Q&As

Cherry blossom trees by the Asian Centre at UBC

Cherry picking the best spots to enjoy Vancouver’s blooms

We spoke with Douglas Justice (he/him), associate director of horticulture and collections at the UBC Botanical Garden, about how the recent cold snap may affect this year’s blossoms, his favourite locations to enjoy the blooms, and how these trees have become so iconic in Vancouver.

Mar 16, 2023

Is AI coming for white-collar jobs? A psychology professor finds out the hard way

A UBC psychology professor wondered whether AI was smart enough to handle some of his workload. He was astonished to discover it could.

Mar 8, 2023

Polar bears scavenging through garbage in Churchill, Manitoba. The rapid loss
of sea ice in northern latitudes has driven many polar bears onto land and into human
settlements to find food. Photo credit: Keith Levit/Shutterstock

UBC zoologist: We need to acknowledge climate change’s effects on wildlife—for our own good

As the United Nations marks World Wildlife Day on March 3, UBC zoology professor Dr. Kaitlyn Gaynor (she/her) discusses how climate change is affecting wildlife, and why that can spell bad news for humans and animals alike.

Mar 2, 2023

Credit: Beyond Access / Creative Commons

UBC scholar helping AI overcome its language barrier

People around the world have been impressed with ChatGPT, a new chatbot developed by OpenAI that uses natural language processing (NLP) to seemingly answer any question.

Feb 21, 2023

Music from Final Fantasy, which will be performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at The Orpheum on April 14-15 as part of the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy tour, is the subject of PhD research by UBC music scholar Marina Gallagher.
Photo credit: AWR Music Productions, LLC

UBC scholar’s Final Fantasy is a PhD in ludomusicology

At the turn of the century, Marina Gallagher was a young piano student who played a lot of video games between piano lessons. The Final Fantasy series was her favourite.

Jan 23, 2023

Looking for a faster way to learn a language? Try historical linguistics

A new study conducted by UBC English professor Dr. James Stratton finds that one of the best ways of fast-tracking your language acquisition may be to learn a bit of language history – at least when it comes to learning a historically related language.

Dec 20, 2022

Climate change contributing to real Christmas tree shortage

UBC Faculty of Forestry professor Richard Hamelin explains how climate change continues to plague the real Christmas tree market and what should be considered for improving the worldwide growing supply chain shortage.

Dec 9, 2022

The stories men tell themselves after getting dumped

When a partner breaks up with them, men often try to make sense of it by telling themselves stories about how it happened.

Nov 30, 2022

In her new book Eco-Types: Five Ways of Caring about the Environment, Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy, an associate professor in UBC’s faculty of arts, proposes five new categories to describe how people interact with the environment.

Which of these five eco-types are you?

When it comes to environmental politics there’s a tendency to associate the Left as pro-environment and the Right as anti-environment, but a UBC sociologist says this polarization might actually slow down our collective progress on environmental issues.

Nov 30, 2022

Logs on the beach can provide a measure of privacy for solo parkgoers as well as groups. Photo: Paulo Ramos/UBC Faculty of Forestry

Greenspaces should support mental health among young adults

New UBC research shows greenspace planning often fails to include the needs of youth and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24.

Nov 17, 2022

UBC researcher to study young adults who live with their parents

Young adults in Canada are less likely to own a home and more likely to live with their parents than they were a decade ago, according to recently released census data.

Nov 15, 2022

Seafood farming’s growth rate has already peaked, and now it’s in decline

Dr. Rashid Sumaila and Dr. Muhammed Oyinlola discuss why we can’t rely on just farmed seafood for our fishy needs.

Nov 14, 2022

Bivalent vaccines are here: What it means for people who are pregnant

We spoke with Dr. Deborah Money about what expecting parents need to know about vaccinations this fall.

Nov 8, 2022

Is road salt killing salmon?

In this Q&A, Drs. Patricia Schulte and Chris Wood discuss how citizen scientists can contribute and how the public can help reduce any potential road salt impact.

Nov 7, 2022

UBC professor’s new workbook offers tools for a better sex life

When UBC psychologist and sex researcher Dr. Lori Brotto published her first book, Better Sex Through Mindfulness, she upended convention by revealing how mindfulness can be used to treat sexual difficulties in women, such as lack of desire, pain and trauma.

Oct 18, 2022

According to the World Health Organization, landslides are more widespread than any other geological event. Credit: NASA

UBC students help NASA find landslides by training computers to read Reddit

UBC graduate students trained computers to “read” news articles about landslides on Reddit to bolster a NASA database, which could improve predictions of when and where these natural disasters will occur.

Oct 6, 2022

Dr. Corey Nislow has sent yeast and algae into space aboard Artemis 1. Credit: Justin Ohata/UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences

UBC scientist is sending yeast and algae to space on Artemis 1

UBC pharmaceutical sciences professor Dr. Corey Nislow is sending yeast and algae cultures into space, in a pod not much bigger than a shoebox, to study the effects of cosmic rays and near zero gravity on living organisms.

Aug 23, 2022

Children are entering a fourth school year in a pandemic — expert advice for parents

As children head back for a fourth school year with COVID-19, many parents are hoping their kids will be able to enjoy a mostly normal school experience. But with new variants circulating and respiratory virus season on the horizon, many also have concerns and questions about what the new school year will look like.

Aug 22, 2022

How to avoid becoming a mosquito’s dinner

In this Q&A, Dr. Ben Matthews, professor in the UBC department of zoology, explains how to avoid being on the menu for mozzies, and why the future of bite prevention might include odour-reducing skin creams.

Aug 15, 2022

Infrared echoes of a black hole eating a star illustration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Time machines and black holes on the agenda at quantum gravity meeting

A theory of everything, that works at a cosmic and quantum level, has eluded researchers for years.

Aug 12, 2022