Chasser, pour avoir la conscience tranquille

Vanessa Ahing a été végétarienne pendant plus de quatre années. Par refus de l’industrie de la viande qui, à son avis, est cruelle et nuit à l’environnement. Pourtant, un bon steak lui manquait. Pour réconcilier conscience et palais, un choix nouveau s’imposait...

Un soir de septembre, 2013, Vanessa Ahing rentrait de la campagne, où elle avait abattu son premier chevreuil. Souvenir de l’enseignante de 31ans: “J’étais toute seule. J’avais suivi une formation de chasse pour femmes, organisée par la Manitoba Wildlife Foundation. Mon chevreuil, coupé en quarts, était dans un sac de hockey dans le coffre de ma Honda Civic. C’était mon premier animal. Je voulais vivre l’expérience complète de la chasse. Donc pas question pour moi d’aller chez un boucher. D’ailleurs, j’étais étudiante. Je n’avais pas le fric pour me payer un tel service.

“Je me demandais comment j’allais faire pour préparer cette viande. Je n’ai pas été élevée dans une famille de chasseurs, ou même de jardiniers. Mes parents n’étaient pas prêts à avoir un chevreuil chez eux. Et moi, je vivais dans un petit appartement pour célibataires au centre-ville de Winnipeg.

“Il était tard. Trop tard pour dépecer l’animal tout de suite. Alors, j’ai ouvert les fenêtres de mon appartement. Je me suis endormie dans mon sac de couchage. Le lendemain, j’ai tapé ‘Comment couper de la viande de chevreuil’ sur YouTube. Et je me suis mise à l’œuvre.”

After 15 years of building North American brand, Winnipeg-based XiteBio Technologies Inc. eyes overseas markets

Out of the laboratory and into farmers’ fields.

If you had to describe Manas Banerjee’s career trajectory in fewer than 10 words, you could do a lot worse than that.

Banerjee is the CEO and founder of XiteBio Technologies Inc., an agricultural biotechnology company based in south Winnipeg, but before that, he was a researcher, scientist and professor at a number of institutions.

After earning a PhD in soil microbiology from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, Banerjee moved to Canada. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, a research associate at the University of Manitoba and an adjunct professor at Western University (Ontario), publishing numerous papers and book chapters related to soil science.

David Suzuki is turning 90. Environmentalists may have ‘lost, big time,’ but he still has hope

David Suzuki admits defeat — at least in some respects.

The geneticist-turned-environmentalist, who is days away from his 90th birthday, reflected on his legacy as he prepared to release his latest book, "Lessons from a Lifetime," which compiles photos and stories from his life, as well as testimonials written by those he inspired.

"To me, the important legacy that I want to tell my grandchildren is, look, I tried. I love you. I did the best I could for you. And I tried," he said on a video call last month.

"The measure of a person is not whether they succeeded — because we've lost, environmentalists have lost, big time — but that we tried."

Pioneering scientist Suzuki reflects on his life’s work

It is hard to believe that Vancouver’s David Suzuki, an internationally renowned geneticist and environmental activist best-known in Canada for his popular television series The Nature of Things with David Suzuki, turns 90 years old on March 24.

The delicate art of pressing flowers

When early explorers travelled the four corners of the world in search of botanical treasures and plant knowledge, they faced many challenges collecting and transporting live plant material. In the 19th century, the development of the Wardian case — a glazed box that held soil and water — enhanced the survival rate of live plants on long sea journeys.

But highly detailed botanical illustrations also served as a visual record for early botanists and scientists to study plants from distant parts of the world. The technique of pressing and drying all the parts of individual plants on paper made it possible to preserve plant specimens.

Today, herbariums around the world, including those at Manitoba Museum and the University of Manitoba, house extensive collections of pressed, dried plants stored in specialized, climate-controlled conditions. Scientists use these specimens to determine the rarity of species and understand environmental changes.

Enduring art form

U of M partners with firm behind proposed sand mine to study Manitoba groundwater

University of Manitoba researchers will soon have a new, non-invasive tool to study the province’s vast groundwater resources after inking a partnership with Alberta-based mining company Sio Silica.

“If the technology works … it’s going to provide a mechanism to do real-time monitoring of changes in groundwater,” Ricardo Mantilla, an associate professor in the university’s civil engineering department and lead researcher for the project, said in an interview.

The emerging technology — called absolute quantum gravimetry — can measure changes in gravity caused by changes in groundwater levels, allowing researchers to better understand the flow and storage of underground water resources without the need for “expensive and disruptive” drilling, he said.

“That obviously has applications for (Sio Silica), but it can have very important implications for how we understand groundwater in aquifers in our province.”

U of M chemist earns award for work on new drug candidate for treating Lou Gehrig’s disease

A University of Manitoba PhD candidate with a dramatic life story has been awarded the Mitacs Innovation Award for co-inventing an aspiring new drug candidate for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, announced Monday.

“I thought, like, it’s a spam call. Then someone told me that, ‘You have been selected for the (award),’ so I was numb for 10 to 20 seconds,” says medicinal chemist Nitesh Sanghai, currently pursuing a doctorate at the U of M’s college of pharmacy under the supervision of Prof. Geoffrey K. Tranmer.

Sanghai doesn’t talk about “rags to riches” but instead “grass to grace” in describing his trajectory. The 43-year-old from Jharia, a small town in the Jharkhand district of India, says he was the first person in his family to pass India’s Grade 10 board examination, a gateway to further secondary and post-secondary education.

“I thought of breaking the cycle and pursuing studies with passion and privilege, which my family never had,” he says.

Winnipeg-based organization injects federal funds into innovative, women-powered business in Bolivia

With practised grace, Antonia Olpo slides down the bank of the long, shallow pond and plunges fully clothed into the muddy water. On the grass above, other women and their male helpers unfurl the net, stretching it across the pond from edge to edge, and let it sink below the surface.

Reimagining the garden

Next week, close to 100 horticultural professionals from botanical gardens and conservatories across Canada and the U.S. will be in Winnipeg for the American Public Gardens Association’s 2025 Horticulture, Greenhouse, & Facilities Symposium, which will be hosted by Assiniboine Park Conservancy at The Leaf.

City non-profit inks deal with subsidiary of leader in phosphate-based fertilizers

A Winnipeg non-profit committed to advancing digital agriculture has inked a deal with the North American subsidiary of a global leader in phosphate-based fertilizers.

Leaders from Enterprise Machine Intelligence and Learning Initiative and OCP North America signed a collaboration agreement last week. They said the collaboration will focus on advancing agricultural innovation through field-based research that will take place through EMILI’s Innovation Farms powered by AgExpert.

Innovation Farms spans more than 14,000 acres across two Manitoba farms to provide demonstrations, testing and validation of agriculture technology and production practices in commercial farm settings.

The partnership will allow EMILI to give Manitoba farmers a first-hand look at new innovations, said Jacqueline Keena, managing director.

Grey Cup week could feature game-changing economic score for Churchill, political triumph for Kinew

It is an incredible economic and political gift that could keep giving to Manitoba’s NDP government for years, if not decades, to come.

This week, Prime Minister Mark Carney released a list of five major projects that his government would fast-track to give Canada more economic independence from the United States. No Manitoba projects made that first short list, but something called “Churchill Plus” was identified as being under consideration for approval in the second round.

Churchill Plus includes improvements to the Port of Churchill in Manitoba’s North, including the provision of an icebreaker ship and possibly an all-weather road, to allow greater access to the port and provide improved transportation links for northern and Indigenous communities.

There is no way to exaggerate the economic and political dividends that could flow from Churchill Plus.

Great potential in Churchill port project — but…

Prime Minister Mark Carney, seeking to bolster Canadian economic power at a time when its closest ally and trading partner is becoming increasingly hostile, wants to get started on some nation-building projects. Among them, he has indicated, is one to make some serious upgrades to Churchill’s port, funding for which is expected to be announced soon.

Eight docs recruited to work in western Manitoba

Eight doctors from around the world have signed on to work in clinics across the Prairie Mountain Health region through a provincial program.

Six doctors have set up practice in Swan River, Neepawa, Roblin and Virden, while two physicians are scheduled to begin in Souris and Swan River in mid-September. All were recruited by the Medical Licensure Program for International Medical Graduates, which helps physicians gain Canadian citizenship or permanent residency in exchange for working in communities in desperate need of doctors.

The physicians are from Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, the Philippines and Bangladesh. In exchange for assisting foreign-trained doctors to become fully licensed to practise in Manitoba, they’ve agreed to practise in those communities for at least four years.

While the program has been used since 2001 to recruit doctors to the underserved Westman area , the local health authority has ramped up efforts in the past two years to improve the chance that internationally trained doctors establish roots in rural Manitoba. The hope is that they’ll stay more than four years.

Commuter traffic stops for whales on Australia’s humpback highway

PORT STEPHENS, Australia (AP) — The ferry was late, but not because of the usual traffic. Sydney commuters watched from an idling boat this month as humpback whales the size of buses surfaced nearby, halting the vessel’s passage across the harbor. The curious mammals seemed to be watching them back.

In June and July, it’s not uncommon for whales to stop water traffic in Sydney. Winter heralds the opening of the so-called humpback highway, a migratory corridor along Australia's east coast used by about 40,000 of the massive creatures as they travel from feeding grounds in freezing Antarctica to tropical breeding areas off Queensland state.

“It’s blubber to blubber,” said Dr. Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Sydney and author of the book “Humpback Highway.” During peak traffic periods the bustling coastal city of 5.5 million people becomes one of the world’s few urban centers where you might see a breaching whale on your morning walk, while buying a coffee, or waiting at a bus stop – anyplace you can see the ocean.

Whales cruise close to shore

Pray for rain — and plant more trees

As I write this, Saskatchewan is under another air-quality alert as smoke from Alberta and B.C. drift over to cast a shadow on what would typically be a sunny June day.

With ‘Atmosphere,’ Taylor Jenkins Reid leaves the Evelyn Hugo-verse behind and travels to space

Taylor Jenkins Reid recalls a moment writing her new novel, “Atmosphere: A Love Story,” set against NASA's robust 1980s shuttle program, where she felt stuck. She went, where she often goes, to her husband to talk it through.

“I said, ‘I can’t write this book. I don’t know enough about the space shuttle. I don’t know what happens when the payload bay doors won’t shut and you have to get back within a certain amount of revs, but they can’t land at White Sands. They have to land at Cape Kennedy.’ And he's like, ‘Just listen to yourself. You know so much more than you knew a couple months ago. Keep doing what you’re doing.'”

“Atmosphere," out Tuesday, follows the journey of astronomer Joan Goodwin, an astronomer selected to join NASA's astronaut program. She and fellow trainees become like family and achieve their dream of going to space — until tragedy strikes.

The story unfolds in two timelines: One when Joan first joins the NASA program and the other in December 1984 when a mission goes terribly wrong. The duo behind “Captain Marvel,” Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, are adapting the book into a film with a theatrical release in mind.

‘Special to the world’: Supporters hope to save beloved Drumheller dinosaur

DRUMHELLER - A plan to send Tyra the tyrannosaurus, the popular tourist attraction that towers over the skyline in Drumheller, Alta., into proverbial extinction has sparked demands that she be spared.

The town of 8,400 northeast of Calgary bills itself as the Dinosaur Capital of the World. Home to the famed Royal Tyrrell Museum, the community also has statues of dinosaurs that look like they've crawled out of "The Flintstones" cartoon greeting people on the streets.

There's an extinct reptile riding a motorcycle. A triceratops in a frilly dress sits on a bus bench. Another dinosaur wearing a fireman's hat and holding a hose is poised outside a fire station.

The biggest is Tyra, standing across from the intersection of Gorgosaurus Street and Tyrannosaurus Drive near a visitor information centre. A nearby ice cream stand offers fossils, T-shirts and dino toys.

Paleontologist makes strides toward understanding the way mosasaurs behaved

Maximilian Scott is a vertebrate paleontologist who focuses on extinct animal behaviour and behavioural evolution. Scott, 27, from Ovid, Mich., is in the last year of his master’s degree at the University of Manitoba studying mosasaurs, an ancient marine lizard that lived in Manitoba during the late-Cretaceous period.

He also offers tutoring in geology, biology, animal behaviour and conservation to people of all ages. You can find him on Instagram.

Our story doesn’t start with the first book that was written, our story starts a long time before that, a long time before the first humans. It’s all one long story.

Humans have only existed for 200,000 years. The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years. Life has been around for three billion years, and complex life has been around for 542 million years.

Manitoba-born scientist Peebles wins Nobel Prize in physics

The most recent Canadian recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics, cosmologist James Peebles, will be honoured with about $600,000 in prize money — and his picture will hang in at least one Winnipeg dorm room.

"He has become an icon of mine since today, this morning," said Harshan Singh, an aspiring physicist enrolled in his first-year at the University of Manitoba. "I will probably put his picture on my wall and then look at him every morning."

The Winnipeg-born, U of M educated Peebles' theories predicted the existence of dark matter and dark energy, as well as a distant radio signal created after the Big Bang.

There was a "muted murmur" among the world's scientists that he should have won the Nobel Prize 41 years ago, when two other scientists were awarded it for stumbling on the faint signals from space Peebles had first theorized with a colleague, according to the U of M newspaper archives.