Research & Ideas

Watchful Eyes

Security cameras are everywhere. A new app invites Torontonians to help map them

Personalized Medication

Genetic testing may reveal what pharmaceutical drugs work best for you, with the fewest side effects

Subway to Mecca

The Saudi Arabian city is wrestling with a transit problem of Koranic proportions

Illustration by Pui Yan Fong

Perfect Harmony

A new U of T research centre will investigate the curative power of music

Illustration of a heart, ear, and brain.

How Music Gets Inside

At its simplest, music is just sound. And sound is just vibration. So how does it get inside us, and influence us?

Photo of woman with a megaphone at a protest.

Revolutionary Road

Forty years ago, an intrepid group of professors and students sparked progress for women across U of T

Dr. Marcelo Cypel and Dr. Shaf Keshavjee.

A Cut Above

U of T researchers have devised a way to refurbish donor lungs before they’re transplanted

Photo by Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources - Forestry Archive

Debugging

A forestry prof believes a local parasite could help protect Ontario’s ash trees from a deadly invader

Chinese Propaganda Poster

Labour Days

Chinese propaganda posters from the 1960s celebrate work as an act of nation-building

Illustration of a computer screen window over a medical illustration of a body.

Seeing Disease

Researchers are developing better ways to detect serious illnesses before they become life-threatening – and while they’re still treatable

Illustration of a vivid night sky: a planet at the top with a figure in silhouette small at the centre.

Planet Hunters

With the discovery of hundreds of worlds around other stars, will we find that Earth is not alone in bearing life?

Photo of flooding in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Flood Control

As New Orleans rebuilds, U of T students are helping the city rethink its approach to water management

Safer Births

Equipping health workers in Kenya with smartphones could bring better care to pregnant women and their infants

Photo of a woman's hands holding an elderly woman's hand.

Elderburbia

A term for Canada's growing population of senior citizens

Illustration of the sun shining down on solar panels on vines/stalks.

Power Plants

A blueprint for an “artificial leaf” could lead to solar cells that generate a lot more power

Eggplants

Roadside Harvest

Toxic elements in most city-grown vegetables are at acceptable levels, according to a new study. But be careful of the eggplant!

Image of solar ship in a desert

Solar-Powered Flight

A new kind of aircraft could fly 1,000 km powered only by the sunlight that shines on its back

Peer Pressure

A nursing prof is using social networks to help reduce the spread of HIV-AIDS in Ghana

Bev Bradley

Breath of Life

Bev Bradley is developing technology to give hospitals in low-income countries a more reliable supply of medical oxygen

Image of a Canadian $100 bill under a microscope

Business Boot Camp

U of T’s “technopreneur” program gives scientists such as Mallika Das a crash course in running their own company

Photo of music notes on a screen.

Is That Mozart, or a Machine?

Software developed at U of T can compose music in classical, pop or jazz styles – and as a solo or an ensemble of different instruments

Bad Drivers?

U of T study shatters myth that recent immigrants cause more car accidents than other Canadians

McLuhan at the CBC in Toronto, January 1966 Photo: Henri Daumain, for Life Magazine, Courtesy of The Estate of Marshall McLuhan

Marshall’s Laws

Fifty years after the publication of his most famous works, we’re still making sense of all Marshall McLuhan had to say

Illustration of a face made of puzzle pieces.

Mind Games

Doctors have been trying for decades to classify mental illnesses. So why do precise definitions still elude us?

Photo by Dave Brosha

Timing is Everything

Modern life is 24-7, but there may be negative consequences to defying our body's internal clock

Photo: Keith Beaty/Getstock.com

Ode to Joy

Master’s student Eric Wan helped develop software that allows anyone, including people with severe physical disabilities, to make music

Photo of Aakash Sahney and Alexander Levy by Brent Lewin

Say the Right Thing

Student-developed app helps people with speech problems express themselves – at a fraction of the cost of other devices

Photo of Alexandra Lysova

Always the Victim?

A criminology student questions long-standing assumptions about women and domestic violence

Image of a tower behind a Euro symbol covered in stars

Europe’s Debt Troubles

With the markets betting on a Greek default, and the situation in Spain deteriorating, a second global financial crisis looms