The Last Man to Know Everything Jacqueline Whyte Appleby, Faculty of Information Alexander Pope advises us: “a little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.” Just how deeply do we need to drink to be an expert? And how have our expectations of these depths changed through the ages? […]

HIV: The Basics Wendy Dobson-Belaire, Molecular Genetics The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is one of the plagues of the 20th and 21st century. Despite many concerted efforts, no cure or vaccine yet exists. This talk will focus on the basics of the virus, how and what cells it infects, and discuss some of the current […]

Portraits of Planets in Other Solar Systems Bryce Croll, Astronomy Over 300 planets have been discovered to date in solar systems other than our own. The characteristics of these planets have been odder and more diverse than our simple theories suggested and that we could even imagine in our wildest dreams. In the past 15 […]

Curated by Sarah Johnson Multisensory Self-Motion Perception in Real and Simulated Spaces Jenny Campos, PhD, Research Scientist, iDAPT, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Adjunct Member, Centre for Vision Research, York University When we move through our environment, both dynamic visual information and body-based cues (i.e. muscles, joints and the acceleration detectors in the inner ear) jointly specify […]

Treating Aphasia: Reflections on the Medical and Social Models of Rehabilitation Heather Farrell, Speech-Language Pathology Aphasia is a condition characterized by a loss or decline in the ability to understand language or use it expressively, while other cognitive abilities remain intact. Speech-language pathologists–whose primary professional role is to assess and treat communication disorders–approach aphasia intervention […]

curated by Dylan Gordon “A Real Queer Fish”: Oysters, Mashers, and Homoerotic Appetites in Tipping the Velvet Abi Dennis, English Sarah Waters’s neo-Victorian novel, Tipping the Velvet (1998), follows the picaresque adventures of Nancy Astley, a seemingly artless and somewhat naive English oyster girl with a passion for the music halls. In this presentation, I […]

Fidelity in Nature Anna Price, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Darwin viewed reproduction as a co-operative process involving a male and a female, where mutual mate choice leads to the production of high-quality offspring, which benefits both sexes. However, more recent theory and observation reveal that there is nothing inherently co-operative about male-female interactions. In many […]

Supernovae: Bridge to the Supernatural Santiago Gonzalez, Astronomy We report anguishing tales of death and afterlife in the fascinating world of stars in space. Occasionally, the normally peaceful and harmonious ambiance of your galactic neighbourhood is disturbed by dreadful and terrible catastrophic events. What you thought was a nice cute blue giant star suddenly collapses […]

In commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall: Architectural Meat Hayley Imerman, Architecture Though seemingly elementary and self-evident, the role of the wall in architecture is far from uncontested. The idea of the wall has been the conceptual catalyst for a long lineage of architectural builders and thinkers. From the […]

It’s Not What You Say…It’s How You Responsively Vary the Physical Dimensions of Your Voice Greg Schell and Dominique Vuvan (Psychology) We propose that beyond the exchange of specific information, the physical dimensions (pitch, timbre etc.) of one’s voice can also be laden with consequential non-verbal information that helps determine social status. While these dimensions […]