Canada Foundation for Innovation

This podcast is about curious researchers, leading-edge science and the joys of discovery and gets its name from Thomas Edison who said, “I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Researcher Kelsey Leonard, member of the Shinnecock Nation and founder of the Wampum Lab at the University of Waterloo, delves into ocean, water and climate justice. Shinnecock is a dialect derived from the Algonquian language. It means “people of the stony shores.” It’s along the stony shores of the Shinnecock Nation, on the Atlantic-facing eastern coast of New York’s Long Island that Kelsey Leonard developed her passion for the water. Undergraduate studies took her to Samoa and graduate studies brought her to the University of Waterloo, where she is now the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability.

(Available only in French) This is a podcast about curious researchers, leading-edge science and the joys of discovery. Our podcast gets its name from Thomas Edison who said, “I have not failed. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Ocean science research is at a pivotal moment according to Guillaume St-Onge, Director of the Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski at Université du Québec à Rimouski. Canada abounds with ocean science expertise and technology, yet its fleet of research vessels has seen better days. Should we be concerned about how this will impact Canadian research in marine geology, physical oceanography, marine biology and marine chemistry? In this episode, a professor of marine geology at Université du Québec à Rimouski and Canada Research Chair in Marine Geology lets us in on his thoughts. Want to know more? Guillaume St-Onge: Guillaume St-Onge's personal page on ISMER's website (French only) Guillaume St-Onge's personal page on UQAR's website (French only ) Canada Research Chair in Marine Geology (French only ) Profile of Guillaume St-Onge on the Fonds de recherche du Québec website (French only ) Facility and partnerships: Navigator's profile for the Paleomagnetism and Marine Geology Laboratory Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski (ISMER) of Université du Québec à Rimouski (French only) Paleomagnetism and Marine geology Laboratory Réseau Québec maritime (RQM) (French only) Institut France-Québec maritime (IFQM) (French only) Articles about Guillaume St-Onge’s research (in publication order, from most recent to oldest): L’UQAR obtient le renouvellement de sa Chaire de recherche du Canada en géologie marine [UQAR gets its Canada Research Chair in Marine Geology Renewed], by Jean-François Bouchard, published in UQAR-INFO (August 30, 2023) L'UQAR et ses partenaires reçoivent 154M$ du Fonds d’excellence en recherche Apogée Canada pour l’action climatique et le rôle des océans [UQAR and its partners receive $154 million in funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund for climate action and the role of oceans], from the UQAR communications department (May 4, 2023) Remonter dans le temps pour mieux connaître les risques de séismes dans l’estuaire [Going back in time to better understand the risks of earthquakes in the estuary], by Julie Tremblay, published in Radio-Canada ICI Bas-Saint-Laurent (January 19, 2023) Le chercheur Guillaume St-Onge à l’honneur dans Québec Science [Researcher Guillaume St-Onge in the spotlight with Québec Science], with Bis Petitpas, episode on Radio-Canada’s Bonjour la Côte (January 19, 2023) Tremblements de fleuve [River earthquakes], by Joël Leblanc, published in Québec Science(January 12, 2023) Un chercheur de l’UQAR figure pour une quatrième fois parmi les dix découvertes de l’année de Québec Science [UQAR researcher named for the fourth time in Québec Science’s top ten discoveries of the year], by Jean-François Bouchard, published in UQAR-INFO (January 12, 2023) Apogée, un programme de recherche sur les océans sans précédent [An unprecedented marine research program], by Jean-François Bouchard, published in UQAR-INFO (January 9, 2023) Articles of interest on topics addressed in the podcast: Prédire le comportement futur du champ magnétique terrestre [Predicting the future behaviour of Earth’s magnetic field], by Pauline Gravel, published in Le Devoir (February 20, 2016) Le secret du cratère des Pingualuit [The secret of the Pingualuit crater], by Joël Leblanc, published in Québec Science (December 13, 2012) Information about the research vessels mentioned in the podcast: The Coriolis II, ISMER web page (French only) The Coriolis II, REFORMAR web page Le Coriolis II, un laboratoire flottant pour des recherches océanographiques [The Coriolis II, a floating laboratory for marine research], by Valérian Mazataud, Guillaume Levasseur, Alexis Riopel, published in Le Devoir (August 12, 2023) The Listening River , dossier written by Pascaline David,...

Welcome to 10,000 ways. This is a podcast about curious researchers, leading-edge science, and the joys of discovery. York University’s Pirathayini Srikantha studies power grid systems with the aim of keeping Canada’s infrastructure safe from fluctuations and hackers. Find out why she’s passionate about power. Our power grid is vulnerable. For one thing, it’s aging. For another, it’s prone to hackers. In the meantime, climate change means we need to find ways to integrate renewable energy sources that are intermittent with the shining sun or blowing wind. To avoid the crippling cost of replacing this infrastructure, jurisdictions must find ways to adapt. Pirathayini Srikantha, from York University’s, Lassonde School of Engineering, is an award-winning engineer who is confronting these multiple challenges.

(This podcast is available only in French) Alexandre Langlois is passionate about all aspects of his job. As a researcher in Northern Canada, he studies the fastest-warming place on the planet and presents data on the issues that await us in terms of climate change. Like a high-level athlete, Alexandre Langlois has been training since the age of nine to live in extreme cold conditions. Today, his research in physical geography provides him with a unique understanding of the evolution of the Earth, past and future and his observations on the relationship between man and nature leave him with clear insights about the impact of humans on the climate and environment.

On a cold March 2, 2004, Carla Prado arrived on the doorsteps of the University of Alberta. She left behind her native Brazil to fulfill a dream of studying abroad. Today, she is an academic leader in body composition research who passionately shares the benefits of protein-rich diets in the treatment of cancer. She uses social media and classic movies like The Wizard of Oz to help explain the science behind by her research.

(This podcast is available only in French) Simone Dalla Bella of Montréal’s International Laboratory for BRAin, Music and Sound Research asks “How can music help us in our daily tasks? And how can it slow down the deleterious effects of diseases such as Parkinson’s?” Why is it that some people who are perfectly capable of hearing a beat still can’t dance? Researchers at the International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research are trying to establish a correlation between music and cognitive skills such as speech, memory, attention span and a host of other executive functions. Their research findings could lead to major breakthroughs for people with cognitive impairments.

Leyla Soleymani is Canada’s Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices. Her passion for the miniature world of nanotech and her commitment to collaboration have led her and her colleagues at McMaster University to inventions ranging from rapid tests that use pig saliva to disease detection to a plastic wrap that repels pathogens like rain drops off a lotus leaf.

For many, RNA vaccines seem to have appeared out of nowhere. The curious and the hesitant have wondered how a vaccine to fight COVID-19 could have been brought to market so quickly. In fact, messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have been in development for over three decades. Here is the story about a persistent RNA vaccine pioneer and her socially connected admirer, University of British Columbia researcher, Anna Blakney.

This podcast is only available in French. Une chercheuse à l’Université de Montréal se concentre sur le sommeil des femmes. Julie Carrier of the Université de Montréal has devoted her academic career to the fascinating world of sleep, using equipment she received from the CFI to monitor the slumber patterns and sleep disorders of her test subjects. When she began her studies more than 20 years ago, little was known about women and sleep. Now, an aging population and the effects of menopause on sleep make Carrier’s research more relevant than ever. In celebration of International Women’s Day, Carrier has pledged to focus her research more on women and sleep. She begins this podcast by telling us why women weren’t considered ideal candidates for these kinds of studies when she first started her research. This podcast is part of an International Women’s Day podcast series called Groundbreakers.

This podcast is only available in French. A researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre explores ways to improve drugs Stéphane Laporte, a researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, became interested in pharmacological research when he noticed just how often drugs were associated with harmful side effects. In his lab at the Centre for Translational Biology, Laporte and his team are working to understand how pharmaceutical drugs work on the body in order to find ways to minimize unwanted side effects. READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

This podcast is only available in French. One of the co-founders of LensVector talks about the origins of their molecular lens. Tigran Galstian, professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics at Université Laval and co-founder of LensVector, explains the invention of a molecular lens that could, among other things, improve our cellphones. Tigran Galstian received the David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction at the Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards ceremony on October 22, 2014.

This podcast is only available in French. A researcher at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre studies the link between genetics and cardiovascular disease. In the 1980s, when Jacques Genest was starting out in the Faculty of Medicine, cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death among Canadians. Dr. Genest and his team built on advances in molecular genetics to discover multiple genes that predispose people to early cardiovascular disease and tested many drugs to fight them. At the McConnell Centre for Innovative Medicine of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Genest continues to study familial hypercholesterolemia using genetic screening to identify other family members at risk of this asymptomatic disease and give them medical treatments to mitigate the danger. READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Ian Clark, professor of Earth sciences at the University of Ottawa, explains how radiocarbon dating using an accelerator mass spectrometer can help resolve significant issues surrounding contaminated environments. This podcast is part of an in-depth report on the Advanced Research Complex.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Constantin Polychronakos has devoted his career to studying the genetics of juvenile diabetes and treating children afflicted with the disease. As head of the Child Health and Human Development Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, he is working towards new interventions to replace the need for painful daily insulin injections. READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Basil Petrof heads the Program for Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. His research group participated in a clinical trial that proved the efficacy of a new therapy that burns away the muscle tissue in the lungs of asthmatic patients to help open their airways. It’s this kind of cutting-edge discovery that Petrof expects will move more rapidly from concept to proven treatment thanks to the new facilities at the RI-MUHC. READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. PhD student in Oceanography at the Université Laval, Jordan Grigor, discusses his research on the Arctic arrow worm, known as the tiger of the plankton. He also gives a glimpse into life aboard the CCGS Amundsen, Canada's only dedicated Arctic research vessel. Image credit: Cyril Aubry

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. In 2001, pediatrician and epidemiologist Michael Kramer and his colleagues published the largest ever randomized trial on breastfeeding which followed 17,000 babies into their teenage years and showed links between how exclusively and for how long they were breastfed and improved cognitive development at an early school age. Kramer will oversee these types of important population health studies as the director for the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Leslie Weir, the first female university librarian at the University of Ottawa, led a team who received $20 million from the CFI in 1997 to help 64 Canadian university libraries make the leap from print to digital. Prior to the Canadian Site Licensing Project, researchers — or their grad students, Weir says coyly — would physically track down articles in paper journals buried in the library stacks. After the project was launched in the early 2000s, Weir says researchers had access to more digital publications than they’d ever had before. That blast of on-demand information fundamentally shifted how research was done in Canada and became a model for countries around the world. In this podcast, Weir talks about her path to becoming the innovative librarian who led this project, with a story that begins on a day that tragedy shook the world. This podcast is part of an International Women’s Day podcast series called Groundbreakers.

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. Pediatrician and epidemiologist Michael Kramer studies the long-term effects of pre-term births, including by Caesarean section or induced labour, as well as other adverse pregnancy outcomes such as still births and infant mortality. He will oversee these types of important population health studies as the director for the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. READ: Research institute puts Canada at the forefront of health care

Ce balado est uniquement disponible en anglais. The University of Victoria’s Verena Tunnicliffe recalls the open hostility she faced when she first began boarding research ships to conduct her oceanographic studies. In one instance, the cook refused to sail, saying it was either him or her. Guess who walked that plank? Tunnicliffe persevered, despite the male-dominated nautical culture, to answer fundamental questions about deep sea ecosystems off the west coast. She was one of the lead researchers who used CFI-funds to build VENUS, a system of interconnected underwater cables that beam real-time measurements from the sea floor to onshore computers. Such on-demand access has opened the field for many female researchers who would otherwise have had to choose between a career in science and raising a family. In this podcast, Tunnicliffe takes us to the deepest, darkest corners of the ocean where some of the creepiest experiments have occurred. Her story begins in the 1980s as one of the only woman on board a research ship at sea in the Pacific Ocean where she experienced a few dark moments. This podcast is part of an International Women’s Day podcast series called Groundbreakers.