UBC Reports | Vol. 54 | No. 6 | Jun. 5, 2008
Hightlights of UBC Media Coverage in May 2008
Compiled by Meg Walker
Children Find Out Early Whom to Believe
The New York Times reported on a study by Susan Birch examining how young children evaluate trustworthiness.
The assistant professor in the Psychology Department’s research showed that the challenge for the child is figuring out whom to believe.
Largest Skeleton in the World to Grace UBC Biodiversity Collection
In mid-May, Andrew Trites of UBC’s Biodiversity Research Centre led a team of biologists to dig up the 25-metre-long carcass of a blue whale in rural Prince Edward Island.
By late 2009, the skeleton will be the centrepiece at UBC’s new Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
The story was covered by The Boston Globe, The Globe and Mail, Global National, CTV National and numerous Canadian and US daily papers.
TB Cure Closer with Protein Discovery
Researchers from UBC and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute have made a landmark discovery that could lead to a cure for tuberculosis, a disease that kills two million people every year.
The team, led by UBC’s Dr. Yossi Av-Gay, identified a link between a TB protein and a newly discovered protein in the human body’s white blood cells.
The Av-Gay lab has already engineered a specific antibody that blocks this newly discovered TB protein.
The Globe and Mail wrote about the discovery.
UBC Students First Ever to Reach Featured Article Status on Wikipedia a Challenge
Last January, UBC’s Jon Beasley-Murray challenged his students to get their projects for his Latin American literature course accepted as a Wikipedia Featured Article.
Agence France Presse reported that in May, three entries created by 33 students in the course became the first student works to reach the free online encyclopedia’s top rank.
Of more than 10 million articles in 253 languages, only about 2,000 have reached Featured Article status.
Climate Change Expert Wins Prize
John Robinson of UBC’s Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, has been awarded one of five Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellowship prizes.
Robinson, who wrote parts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that shared the 2007 Nobel peace prize with Al Gore, will receive a $150,000 award and $75,000 for travel and research over three years, The Vancouver Sun reported.
War-torn Novel Captures International Attention
Steven Galloway has sold foreign rights for his just-released third novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo, in 18 countries for an advance of almost $1 million.
The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, CBC.ca and local daily papers across Canada reviewed the novel or interviewed Galloway, who teaches creative writing part time at UBC.
