutanzi recently earned a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, valued at $50,000 per year for up to three years.

The Vanier program, launched by the Government of Canada in 2008, aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students who demonstrate a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies.

The prestigious award is a big boost for Kutanzi's burgeoning career. Not only does the funding allow her to focus on the research, but it allows her to present her results at international scientific conferences. There, she'll develop research collaborations and investigate current and future prospects in her field.

But perhaps most importantly, the award brings recognition to a dangerous disease.

"Receiving the Vanier reflects the merit of my field of research," Kutanzi explains graciously. "It brings national attention to the value of researching breast cancer development, particularly during the early stages when there's a greater chance for us to discover a successful treatment."

Dr. Peter Ade discusses Planck mission

trevor.kenney — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:42:04 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and the Herschel satellite are intimately connected thanks to the work of physics professor Dr. David Naylor and the SPIRE instrument. However, the Herschel launch included a great many scientific instruments, another of which was the Planck mission.

On Thursday, 3 to 4 p.m. in D620, Dr. Peter Ade, from Cardiff ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, Wales will speak about his role with the Planck mission in a free talk open to everyone.

Planck was selected as the third Medium-Sized Mission (M3) of ESA's Horizon 2000 Scientific Programme, and is today part of its Cosmic Vision Programme. It is designed to image the anisotropies of the Cosmic Background Radiation Field over the whole sky, with unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution. Planck will provide a major source of information relevant to several cosmological and astrophysical issues, such as testing theories of the early universe and the origin of cosmic structure. The scientific development of the mission is directed by the Planck Science Team.

Planck was formerly called COBRAS/SAMBA. After the mission was selected and approved (in late 1996), it was renamed in honor of the German scientist Max Planck (1858-1947), Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918.

Planck was launched on May 14, 2009 together with the Herschel satellite. After launch, Planck and Herschel separated and are now proceeding to different orbits around the second Lagrangian point of the Earth-Sun System.

Professor Ade has enjoyed over 30 years experience in instrumental design and manufacture while pursuing his observational astrophysics and atmospheric science interests. His involvement in atmospheric observations started in 1971 when he made some of the first airborne measurements of the submillimetre spectral emission from the atmosphere using helium cooled detector with a Fourier Transform spectrometer.

Cardiff is accepted as the world leader in this technology. Professor Ade has been involved with the development and deployment of many astronomical instruments (Scuba, ISOLWS, Cassini-CIRS, Mars-PMIRR, Boomerang, Maxima, Acbar, Maxipol, Bolocam). Current activities include provision of a second-generation camera for the JCMT (SCUBA-2), Co-Investigator on the Herschel-SPIRE instrument (of which Naylor and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge played a lead role), the MIPS instrument for SIRTF, the Clover B-mode experiment and UK instrument scientist for the Planck Surveyor High Frequency Instrument (HFI). The latter mission is designed to measure all the fundamental cosmological parameters to unprecedented sensitivities.

Herschel launch a rousing success

trevor.kenney — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:51:36 +0000

The ISIS program is already reaping dividends for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. As a result, its students will prosper for years to come.

The first major project under the recently formed Institute for Space Imaging Science, a collaboration with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, went into space Thursday with the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory. But while ISIS may be relatively new, the technology behind the equipment launched with the Herschel has been in the works for more than a decade.

Included was the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE), a piece of equipment U of L physicist Dr. David Naylor has been developing, along with 100 or so of his students, over the past 15 years. He was the lone Canadian scientist in French Guiana Thursday to observe the launch of Herschel.

"After over a decade of working to get the spectrometer in space, our work begins as we use the device in earnest for the task it was designed to do," Naylor told the Lethbridge Herald following the successful launch.

Over 80 supporters crammed into Esquires Coffee Shop in downtown Lethbridge Thursday morning for the 7:12 a.m. launch. The fact the
U of L played such a significant role was not lost on Naylor as he commented about the possibilities now open to students for generations to come.

"Now our work truly starts - over the coming months and years my students (graduate and undergraduate) will use Herschel to explore the universe - they have an unparalleled opportunity, right here in southern Alberta," he told the Herald.

Herschel launch features U of L research

trevor.kenney — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:40:59 +0000

Some 15 years of work has finally come to fruition and all that's left now is sitting back and watching the results.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge physicist Dr. David Naylor and his team of physics and astronomy undergraduates and graduate students, doctoral candidates and technicians have been working for the better part of 15 years on creating the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). On Thursday, it will be put into action, shot into space to travel more than 1.5 million kilometres as part of the Herschel Space Telescope launch.

The Herschel is the largest telescope ever sent into space and its scheduled launch is Thursday morning, 7:12 a.m. Lethbridge time. Naylor will travel to French Guiana as the only Canadian scientist to watch the launch live. Locally, residents can watch the action live at Esquires Coffee House starting at 6:30 a.m. It is also available online Thursday morning by visiting www.uleth.ca.

The SPIRE infrared measuring device measures the composition and physical conditions of material in the universe. It will take about four months to travel the 1.5 million kilometres into space.

As one of the world's foremost experts in Fourier Transform Spectroscopy, Naylor has a long history of developing innovative spectroscopy instruments and is the Canadian lead investigator for SPIRE, a project involving scientists from eight nations. He is responsible for the design and construction of a spectrometre to determine the performance of SPIRE, and for developing the SPIRE data analysis software.

The Herschel Space Observatory's three-year mission is to study relatively cool objects in the universe. Stars themselves are hot objects but they are born in cold, dark places that the Herschel is designed to measure.
Information about the Herschel space telescope and the equipment that helps make it operate effectively can be found at this website: http://spire.uleth.ca/.

Over the past 15 years, more than 100 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students have played a role in the research that led to the launch of the SPIRE device into space.

Shining a light on logic

trevor.kenney — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:19:19 +0000

Just as a scientist places a sample beneath a microscope lens to understand its subtlest parts, philosophers minutely examine an argument to determine how its components work together.

Logics that can cope with inconsistent premises are the focus of Dr. Bryson Brown's most recent work. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge philosophy professor has recently earned a $95,000 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant to pursue his research program, titled Preservationism: Applications and Extensions.

His research, a collaboration with Dalhousie ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Dr. Peter K. Schotch and Simon Fraser ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Dr. Raymond E. Jennings, examines preservationism – a philosophical approach to logic that prioritizes preserving desirable formal properties of premises when we draw conclusions from them.

"We already have a large body of work on two forms of preservationist logic and a number of other side-projects with published results," says Brown.

With this newest project, Brown hopes to look into applications of the logic (to philosophy of science and mathematics, for instance).

"Broadly, we're trying to make more people in the field aware of the work and the logical tools we've produced."

To disseminate the work, Brown, Schotch and Jennings are creating a series of books to be published by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto Press (the first will be published early in 2009), as well as presenting their research at a number of international conferences.

"Given that we're trying to produce a book and attend several major conferences over the next few years, this help from SSHRC is essential to keeping up the pace of the project," says Brown.

UNews - scientist

5 Questions with Dr. Claudia Gonzalez

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Dr. Zen makes his pitch

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Mather receives Ingrid Speaker Medal

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Measuring the odds

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Gambling on education

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Curiosity drives young epigenetics scholar

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Dr. Peter Ade discusses Planck mission

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Herschel launch a rousing success

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Herschel launch features U of L research

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Shining a light on logic

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