PhD

At 30 years old, Michelle Kunimoto already has more than 3,000 planet candidates under her belt.Inspired by science fiction and curiosity, the University of British Columbia astronomy graduate is passionate about searching for exoplanets — bodies orbiting stars outside our own solar system.She's currently leading a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hunting for them. In 2024, Kunimoto will return to her alma mater as an assistant professor in UBC's department of physics and astronomy."She is an…

Well, it’s been about a hundredth of a femtosecond, let’s see what people are trying to port Doom onto now. Oh my, would you look at that! It appears as though it’s possible to get id Software’s iconic FPS to “run” on cells. In a meeting of technology and biology, PhD student Lauren “Ren” Ramlan at MIT (as shared by Reddit user AnNdPh) has figured out a way to use E. coli cells to sort of run Doom. Now, I’m not scientifically minded, so I don’t fully understand how they do it.…

As Hurricane Larry lashed Newfoundland in 2021, university students from Halifax headed to a rural area in its track to find out whether the ocean might whip microplastics up into the atmosphere then transport them by air to otherwise pristine communities.The results, you could say, blew their socks off."It was such, like, an astonishing result that we weren't really expecting," said Anna Ryan, a Dalhousie University environmental science masters student and the study's lead researcher. To test their theory, the…

Representation of doctorate recipients with disabilities working in STEM across categories of academic career milestones. a, Faculty rank. b, Tenure status. c, Academic administrator (Dean/President). d, Received federal funding for their work/research. Proportions are survey-weighted and age-standardized. Data are presented as percentages and 95% CI. Two-tailed chi-square tests were used and no multiple comparisons were performed. For each panel, the…

Everyone knows Leo Tolstoy’s line about unhappy families, but few are familiar with his lesser known first draft: every insane PhD student goes insane in their own special way.In my case, this involved watching about 15 different Hollywood action movies over and over again; by the final fortnight before submission, I had the same films playing in a separate tab while I wrote, like background music. A major aspect of my PhD (explaining my exact thesis would take longer than this particular mission briefing has time for)…

Google Doodle June 18: On June 18, 2023, Google is celebrating the life and works of Indian scientist Kamala Sohonie, who was one of the first prominent female scientists in India. Google is celebrating Sohonie’s life on her 112th birthday through a whimsical Google Doodle. The Google Doodle today shows Indian scientist Kamala Sohonie as a colorful animated illustration on her 112th birthday, with illustrations of a microscope, scientific slides, and plants around her to signify her works in the field of…

Explore how to estimate regression parameter using R’s matrix operatorsPhoto by Breno Machado on UnsplashIntroductionI recently wrote an article that explored the matrix algebra and mathematical operations that sit behind linear regression. Now, while it’s certainly important to have a firm grasp of theoretical principles, nothing actually beats doing those calculations. So, in this follow up article, we’re going to look at how to implement those matrix operations using R.This article should be treated as a companion to…

Demystifying the Data Science Behind 2022's Physics Nobel PrizeStatistics is a core pillar of data science, yet its assumptions are not always fully tested. This is exacerbated by the rise of quantum computing, where even statistical axioms can be violated. In this article, we explore just how quantum physics breaks statistics, and uncover ways to understand it using data science analogies.2022’s physics Nobel came down to doing coin-flips, and finding out that quantum physics violated the basic laws of statistics…

Looking under the hood at the matrix operations behind linear regressionPhoto by Mingwei Lim on UnsplashIntroductionFor most, simple linear regression is a common starting point for understanding model-based estimation and model comparison. Regardless of whether you’re taking an introductory statistics or data science course, you can bet your bottom dollar that linear regression will crop up at some point. And there’s a good reason for it.Simple linear regression provides a natural extension of simple descriptive…

Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This weekly newsletter is part of a CBC News initiative entitled "Our Changing Planet" to show and explain the effects of climate change. Keep up with the latest news on our Climate and Environment page.Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Thursday.This week:Meet 2 PhD students who are trying to make environmental field work more accessibleThe ecological fallout of the SpaceX rocket launchDirty spring snow carries more than dirt — including pollutants we…