Tag Archives: science

UofT Science Rendezvous is BACK!

Events, On Campus, UT Life, , ,

SR2016

Are you ready for another year of FUN science activities? We’re back with more fun, more experiments, and more science!

Never heard of Science Rendezvous? You sure are missing out! Science Rendezvous is a FREE, Canada-wide science street festival aimed at highlighting and promoting science in all its aspects. Meet with world-class researchers, participate in hands-on experiments and activities, watch amazing demonstrations of the integration of science, architecture, and human ingenuity, and most of all, have fun while experiencing science in a whole new way! Want to learn more about us? Head to our newly designed webpage by our talented graphic designer, Science Rendezvous!

Our exec team has been working very hard since December to put this event together. Want to know the most updated information about our event? Like our Facebook Page! You’ll be the first to know what we have in line for you this year (and maybe we’ll post some teasers just for you).

We are also on Twitter and Instagram! Definitely follow/like us, because you never know, we might post some cool stuff that’s exclusively for our fans. You don’t want to miss out!

I hope you are as excited for this event as we are! Hope to see you on May 7th! Join us and RSVP NOW!

RECAP: U of T Receives $114 Million Grant for Regenerative Medicine

News, On Campus, , , , , , , , , ,

As you might have heard back in late July, our university has received a record-breaking amount of funding from the federal government in order to establish a groundbreaking centre for regenerative medicine. Now that it’s time again to begin school, a lot of students are asking, what exactly is this all about? Continue reading RECAP: U of T Receives $114 Million Grant for Regenerative Medicine →

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Food & Drink, Politics, , , , , ,

My mind has just been blown by this video and I felt like I needed to get the word out:

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Yeah ok, fine it’s an hour and a half long. Here’s the summary for you people who somehow still have no time even though exams are over:

Summary:

  • Today High Fructose Corn Syrup is used in basically every processed food as a substitute for regular sugar since fructose is much sweeter
  • Sucrose (made up of 1 glucose and 1 fructose) is also found everywhere since it is also sweeter and cheaper than glucose
  • Fructose is evil
  • We eat fructose much more than we drink alcohol but fructose is metabolized ONLY in the liver through a pathway similar to alcohol
  • 30% of Fructose turns into fat whereas less than 1% of glucose turns into fat
  • Fructose turns off brain sensitivity to hormones involved in feelings of satiety after meals so you never feel full
  • Fructose can desensitize cells to insulin to cause Type II diabetes
  • One pop drink or fruit juice is basically one serving of food; but you still don’t feel full

The real issue here, I think, is the fact that we’re quite addicted to sugar. I mean a day without cake for me is hardly a day worth living (I exaggerate only slightly). And after checking most of the foods in my apartment at the time, I have discovered that BREAD has glucose-fructose! IT’S EVERYWHERE!!!

And the issue is since it’s so cheap and is “naturally made”, the health industry has yet to crack down on this rather unhealthy substance. I mean really, from the biochemistry it’s as though we’re drinking a beer every time we drink pop or juice. And not to mention all those snacks we eat. But it’s so cheap that banning it will surely cause quite the uproar.

I guess I shouldn’t panic so much; it’s not like I binge eat sugar.. oh wait, maybe I do.

Luckily my regular diet (when parents are cooking) is relatively sugar free, and this video did explain why I’ve suddenly gained 5 pounds since entering university. In a way, I’ve found the reason for freshmen-15: it’s because ever since university came I’ve been eating while studying. And since I study a lot, I eat a lot. I eat candy and chocolate and other high-sugar (high-fructose) snacks not to mention most of the cafe foods are probably soaked with this cheap sucrose sugar that is affordable and tastes good (arguable when we talk about res food).

But to cut sugar completely out of my diet is not going to work… will reducing be enough? It seems fruit juice and pop are the major contributor to this sugar. So I suppose I’ll just have tea instead now. Simple enough. The real issue lies in the fact that as I’m writing this blog I’m also eating Ferrero Rocher that my roommate gave me as a Christmas gift. I’m almost half way done. This can’t be good for me.

But sadly my self-control is not good enough. I’ll just run madly around my house and speed up my metabolism with hopes that the citrate will all get used up before it can leak out of the mitochondria to start the VLDL formation.

Tuesdays with Professor Reid

On Campus, Opinion, , , , ,

It is an unfortunate reality which dawns upon every incoming first-year Arts student at the University of Toronto that all students are required to fill in their Breadth Requirements, which includes 1 full credit in either science or math. For some of us who had abandoned math and science as soon as possible in high school, this revelation struck fear and horror into our very souls (no exaggeration, of course). Upon attempting to get an answer from the university as to why I had to continue studying a subject utterly irrelevant to my program and guaranteed to weigh down my GPA, I was told that it was important that I get a “well-rounded education” – that I expose myself to subjects I otherwise wouldn’t. My immediate response was that there is a reason I chose not to expose myself to those subjects – namely, that while I can grasp on some level that they are interesting, I cannot understand 90% of what is being taught.

However the complaints of one (albeit highly opinionated and ferociously persistent) student did not, evidently, suffice to remove the breath requirement policy that I considered so unjust. Thus I was forced to search the calendar for the least scary science course – and when it came down to geology or astronomy, I opted for space over dirt.

Therefore, with great hesitation intermingled with contempt for the system, I enrolled in AST101, co-taught by Professor Michael Reid and Professor Stefan Mochnacki. On the first day of lecture in Convocation Hall, Professor Reid showed a slide of a complicated math equation and noted that if we weren’t able to work out the equation, we should not be in the course. I looked around at my fellow horrified arts student and felt the familiar panicked feeling that used to arise in me during high school math tests begin to course through my veins.  Then, however, Professor Reid changed the slide which placed a big X over the equation and the words “NO MATH”, and explained that he was joking – this course required no math. All of Con Hall erupted in a combination of relieved laughter and plain adoration: this professor understands us, the lost souls of high school math and science!

Continue reading Tuesdays with Professor Reid →