news

People in Ontario who had recently been incarcerated were at far greater risk of opioid toxicity death during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study from a Simon Fraser University researcher. The study, published in the journal PLOS One , by SFU criminologist Amanda Butler and colleagues from McMaster University and the University of Toronto, assessed the impacts of the pandemic on opioid toxicity death rates for individuals exposed and not exposed to incarceration in Ontario.

Research testing new technology to more effectively locate polar bear dens across the Arctic is showing promising results. Researchers from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Brigham Young University (BYU), collaborating with Polar Bears International, hope that improving detection tools to locate dens-which are nearly invisible and buried under snow-will help efforts to protect mother polar bears and their cubs.

Antimatter is tied up in one of the world's greatest mysteries. Physics predicts that when we create matter, we also create equal amounts of antimatter. Yet there seems to be almost no antimatter in our universe, a fact that has long puzzled physicists. Now, physicists at Simon Fraser University, the University of Calgary, TRIUMF, the University of British Columbia, York University and the British Columbia Institute of Technology and research institutions from around the world have just answered a long-standing question that will lead to a deeper understanding of antimatter: Does it fall down?

In the fast-paced corporate world where stress can be an unwelcome colleague for many employees, SFU researchers have found that mindfulness can reduce workplace stress by helping to narrow employees' views of work tasks as threats. Research looking at the role of mindfulness in the workplace conducted by SFU Beedie School professor Lieke ten Brummelhuis and PhD candidate Mariana Toniolo-Barrios is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Feeling faint after your booster shot? A team of SFU researchers found that needle pain may increase the conditions that lead some people to faint. In a recent paper published in the journal Clinical Autonomic Research , the researchers suggest those with a fear of needles or history of fainting could benefit from topical anesthetics to help reduce the pain.

New research co-led by Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia shows that amplified global warming in the Canadian High Arctic drove a profound shift in the structure of a river network carved into a permafrost landscape in only 60 years. Documenting a powerful interplay among climate change, the freeze-thaw dynamics of polygonal ground and the delivery of surface water by floods as well as snow and ice melting, the team developed a new view of the physical controls governing the speed and pattern of river channel development in these fragile landscapes.

SFU engineering science professor Mirza Faisal Beg is spearheading research that could help to redefine cancer treatment. Using artificial intelligence (AI) his breakthrough research enables imaging of the human body and organ measurements much faster than traditional methods, signaling a leap forward in harnessing AI for individually personalized healthcare solutions.

Reversing a 40-year decline in Pacific salmon populations requires a collaborative approach that combines traditional Indigenous knowledge with archaeology and genomics. A new project, funded by Genome BC, involves a team of researchers from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Simon Fraser University's Department of Archaeology and the University of British Columbia's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries.

Researchers with the newly formed International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) have found scientific consensus that content labels and corrective information can help people identify and evaluate social media misinformation-but little consensus about strategies to mitigate its negative effects.

Findings from the Children's Health Policy Centre's (CHPC) scientific evaluation of the program Nurse-Family Partnership have shown that it improved maternal-reported child language and mental health at age two years. Results from the long-term randomized-controlled trial-known as the BC Healthy Connections Project (BCHCP )-were published today in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Chemotherapy is a life-saving treatment for many cancer patients. Unfortunately, many cancer drugs also cause cancer cells to mutate, which over time leads them to become more aggressive and harder to treat. SFU Molecular Biology and Biochemistry researcher Mani Larijani is exploring an unconventional approach to address this issue and improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients.

When Burnaby eighth grader Advaith S. Iyer decided to participate in the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair (GVRSF) for the first time this spring an ambitious research idea emerged. Seeking to test the cognitive load - the amount of work the brain is doing - associated with playing musical instruments, his high school laboratory equipment was insufficient for his complex experiment.

A study led by Simon Fraser University criminology researchers has found that rates of child sexual abuse (CSA) among Indigenous Canadians surveyed were three to five times higher than global estimates, while those with parents or family members who attended residential schools are at significantly greater risk of experiencing CSA.

Drug Discovered by SFU Researchers Shows Potential Life-Saving Results in Treating Cardiac Arrhythmias Scientists at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) near Philadelphia have found that a drug discovered at SFU and patented several years ago may have potential lifesaving results in the treatment of conditions leading to sudden cardiac death.

Climate change has led to earlier spring blooms for wildflowers and ocean plankton but the impacts on salmon migration are more complicated, according to new research. In a new study, published in the journal Nature, Ecology & Evolution , Simon Fraser University (SFU) researcher Sam Wilson led a set of diverse collaborators from across North America to compile the largest dataset in the world on juvenile salmon migration timing.

New research led by SFU paleobotanist Rolf Mathewes provides clues about what plants existed in the Burnaby Mountain area 40 million years ago during the late Eocene, when the climate was much warmer than it is today. The results of their plant fossil analysis were recently published in the International Journal of Plant Sciences.

Researchers at Simon Fraser University are studying the genes of superbugs to aid the development of new and effective treatments for drug-resistant bacterial infections. Superbugs are characterized as infection-causing bacteria resistant to treatment with antibiotics. -Antimicrobial resistance occurs when the disease-causing bacteria has ways to overcome the antibiotics that we use in treatment for infections,- says assistant professor Amy Lee, of SFU's Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

A collaborative study between researchers at Simon Fraser University and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has found that high logging intensity in the Interior watersheds of British Columbia is associated with warmer stream temperatures in salmon-bearing streams, potentially contributing to increased heat stress in salmon.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which killed millions across the world, had a dire impact on the ability of their loved ones to grieve. A study by Simon Fraser researchers published in the journal Illness, Crisis & Loss , calls for expanding pandemic grief support programs and increasing public awareness of the existing supports available to help lessen the emotional toll.

Simon Fraser scientists say their research on the latest fossil find near Princeton, B.C. is raising questions about how the dispersal of animals and plants occurred across the Northern Hemisphere some 50 million years ago, including whether brief intervals of global warming were at play.