Web Version  FRANÇAIS

• LEVEL MY PLAYING FIELD
• Spotlight on: Donna Garcia
• SQUEEZE MY UNCERTAINTY
  Quantum noise hits its limits

• MAP MY UNIVERSE
  BMW of telescopes gets into action
• HUMANIZE MY ECONOMICS
  Was human nature to blame for collapse?
• WISH YOU WERE HERE
  Postcards from the frontiers of human knowledge

• ON THE AIRWAVES
  The brains of babes
• SAVE THE DATE
  Yeast meets west
• THE NEXT BIG WORD
  Genetic Bottleneck: noun • an evolutionary event that occurs when a large percentage of a population is eradicated or prevented from reproducing.
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CIFAR SCOPE

Welcome to the spring edition of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research e-News magazine, Scope. If you haven't already done so, please visit the new cifar.ca to find out about upcoming events, recent discoveries, CIFAR in the news and much more.

Scope is distributed quarterly to members of the CIFAR community to provide ideas, information and issues emerging from the world of advanced research.

CIFAR supports innovative programs that enable the brightest and most talented minds across Canada to collaborate with each other and with their international peers on questions of global significance.
 

Level my playing field
Spotlight on: Donna Garcia

Not all career paths are direct; some have detours that offer invaluable life experiences, unique turning points that shape a life. This is the case for Donna Garcia, an inaugural member of CIFAR’s new Junior Fellow Academy.

Donna’s path started with a traditional upbringing that did not encourage the pursuit of higher education. She was expected to go straight into the working world, which she did immediately after high school. She took a job in sales in a male dominated environment. Donna quickly grew aware of, and frustrated with, perceived limitations of her education, and the fact that she was a woman. She felt these things were keeping her from advancing. This frustration prompted her to start a business degree on a part-time basis.

When Donna became pregnant with her first child, maternity leave meant 6 months and no job security. When she returned to work, it was to a different position with less compensation. As with many women in similar circumstances, she was made to feel less valuable because her hours were constrained by child care. Meetings were deliberately scheduled at times that were inconvenient or impossible for a new mother. This struck her as inherently unfair. She sought out new tools to better equip herself to meet such challenges.

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Squeeze my uncertainty
Quantum noise hits its limits

Anyone who has ever donned a white lab coat will tell you that accurate and reproducible measurements are the cornerstone of any big scientific breakthrough.

This poses a great challenge to researchers who work to solve mysteries at the tiniest of scales, the quantum level: The smaller the scale, the more elusive an accurate measurement and the more challenging it is to reduce uncertainty.

To acquire useful information about the quantum world, researchers must overcome uncertainty. This uncertainty, also known as quantum noise, is one of the great barriers to making accurate measurements. Aephraim Steinberg, a member of CIFAR’s Quantum Information Processing program, has uncovered the limits to reducing this noise. He gives it a little “squeeze” using a system designed to compress light to its fundamental quantum limit.

Read More 

Map my Universe
BMW of telescopes gets into action

The European Space Agency is gearing up to send an instrument called the Planck telescope into outer space from the Guiana Space Centre.

Planck is an international effort that also involves NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and several CIFAR Cosmology and Gravity program members. The telescope will use cutting edge technology to take new measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the radiation emitted right after the Big Bang.

Planck trumps its predecessors WMAP and COBE in all aspects of measuring technology with both a Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) and a High Frequency Instrument (HFI) onboard. As a survey instrument, Planck results will be the most important data to further our understanding of cosmology and will answer some fundamental questions, such as how stars form and how they evolved in our own Milky Way galaxy.

The LFI will detect frequencies in the general range of a regular radio, though the device is much more sophisticated. The HFI detectors, cooled cryogenically to just above absolute zero, will sense even the slightest amounts of radiation in a much higher frequency range.

The Canadian contribution is mainly software for the telescope, including a plotting and analysis tool called Kst. This software was originally created by CIFAR Fellow Barth Netterfield and used for the BLAST and Boomerang experiments.

“Not only will we be collecting some unique and interesting information about the Universe, we will also be maximizing technologies,” says Program Director Dick Bond who has been involved with the project since 1993. “Planck is the BMW version of the WMAP.”

After the launch of the Planck satellite, researchers will calibrate the HFI by comparing its data to other CMB experiments. Three CIFAR researchers, Netterfield, Bond, and Mike Nolta, will use data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile, WMAP and SPIDER for this calibration phase.

The exceptionally sensitive instruments on board Planck will also give greater insight into the nature of the mysterious dark matter that makes up 26% of the Universe. Planck will give clues to this previously unknown aspect of the Universe and create the most accurate picture of the very early Universe to date.

Planck would be an exciting step on its own for the scientific community but the launch will pack a double thrill: a second telescope, the Herschel, will be launched from the same rocket. The Herschel will be used to observe other types of radiation.

Join CIFAR to watch the dual launch in real time. Keep an eye out for a CIFAR Scope bulletin announcing the live webcast of the ESA launch.

Humanize my economics
Was human nature to blame for collapse?

CIFAR Program Director and Nobel Laureate George A. Akerlof has co-written a startling new book that offers analysis of today’s economic crisis that is both revolutionary and intuitive.

The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperilling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. In Animal Spirits, Dr. Akerlof and fellow economist Robert J. Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess. They put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity.

Read More

Wish you were here

Postcards from the frontiers of human knowledge

CIFAR program members never know where their research will take them next. As they journey from the smallest atoms to the furthest galaxies (and points in between), they collect stories of their many explorations. Now, they will share these stories with our donors via the Institute’s new, monthly postcard series: Postcards from the frontiers of human knowledge.

Beginning in April, CIFAR donors will receive a monthly postcard from a new frontier. Each postcard will tell a CIFAR researcher’s story of exploration – it might describe the view from the edge of a glass cliff, point out the best place to find a dead zone, or even paint a picture of what the Universe looked like a fraction of a second after its creation. The stories will continue on the Institute’s website with in-depth explanations of the research, topical podcasts, and much more.

This is an exclusive benefit for CIFAR’s valued donors. To become one, please visit www.cifar.ca to make your donation today.

On the airwaves

CIFAR Experience-based Brain and Biological Development researchers recently took to the airways in a CBC Radio Ideas series called "The Brains of Babes."

In this three part series, journalist Jill Eisen speaks to program members Clyde Hertzman, Steve Suomi, Michael Meaney, and Tom Boyce about the important links between our earliest years and our health as adults.

Find podcasts of the series here.

Yeast meets West

We invite you to satisfy your Thirst for Knowledge.

Please join Charles Boone, a Fellow of CIFAR's Genetic Networks program and a Professor at the University of Toronto, for a surprising, and engaging conversation on the genetics of yeast.

Register Now

THE NEXT BIG WORD
Genetic Bottleneck: noun • an evolutionary event that occurs when a large percentage of a population is eradicated or prevented from reproducing.

Eric Shoubridge, a member of CIFAR’s Genetic Networks program, and his research team recently identified a genetic bottleneck for the population of an organelle (a structure that is to a cell what an organ is to the body). This bottleneck could clarify the causes of more than 40 metabolic diseases and disorders, including stroke, diabetes, and blindness.

Many of these metabolic diseases have to do with mitochondria – organelles that regulate the body’s energy systems. The average human egg has about 200,000 mitochondria, each of which has its own genome. These organelles and their DNA are maternally transferred to offspring.

Mitochondrial diseases result from a genetic bottleneck that prevents the transmission of mitochondrial DNA from mother to child. This bottleneck can fluctuate widely, which explains why not all children from the same mother will inherit a disease, and in those who do, why the severity of symptoms varies.