The votes are in for NSERC’s annual Science Action! Video Contest where labs all across Canada are invited to make a short video describing their research.
Third place goes to…
Noel Fitzpatrick, a PhD student in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia! Noel studies the effects of weather on glacier melt. High up in the mountains of B.C., Noel plants weather stations to monitor the strength of the sun, temperature, cloud coverage, and precipitation. By correlating this data to the rate of glacier melt, Noel can try to predict future melt and the consequences it might have for our country.
Second place goes to…
Jasmine Choi, an undergraduate student volunteering in the Scott lab in the Department of Biology at McMaster University! Many of us have a “flush it and forget it” attitude when it comes to pouring things down the drain, but this may be affecting local wildlife more than we think. Jasmine studies the effects of trace contaminants that remain in treated wastewater on fish behaviour and physiology. The fish are placed downstream of the Dundas wastewater treatment plant and later analyzed for aggression and activity levels, metabolism, and gill structure.
And the winner is….
Darius Rackus, a PhD student in the Wheeler lab at the University of Toronto! Darius uses digital microfluidics to shrink conventional analytic and diagnostic tests and allow them to be conducted using just a tiny drop of fluid on a device the size of a credit card. This lab-on-a-chip uses electrostatic forces to move the tiny droplets so that they can be precisely mixed, split, and analyzed. Such a device could allow laboratory tests to be performed wherever they are needed.
Congratulations to all the winners and don’t forget to check out the runners up!
