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Marine fossil record reveals climate change insights

April 17, 2024 - Media release

As ocean temperatures continue to rise due to climate change, marine plankton may be the newest candidate to act as an oceanic early alert system. According to a new Nature paper from UVic micropaleontologist Andy Fraass, and a team of international collaborators at the University of Bristol and Harvard University, an analysis of the fossil record shows that changes to community structure take place long before mass extinction occurs.

Read more: Marine fossil record reveals climate change insights
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Small, dark and ancient: Scientists discover a new (but old) Milky Way satellite

March 28, 2024 -

An international team of scientists led by astronomers at the University of Victoria has discovered an ancient group of stars orbiting our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The newly discovered satellite consists of only five dozen bright stars spread over a volume just 10 light years across. This is miniscule compared to the Milky Way, which contains over ten billion stars, and measures a hundred thousand light years in diameter.

Read more: Small, dark and ancient: Scientists discover a new (but old) Milky Way satellite
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Discovery tests theory on cooling of white dwarf stars

March 6, 2024 - Media release

Open any astronomy textbook to the section on white dwarf stars and you’ll likely learn that they are “dead stars” that continuously cool down over time. New research published in Nature is challenging this theory, with the University of Victoria (UVic) and its partners using data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite to reveal why a population of white dwarf stars stopped cooling for more than eight billion years.

Read more: Discovery tests theory on cooling of white dwarf stars
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Upcycling lives

February 5, 2024 -

UVic geographer Jutta Gutberlet is helping communities of waste pickers in Brazil improve their working conditions, form co-operatives and advance social movements.

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Canada and Spain scientists establish new Antarctic Ocean observatory

January 16, 2024 - Media release

Canadian and European experts in polar observation are joining forces in a new partnership that will see Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) operating a subsea observatory at the Spanish Antarctic Station, providing year-round, near real-time data on ocean conditions there—the first time that ONC will extend its ocean monitoring outside Canadian waters.

Read more: Canada and Spain scientists establish new Antarctic Ocean observatory