Processed meat generally refers to meats preserved by smoking, curing, salting or otherwise adding chemicals, such as sodium nitrite. Many studies over the years have examined whether they increase risk of cancer and other diseases, and concluded that they have.
In the 1970s, scientists thought the culprit was the additive, sodium nitrite, which gives processed meats their taste and characteristic pink hue, and acts as a preservative. But Professor Levente Diosady, Director of the Food Engineering Program in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, says sodium nitrite doesn’t pose a health risk directly, though it can react with amines that occur naturally in foods like cheese and meat to form tiny amounts of nitrosamines, which are carcinogens.
But it looks like sodium nitrite itself is not a bad thing—and it exists naturally in vegetables, particularly celery, lettuce, beets, radishes and spinach, which absorb sodium nitrate from the soil.
So what is the problem with processed meats? Scientists are not sure. Says Diosady, “If there were a single cause, science would be on top of it by now. It’s complex.”
Experts say it could be the smoking process in smoked meats, the salt, the fat … This much is known: We should be cautious about how much processed meat we eat.
Follow the link to read the full article in Best Health online.
Toronto mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi’s latest promise is to extend the Allen Expressway underground all the way to the Gardiner Expressway, complete with a subterranean bike lane. Rossi announced Monday that, if elected on Oct. 25, his four-year term would include the start of construction on an eight-kilometre “Toronto Tunnel” toll road starting where the Allen ends at Eglinton Ave. West.
Professor Eric Miller, a transportation planner and director of the University of Toronto’s Cities Centre, called the idea “a complete non-starter.” Gridlock on the Gardiner would back up traffic in the tunnel, creating a new bottleneck without adding capacity to the road system, he said.
“It’s not going to move people any faster,” Professor Miller said. “The only way to seriously reduce congestion on Toronto streets is to get more people on subways, buses and streetcars.”
Follow the link to read the full article on the Toronto Star website.
A group of Canadian companies announced their intention today to form a consortium to help advance electric mobility in Canada.
Code-named “Project EVE,” the consortium represents an effort by companies across Canada with key electric mobility components, such as electric motors and drive trains, battery management systems, lithium battery recycling capabilities, auxiliary power technologies, chargers, smart grid and data grid technologies, cognitive car technologies, advanced materials expertise, rapid prototyping technologies and advanced engineering and design skills to bring together their technologies and improve how they work together in electric vehicles (EVs).
In addition to businesses, the consortium has formed alliances with The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Red Deer College.
“Project EVE is exactly the kind of ambitious, cross-disciplinary initiative that Canada needs in order to rapidly establish a global leadership position in electric mobility. We look forward to participating in exciting research projects related to power electronics, battery management and advanced materials that will help to develop the next generation of Canadian EV experts,” said Assistant Professor Olivier Trescases (ECE).
Project EVE is an open consortium and discussions are underway with additional participants.
As reported on MuchmorCanada magazine’s website.
Professors Stewart Aitchison (ECE) and Harry Ruda (MSE) have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), one of Canada’s most prestigious academic honours.
The RSC is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scholars, artists and scientists. It consists of nearly 2,000 Fellows, who are selected by their peers for outstanding contributions to the natural and social sciences, the arts and the humanities.
“Professors Aitchison and Ruda are acknowledged as groundbreaking leaders in their fields, not just in Canada but on a global level,” said Dean Cristina Amon.
“They are most deserving of this honour and we are delighted that the RSC has recognized their extraordinary achievements.”
Stewart Aitchison, the Faculty’s Vice-Dean, Research, is a world leader in the field of nonlinear optics, and considered the leading researcher in the area of spatial optical solutions. His research has resulted in 214 journal publications, which have been cited more than 4,800 times, and in more than 250 conference publications.
In addition, Professor Aitchison has seven patents, which have led to the creation and growth of four new companies. From 2004 to 2007 he was Director of the Emerging Communications Technology Institute, where he worked towards the establishment of open access micro- and nano-fabrication facilities. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (London) and the Optical Society of America.
Harry Ruda is an international leader in the synthesis and understanding of the behaviour of semiconductor nanostructures, with seminal contributions dating back to the early 1980s. These contributions are represented in 215 articles in leading journals, 125 papers in international conference proceedings, nine books, 15 patents, and more than 2,000 citations.
Professor Ruda is the Founder and Director of the Centre for Advanced Nanotechnology, Canada’s first centre for nanotechnology, which is known internationally for its innovative and leading-edge work on semiconductor nanostructures. He also co-founded the National Centre of Excellence in Photonics, which supports the research of 90 of Canada’s top professors at 20 universities.
Professors Aitchison and Ruda will be inducted into the RSC at a ceremony at the National Gallery of Canada on November 27th.
Follow the link to read the story about the Royal Society of Canada fellows and medallists for 2010 on the University of Toronto website.
Freshly selected to command the International Space Station, astronaut Chris Hadfield characterized the opportunity as a coup for Canada among nations exploring space. Hadfield will lead the station and its six crew during the latter half of a six-month stay that begins in December 2012.
“To be trusted with their lives and with that entire station on behalf of all the world’s space-faring nations, most specifically on behalf of Canada is a tremendous honour,” Hadfield said.
The announcement at Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil, Que. on Thursday is another feather in the cap of Canada’s space program. Hadfield will be only the second non-American and non-Russian to command the station, a partnership of the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. Bob Thirsk became the first from this country to spend six months aboard the orbiting laboratory.
“Canadians have been known to achieve remarkable things on a limited budget,” said Professor Robert Zee (UTIAS), Director of the University of Toronto’s Space Flight Laboratory. “We’ve made numerous contributions to the international effort in space, not only in collaboration with other nations on specific missions, but also in building our own technologies and our own spacecraft, and having our own missions.”
Follow the link to read the full article on the Toronto Star website.
When he was nine years old, Rob Spence used a gun to explode a pile of cow dung at his grandfather’s farm. The recoil seriously damaged Spence’s right eye. Twenty-five years and many painful surgeries later, Spence had surgery to remove it.
Now Spence, 38, a Toronto filmmaker, is leading a team of inventors, engineers and ocular experts trying to perfect a prosthetic eye camera. His sixth prototype of what he calls the eyeborg was unveiled this week at the Other Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia, a festival for and about people with disabilities.
“It’s like a cellphone. If you stuck a cellphone inside your head it wouldn’t work as well,” says Professor Steve Mann (ECE), author of Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer.
Professor Mann filed a patent in 2000 for an implantable camera prosthetic eye, the basis for the eyeborg prototypes. Progress has been slow because there is little financial interest in the project.
“There’s a big jump between prototype and production, something that is working well and is robust in the field,” says Professor Mann, who is working separately on eye glasses to help the visually impaired see better.
Follow the link to read the full article on the Toronto Star website.