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International group calls for end to selective reporting of clinical trials

Posted by Hannah

Free access to all data will provide the best care for patients, says Cochrane Collaboration. People don’t like to reveal their failures. But when it comes to clinical trials, researchers should be compelled to make even their negative results public, according to a statement issued by an international group that reviews medical research studies. The release of all information and data from randomized clinical trials would allow physicians to provide the best possible care for patients, says the Cochrane Collaboration. In 2004, the pharmaceutical company Merck withdrew its blockbuster arthritis drug rofecoxib (Vioxx) from pharmacies around the world because of an increased risk … Read more…

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Frozen Assets

Posted by Hannah

Maclean’s Ice cores tell the history of Canada’s climate, but now the government doesn’t want them anymore.

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Panel would change Canada’s research landscape

Posted by Hannah

Posted on the Nature News blog on 14 October 2011.  In an effort to address Canada’s problem with innovation, an independent panel has recommended a radical overhaul that includes the creation of a new funding council and transforms the country’s largest research entity, the billion dollar National Research Council (NRC). Study after study has shown that Canada’s businesses invest less on R&D, relative to the country’s gross domestic product, than those of many other OECDcountries and, unlike others, has actually decreased its spending over the last decade. Many of these business investments include government support in the form tax credits, training … Read more…

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Canada’s ice cores seek new home

Posted by Hannah

Confusion over fate of valuable climate record chills researchers. An unusual ‘help wanted’ advertisement arrived in the inboxes of Canadian scientists last week. The e-mail asked the research community to provide new homes for an impressive archive of ice cores representing 40 years of research by government scientists in the Canadian Arctic. The note was sent out by Christian Zdanowicz, a glaciologist at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in Ottawa. He claimed that the collection faced destruction owing to budget cuts at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the government department that runs the survey, and a “radical downsizing” of the Ice Core … Read more…

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Are your genes your destiny? (Not if your mom has anything to say about it.)

Posted by Hannah

McGill scientists are playing a leading role in explaining how the nature vs. nurture debate is even more complicated than we thought. This article originally appeared in the Spring-Summer 2011 issue of the McGill News What if your ability to pay the rent, to buy groceries or the nature of your relationships set up your children for cardiovascular problems, diabetes or even mental health issues? Although it’s not a far-fetched idea, researchers struggled for years to find biological explanations that linked socioeconomic status or trauma to health. And then, beginning in 2004, scientists at McGill began to untangle some of those … Read more…