McGill Office for Science and Society (OSS)

11/26/2025

You’ve probably heard it before: the tip of your tongue tastes sweet, the sides taste salty, and the back tastes bitter. It shows up in classrooms, coffee tastings, and TikTok tutorials. But here’s the twist — the tongue map is a myth.

The idea came from an early 1900s study that got wildly misinterpreted. In reality, all parts of your tongue can detect all basic tastes; sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. No dramatic espresso swishing required.

So how did this myth gain traction? And who finally set the record straight? From Aristotle’s weird flavor adjectives to Virginia Collins’ myth-busting research, we’re tracing the tangled history of taste.

Get the full story — and finally free your taste buds — on our website.

https://mcgill.ca/x/iyw

Let me set the scene: it’s the evening, I’m doomscrolling in bed (as is tradition), and a video from Emma Chamberlain pops up. She's slurping espresso with a “coffee expert” who confidently explains that this technique helps spray the coffee across different “taste zones” of the tongue: ...

11/25/2025

Osteoarthritis, hair growth, acne, and even cancer are some of the many ailments targeted by light therapy 🦴💇‍♀️💡 Research showing that certain wavelengths can have beneficial effects has fueled a booming industry of “light therapy,” ranging from the utterly nonsensical to the genuinely helpful 🔦

Dr. Joe’s latest shines light on the various forms of light therapy used today 🕯️💊 While some therapies may have real merit, he cautions against shadowy clinics ⚠️ making baseless claims about intravenous light therapy.

https://mcgill.ca/x/iyJ

11/21/2025

Ayurveda is often framed as a natural, ancient alternative to modern medicine. But what happens when tradition collides with evidence — and when cultural reverence shields practices from scrutiny?

Our latest article explores real clinical cases, including a 14-year-old patient with liver failure linked not to alcohol use (as her biopsy suggested) but to contaminated and adulterated herbal treatments. It highlights how pseudoscientific frameworks, outdated diagnostic methods, and unregulated supplements can lead to preventable harm.

This isn’t a critique of culture: it’s a reminder that all medical systems must be accountable to evidence, transparency, and patient safety.

Read the full article to examine the claims behind Ayurveda, the science uncovering its risks, and what happens when challenging misinformation becomes dangerous.

https://mcgill.ca/x/iCo

11/20/2025

“Countries that drink MILK win more NOBEL PRIZES”… according to my milk carton🥛👀. Skeptical, I decided to dig deeper. Turns out, this outlandish statement has roots in not-so-kind-of-outlandish science, with studies linking chocolate and milk consumption to Nobel wins🍫🇸🇪.

However, the catch is that we cannot accept correlation as causation, as convenient as it may be. (Of course, I wish that eating chocolate could make me win a Nobel!) Just because people in certain countries drink more milk (or eat more chocolate) doesn’t mean it’s fueling genius. These studies remind us that science can be lighthearted, but if something seems too good to be true, it might just be.

Read this week’s piece to uncover why it’s worth taking scientific claims with a healthy splash of skepticism (and milk!).

https://mcgill.ca/x/iC3

“The countries that drink MILK WIN more NOBEL PRIZES.” Imagine my surprise when I opened the fridge for some milk to add to my coffee and was greeted by this statement. Puzzled, I couldn’t help but scoff as I poured the milk into my cup. Before returning it to the fridge, I of course snapped a...

11/18/2025

Olive oil, or as Homer called it, “liquid gold,” has been used for centuries to nourish the body inside and out 🫒

Containing antioxidants and heart-healthy fats, extra-virgin olive oil is at the heart of the Mediterranean diet 🏛️🥗 and may even lower the risk of breast and colon cancer, and heart attack. But not all olive oils are created equal. Rising demand and shrinking harvests have boosted the invasion of the market by counterfeit products 🛢️❌ Some “extra-virgin” bottles may be diluted with cheaper oils or processed in ways that destroy the beneficial compounds.

Many restaurants now recognize the appeal of olive oil and offer little dishes of it instead of butter on the table. Here, the key phrase is “instead of.” Adding a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil a day to the diet is not the way to go - substituting it for other oils or saturated fats is 🔄✨ Get the whole scoop in Dr. Joe’s latest!

https://mcgill.ca/x/iCw

Homer was the supposed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two classics of Greek literature. “Supposed” because there is no real historical record of when he lived, or indeed, if he ever did live. Some historians believe that the Iliad and Odyssey were really compilations of stories passed down...

11/10/2025

The “Letters to the Editor” section of most major journals may offer more than just groundbreaking scientific discoveries. This tool may be an emerging hub wherein some scientists use artificial intelligence to compose letters to the editor in an attempt to pad their resumes ✅
Of course, one has to wonder if the chatbot letters are just the tip of the iceberg 🧊 Could there be totally fictional research papers being submitted to journals written by artificial intelligence programs? That is an ominous prospect 🧐

In Dr. Joe’s latest, we are reminded that peer review is not a guarantee that reported results and conclusions arrived at are reliable - especially with the rise of AI chatbots 🤖

https://mcgill.ca/x/iVe

Roughly three and a half million scientific papers are published globally every year in an estimated 47,000 academic journals. That’s an astonishing six papers every minute! Some are very good, some very bad, most are mediocre. The vast majority of science and medical journals are peer-reviewed, b...

11/09/2025

When Alberta’s 51,000 teachers walked off the job, it wasn’t a tantrum; it was a warning. Years of underfunding, overcrowded classrooms, and political interference have left educators burning out while students pay the price.

Despite claims that “money doesn’t matter,” the evidence is overwhelming: every dollar invested in public education returns more in health, safety, and economic benefits. Cutting school budgets isn’t fiscal prudence—it’s self-sabotage.

Alberta now spends 16 percent less per student than the Canadian average, all while funnelling more funds toward private options. When governments defund classrooms, they don’t just erode learning—they chip away at democracy itself.

Read the full story on our website and learn why education isn’t an expense, but an investment in our collective future.

https://mcgill.ca/x/iV8

Why This Matters (Even If You Don’t Live There) A public education system is the scaffolding of any democracy. It’s where young citizens learn not only arithmetic and grammar, but curiosity, empathy, and the habits of coexistence. Undermine it, and you don’t simply erode a talent pipeline, you...

11/03/2025

While today, many people point accusing fingers at pesticides, vaccines, and technology as the cause of illness or misfortune, in the past, witchcraft was deemed to be responsible 🧙‍♀️✨

From identifying "witches' teats" to the infamous swimming test, some 200,000 innocent people were burned, drowned or tortured to death with the hope of relieving the world from suffering 🔥⚖️ Even black cats fell victim to the hysteria 🐈‍⬛ They were hunted down and killed by the thousands.

Though today we no longer burn witches, people still fear what they do not understand 💭 Check out Dr. Joe’s article to learn about the ludicrous history of witch hunts and how it can help inform how we approach the unknown today 📖🕯️

https://mcgill.ca/x/iHx

11/02/2025

🧬 When most people think of DNA’s discovery, they picture Watson and Crick in 1953 holding their famous double-helix model. But that breakthrough was just the finale of a much longer story, one that began in 1869 with a Swiss chemist studying white blood cells scraped from used bandages.

For nearly a century, DNA sat in the background while scientists chased proteins as the supposed key to heredity. It took decades of persistence, rivalries, and quiet brilliance, from Friedrich Miescher’s “nuclein,” to Phoebus Levene’s building blocks, to Rosalind Franklin’s X-ray images, before the structure of DNA finally came into focus.

The result wasn’t just a scientific “eureka” moment; it transformed biology itself. The molecule once dismissed as boring became the foundation for everything from genetic testing to CRISPR.

Read all about the century-long journey, and the forgotten figures who carried the baton, on our website 👇

https://mcgill.ca/x/iHq

When most people hear about the discovery of DNA, they picture James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, triumphantly holding up a model of the double helix. But DNA’s story doesn’t begin, or end, there. In fact, the molecule that carries our genetic code had been sitting quietly in lab notebooks ...

11/01/2025

Growing up, apple season meant cider doughnuts, haystacks, and eating apples right from the tree 🍎🍂. Unfortunately, my parents hated that I bit right into them without washing. I was frustrated because I thought: “It’s straight from the tree, what could go wrong?” 🤷‍♀️

More than you would think. Even when pesticides are used, whether they be natural or synthetic, bacterial contamination - like E. coli or Salmonella 🦠 - is still a looming threat. Organic produce is certainly no exception. In this article we will break down:

🌱What it means to grow something organically 🤢Why bacterial contamination of produce should be taken seriously 💦Proper produce washing methods

The Key Takeaway? 🔑
A quick wash could be the difference between a night out and a night in the bathroom. Just because your produce has a flashy “organic” sticker on it doesn’t mean it’s clean🚰

Read more 👇
https://mcgill.ca/x/iHS

Growing up, the arrival of apple season was always enough to get me through the back-to-school blues. The sweet aroma of apple cider doughnuts and the numerous haystacks provided necessary relief from the pungent smell that lingered in the city. While my siblings would fight over who got to use the....

10/27/2025

If you missed this year’s Trottier Sympsoium (or would simply like to re-watch it), you can watch a recording of the presentation & the fireside chat on our Youtube channel!

Dr. Drew Weissman, Nobel Laureate and co-creator of the COVID vaccine, will be discussing the twists and turns that inevitably occur when embarking upon scie...

10/27/2025

Sometimes it takes a Babybel to remind us how tangled life is with plastic 🌍🧀 Once sealed in stubborn plastic, the cheese now arrives wrapped in paper — likely a result of the exploding publicity about our overuse of plastics. Unfortunately, with the blessing of plastic also comes a whole lot of curses: essential for modern life yet devastating in excess.

Heat, light, and wear cause plastic to shed tiny particles—microplastics and even tinier nanoparticles—that spread through air and water, reaching every corner of the planet and, alarmingly, every organ of the human body. Research links these particles to heart attack, stroke, cognitive decline, and other health concerns 🏥

While the major exposure comes from micro and nanoparticles in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat, every small change represents a step toward balance ⚖️ However, if many individuals make such efforts, then fewer plastic items will be produced, fewer will be dumped as garbage and fewer will end up in water systems🌊🗑️.

Get the whole scoop in Dr. Joe’s latest 🌍💚

https://mcgill.ca/x/iKL

I sometimes have a Babybel cheese as a snack and I used to feel that the little cheese did not want to be eaten. It seemed to defy attempts to open the plastic in which it had sought refuge. But no more! The latest batch I got was wrapped in paper not plastic and yielded its contents without the sli...