Université de Montréal - News

A literary icon is revealed through her unpublished work UdeM’s Clara Champagne was the first scholar to lay eyes on Joan Didion’s unsealed archives. They show a person quite different from the American writer writer we thought we knew.

#LITERATURE "Her 'I' wasn't really her." Joan Didion's private archives at the New York Public Library are probed by an @umontreal.ca PhD candidate, who finds "she controlled what she wanted to disclose to the public." #NewJournalism
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A Celebration of Quantum Theory Gilles Brassard, quantum cryptography pioneer and Fellow of the Royal Society, will present the Québec Annual Lecture.

#SCIENCE | “A Celebration of Quantum Theory”, Oct. 23 @royalsociety.org in London

Gilles Brassard (@umontreal.ca), co-inventor of quantum cryptography, will be joined by Sir Peter Knight, Sandu Popescu and John Rarity for an evening of insight and reflection. 👇

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-celebrat...

Learning a foreign language—before you’re born! A study shows that newborn babies respond differently to a language if they were exposed to it briefly in the womb.

#NEUROPSYCHOLOGY Research "shows how malleable language networks are. But it also reminds us of their fragility: if a positive environment can have an effect, we can suppose that a negative environment would too." #brain #prenatal #infancy @commsbio.nature.com
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Mexican migrants struggle to reintegrate after being deported A study by UdeM’s Ana Canedo shows that coming from the U.S. is difficult for Mexican migrants: many face economic hardship and struggle with identity loss.

“Almost every #Mexican family has a relative who has migrated, yet Mexican society continues to marginalize returnees, sometimes even treating them with contempt," says @anacanedog.bsky.social. #migrants #U.S.-Mexico #border
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Could mealworms help solve our plastic waste problem? UdeM doctoral student Chloé Rosa-Teijeiro is studying how mealworms digest plastic and whether there are hidden risks to this promising approach to tackling plastic pollution.

“Sometimes, in trying to fix one problem, we create an even bigger one."
#microplastics #pollution
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A quantum leap Awarded a research chair at UdeM's Courtois Institute, computer scientist Hlér Kristjánsson jumps into his new role with gusto, bringing with him from England a wealth of international experience.

#COMPUTING "Quantum computers will be a leap forward from the best that exist today," says our recent recruit Hlér Kristjánsson. #quantum #AI #MachineLearning #physics
#Iceland #Taiwan @mila-quebec.bsky.social #InstitutCourtois
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The crucial role of chaos in our brain’s most extraordinary functions That the human mind treads a delicate line between order and disorder is a radical idea that’s gaining traction - and is changing our understanding of intelligence, consciousness and creativity

#NEUROSCIENCE “Criticality offers a powerful framework for understanding #brain function and dysfunction,” says UdeM's Karim Jerbi. He's in the cover story of this week's @newscientist.com. #psychology #chaos
www.newscientist.com/article/2493...

The dangers of declawing your cat A study by UdeM’s animal pharmacology research group reveals that surgically removing a cat's claws is not only painful, it has irreversible long-term effects.

#CATS “They aren’t just cutting off the claws; they’re mutilating the animal." #onychectomy #declawing #veterinary #CHUV #pain #ScientificReports @nature.com @amvq.bsky.social
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Breaking down barriers to support people living with obesity With UdeM's Géraldine Layani, Quebec's COLLAB-INTER-360-Obésité research project looks to find new ways to improve obese individuals' health and well-being.

#OBESITY "This is an opportunity to rethink how we do things." @facmed-umontreal.bsky.social #research #Quebec nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

Habitable or not? Astronomers probe exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d Could Earth-sized exoplanets be habitable? Based on observations with the James Webb Space Telescope, UdeM graduate Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb and her team suggest it’s still too soon to say.

“The planet could have an extremely thin atmosphere, like Mars, making it very hard to detect. It might also be shrouded in thick, high-altitude clouds, like Venus... Or it might simply have no atmosphere at all.”
@nasawebb.extwitter.link #NIRSpec #JWST
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

Two UdeM peer reviewers cited for excellence The Canadian Institutes of Health Research honours biomedical researchers Gregory Emery and David Knapp for outstanding work in reviewing other scientists' grant applications, a very rare distinction.

#RESEARCH "Peer review is one of the bulwarks that ensures science remains dedicated to discovering what comes closest to the truth... We now know what happens when the truth is twisted; we must actively combat this type of distortion." nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

Using AI to 'see' what we see Fed the right information, large language models can match what the brain sees when it takes in an everyday scene such as children playing or a big city skyline, a new study led by Ian Charest finds.

#AI "Ultimately, this is a step forward in understanding how the human brain understands meaning from the visual world." #LLMs @mila-quebec.bsky.social @adriendoerig.bsky.social @timkietzmann.bsky.social @natmachintell.nature.com
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Putting the brakes on FAST UdeM researchers argue that FAST – free ad-supported streaming television – poses a threat to francophone and Indigenous culture in Canada, and should be regulated.

#MEDIA Do you enjoy watching free online TV? Consider the downside: too many ads, no privacy, and almost nothing that's French or Indigenous. Critics say streamers like Tubi and Pluto show "flagrant disregard for Canada’s cultural diversity."
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How bacteria grow: evolutionary differences point to new ways to combat infection Discovering unsuspected flexibility in bacterial elongation, UdeM microbiologists rethink approach to fighting resistance to antibiotics.

#MICROBIOLOGY Scientists at @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social find "new points of fragility" in how bacteria cell walls expand, and this "could be exploited to develop new #antibiotics.” @mariedelaby.bsky.social ‪@natcomms.nature.com nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

Discovery of ‘mini halo’ points to how the early universe was formed Astronomers co-led by UdeM's Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo detect a gigantic cloud of high-energy particles 10 billions light years away from Earth.

#ASTRONOMY ‪10 billion light years away, in a cluster of galaxies, a vast cloud of high-energy particles is revealed, thanks to @umontreal.ca's Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo and @rtimmerman.bsky.social‬. #LOFAR
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A blueprint for adapting to climate change By expanding an emerging field of study called archaeology of climate change, scientists at UdeM and other universities hope to make human-environment modeling more accurate and complete.

#CLIMATE "What we're proposing is a workflow ... to integrate human systems into Earth-systems models," says anthropologist @burkeam.bsky.social. #hominin #dispersals @natcomms.nature.com @ctrlalttim.com
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When political demonstrations are met by force A specialist on military responses to protest movements, UdeM political scientist Theodore McLauchlin answers three questions about current developments in the United States.

#US "Overt repression, whether through law-enforcement or the armed forces, is hard to sustain against non-violent protest." Theodore McLauchlin on #Trump, #NoKings & more.
@cerium-udem.bsky.social
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#RECRUITMENT "We are well-positioned to welcome top minds who are seeking to thrive in an open, dynamic environment where science can flourish freely," says @vpoitout.bsky.social. #U.S. #academia #funding #Canada @usherbrooke.bsky.social @ulaval.ca @mcgill.ca nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

#HIV-AIDS What happened 35 years ago in the middle of Africa that so needed to be kept secret?
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Loneliness is spreading. What can sociology tell us about it? Long regarded as a purely private, individual experience, loneliness is now emerging as an important social issue, says UdeM expert Cécile Van de Velde.

"In Quebec and Canada, loneliness is most prevalent among teens and young adults, and in Europe, among adults in their late 20s and 30s,” says @cecile-vandevelde.bsky.social‬.
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'Deafblindness': more than meets the eye and ear Walter Wittich is the scientific director of an international initiative that has developed a comprehensive set of biopsychosocial criteria for people with little or no hearing and little or no sight.

As many as as 165 million people‪ are #deafblind, and "in some countries the condition isn’t recognized, leaving families to bear the full burden," says @walterwittich.bsky.social‬. #visualimpairment #hardofhearing
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Anxious cats prone to recurring cystitis UdeM’s veterinarians reveal that anxiety plays a key role in feline idiopathic cystitis, an inflammation of the bladder, highlighting the importance of reducing the stress that cats sometimes feel.

#VETERINARY "A similar condition with the same symptoms occurs in women and is often linked to high levels of stress or anxiety." #cats #cystitis
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Building climate resilience in the island nation of Dominica An interdisciplinary study draws on interviews with Dominicans displaced by Hurricane Maria and Tropical Storm Erika to explore the risks associated with climate change in the Caribbean.

#CLIMATE How do #hurricanes affect people's health? "The disasters impact all dimensions ... physical and mental," says our expert Patrick Cloos, working with doctoral candidate Sarah Cooper. @plosclimate.org‬ @msf.ca #Dominica #Caribbean
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The study involves our‪ microbiologist @fredoleroux.bsky.social, whom we profiled in late 2023 as a new hire and Canada Excellence in Research Chair: nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

"Safe-by-design"AI: Yoshua Bengio launches LawZero Supported by a host of donors, the UdeM computer-science professor wants his new non-profit organization to design artificial-intelligence systems that prioritize safety over commercial interests.

#AI "We believe that at the heart of every AI frontier system, there should be one guiding principle: the protection of human joy and endeavour," says Yoshua Bengio. @mila-quebec.bsky.social @law-zero.bsky.social
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

How does coffee affect a sleeping brain? Coffee can help you stay awake. But what does caffeine actually do to your brain once you're asleep? Using AI, a team of researchers has an answer: it affects the brain's "criticality".

#NEUROSCIENCE "During sleep the brain remains in a more activated, less restorative state under the influence of caffeine," says ‪@karimjerbi.bsky.social‬ @commsbio.nature.com‬ #AI #neuroimaging
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

AI takes only minutes to tell how mature an infant's brain is A study led by UdeM’s Sarah Lippé demonstrates that artificial intelligence can quickly and accurately assess brain maturity in babies, enabling early detection of developmental disorders.

#PEDIATRICS Behold: "an objective indicator of how brain development is progressing” — thanks to #AI. #EEG #psychology #neurology
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

Chronic renal failure: discovery of a crucial biomarker Millions of kidney patients stand to benefit from early diagnosis and prevention thanks to the breakthrough by scientists at the CRCHUM and UdeM.

#HEALTH "What’s really incredible is that by injecting this #microRNA ... we were able to preserve the small blood vessels and limit the damage done to the #kidneys.” ‪#nephrology #renal @crchum.bsky.social‬ @jci-insight.bsky.social‬
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

'I'm a researcher. This is what I do.' As he takes over from Yoshua Bengio as scientific director IVADO, Aaron Courville reflects on what artificial intelligence needs: more optimism.

‪Your long read today: an exclusive interview with Canadian #AI luminary Aaron Courville. @ivado.bsky.social‬ @mila-quebec.bsky.social‬ @yoshuabengio.bsky.social‬ @cmu.edu‬ ‪@sarahooker.bsky.social‬
nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

HPV: babies free themselves of the virus naturally Almost all babies who contract the human papillomavirus perinatally eliminate it within the first six months of life – yet even so, women still benefit from protection, a study finds.

#EPIDEMIOLOGY Good news: "We now know that it’s quite unlikely for a mother to transmit #HPV to her baby during pregnancy or childbirth ... This will be reassuring to #pregnant women who have been diagnosed with the virus.”
@jidjournal.bsky.social
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