The waggish joke that wolves are “Canada’s newest marine mammal” is a lot closer to truth than jest—an insight suggested by Indigenous knowledge and confirmed in a study co-authored by Dr. Chris Darimont, of UVic’s geography department. The study, published this month in the scientific journal BMC Ecology, provides genetic evidence that BC’s mainland wolves and coastal wolves appear to be genetically distinct. And news media around the world are paying attention: in addition to Canadian coverage in The Globe and Mail, National Post and CTV, the story has also been broadcast—with video of wolves fishing for salmon—on BBC News in the UK.

Try to imagine holding one trillion subatomic particles between two cupped hands. The elaborate choreography of subatomic particles would of course be invisible to the naked eye, but for years now, UVic experts have been tracking the complexities of this very elusive behavior using sophisticated equipment. In recent months, their research has brought us even closer to holding the answers to the beginnings of the universe and its building blocks.