Adam Fortais

Hamilton Ontario has been dumping sewage into our protected wetland consistently for 4 years via a leaking sewer. When city council found out, they chose to cover it up rather than address the issue. The Hamilton Spectator broke the story on November 20th, and I go through some of the information they dug up, including a Timeline of Events written by Matthew Van Dongen. Then I talk to Thea Kozakis, a climate scientist who took the city of Ithaca to task on their climate policies. Hey Hamilton, let’s do the same. https://www.change.org/p/hamilton-city-council-demand-that-city-council-launch-a-public-inquiry-into-the-cootescoverup/w?source_location=psf_petitions https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9742287-sewergate-a-chedoke-creek-sewage-spill-timeline/ https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9731643-exclusive-hamilton-city-council-staff-have-kept-a-24-billion-litre-sewage-spill-secret/ https://ithacavoice.com/2019/11/sunrise-movement-write-in-candidates-vie-for-3-common-council-seats/

Amanda Farias Zuniga is a soon-to-graduate PhD candidate in the kinesiology department focusing on biomechanics. Recently, Adam volunteered for one of her studies which involved simulating carpal tunnel in his right arm. In this episode, Adam and Amanda talk about carpal tunnel, the details of that study, and graduation! Follow Amanda on Twitter or check out her publications! Also consider following Adam on Twitter. To listen to more sciencey stuff, check out scientificanada wherever podcasts are found.

This episode is a bit of a deviation from the norm. Graduate students who work as Teaching Assistants are part of a union (CUPE 3906). The union was set to go on strike starting next Monday, but in light of a new tentative agreement, the strike may be avoided. Host Adam is a member of the strike committee, and talks to undergraduate Andrea Klaver about how things have progressed since the summer. Adam also talks about a magazine article he has been working on. You can listen to CUPEcast, Adam's other show for union updates here. For more information about the union and potential strike, go here. Follow Adam on Twitter!

Michael is a 2nd year MSc. student in the Parise Lab in the Department of Kinesiology. He studies how Omega-3 supplements can help in muslce repair in elderly. Find out more about his lab's previous work here. If you are interested in helping him recruit participants, please contact him with his contact information below: Email: kamalm2@mcmaster.ca Mobile: (647) 808-5893

Spoiler: Conciliation didn't go anywhere. We will be in legal strike position by the end of the month. Here's what you need to know this week. You can follow Adam on Twitter @adamfortais https://bettermac.ca/files/2019/11/Conciliation-Response-signed-by-NT.pdf https://bettermac.ca/2019/11/06/unit-1-conciliation-update-no-board-report-filed-strike-lockout-position-to-be-triggered-prior-to-the-end-of-november/ https://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/worthmentioning/university-cupe-seek-no-board-report/

This week Adam talks to Ben Pearce about his PhD work studying the origins of life. But he wasn't always a physicist... Ben first graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. Like many, he was enticed by the nice pay and began working in the oil industry, but was never really passionate about engineering. This lead him to Berlin, where he realized, through long conversations with some interesting a brilliant young people like himself, the Big Questions like, "where did life come from" were questions he could totally pursue. So he came back to Canada, earned a degree in astronomy, and ended up here at McMaster in the Origins of Life Institute. Follow Ben on Twitter Follow me on Twitter If you like what you hear and want to help support the show, please visit our Patreon.

Tuesday is the big day. Conciliation is happening this Wednesday, and as such, there is very little to report in terms of bargaining, so this one is pretty short. Adam briefly talks about one of the important bargaining points, paid pedagogical training, and why the University should be pushing for this harder than we are. Adam also talks about the Six Nations Polytechnic school that CUPE 3906 has agreed to help support (it's really cool!) For more bargaining news, head to https://bettermac.ca/ *** Note: I may have said conciliation is Wednesday. It is actually Tuesday.

It's the AlmaMAC Halloween Spooktacular, and this week Adam and Matt tell two terrifying tales. Adam tells a story of a man found guilty of murdering his wife and that blood splatter that got him, 35 years ago... and why, perhaps, the investigators were wrong after all. Then, Matt talks about a slime that learns and teaches by fusing with and incorporating other slimes within itself. Matt terrifies Adam with the idea that the students he TAs might try to eat him for his knowledge. For more on blood and the real homicide case, click here, and here. For more on that marvelous, terrible slime, click here. And hey! Make sure to follow the AlmaMAC on Twitter. You can also follow Adam, and be sure to subscribe to Scientificanada on your favorite podcast app to have access to back episodes of the AlmaMAC, and hear new episodes of some new shows like CUPEcast, Adam's CUPE3906 TA Union podcast. Have a spooky and safe Halloween!

This week we bring you up to speed on McMaster's Board of Governor's meeting, and hear from CUPE 3906 President, Nathan Todd.  A few important dates:  General Member's Meeting: October 30th at 12:00 pm in BSB 108 Conciliation begins: November 5th CUPE strike training: Nov. 15 from 9 am to 5 pm

Tafadzwa Machipisa is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the Population Health Research Institute (McMaster) and Hatter Institute of Cardiovascular Research in Africa (University of Cape Town, South Africa). She currently investigates genes that are involved in predisposing people to rhematic heart disease with populations on the African continent. Find out more by listening to this podcast and read up about her labs here: Tafadzwa's Master's Research Dr. Pare's research The Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory (GMEL) Prof. Mayosi's research​ Prof. Mark Engel's research

Welcome to CUPEcast, a show about CUPE 3906 , the union for McMaster TAs, RAs, sessionals, postdocs, etc. In this first episode introduces the reason behind this podcast, introduces your host Adam, and will bring you up to date on the bargaining between McMaster and Unit 1.  Looking to help? Let’s keep this momentum going! Reach out to your Department      Chair or Executive Committee for letters of support like those linked      above. Similarly, if you are      involved in an organization on campus that supports our bargaining      priorities, ask your fellow members for a public statement of      support! Use social media to increase      pressure on McMaster to return to the table ASAP. Our Twitter and Facebook accounts      tend to have lots of content for      sharing. You can also tak

WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) and the SciGSA are hosting a very exciting talk on Tuesday, October 22nd. They are hosting Dr. John Bandler, decorated engineer and passionate science communicator, who will talk about the Ethics of Science Communication. This week I talk to Rachelle Ho (ex-WISE president) and Dr. Bandler about the event coming up, and how to ethically speak about science and research. We all want to tell a riveting story, but what you say and what people hear aren't always the same... Sign up to attend in advance here (but if you just show up, it'll be ok.) Follow Dr. Bandler and Rachelle on Twitter! Follow me on Twitter if you wanna! Thank Boonie personally, for supplying music to the show at Boonie.Rocks  

The Canadian (American) Federal (Presidential) elections are looming. This time around it seems like there is just as much discussion about the integrity of the candidates as there is about the media reporting on the candidates [cite]. #fakenews has become a globally recognized  hashtag, one-line-comeback, and an agonizingly slippery threat to democracy [cite]. By exploiting human psychology, the news industry is constantly presented with a shape-shifting slew of threats to its integrity. Today I talk to Dr. David Venus of the Physics and Astronomy department at McMaster about the need for media numeracy, and what he's doing to help (teaching a course on it). For details about the course, see the description here. I mentioned some of Dr. Venus' opinion pieces. They are here and here. Hey, you can follow me on Twitter @AdamFortais ! And be sure to follow us on your favorite podcasting app (eg. Spotify, Apple, Google...). I've started posting back episodes under the new flag Scientificanada. No specific an

This week we heard from Biology Ph.D. candidate, Adrian Forsythe and he told us all about his research with white nose syndrome in bats! You can follow him on Twitter at @adrian_forsythe. Read his latest findings on how adaptation occurs within White Nose Syndrom pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans among strains in eastern North America here https://aem.asm.org/content/aem/84/16/e00863-18.full.pdf If you like what you heard, want to chat, or maybe want to be a guest, let us know on Twitter @almamac_radio or by email at almamac@mcmaster.ca.

Today's guest was Shane Simon, a PhD student from the MiNDS Program in Psychology. We discussed the differences between the graduate neuroscience program and psychology program at McMaster (vote PNB!) as well as his research on the development of inhibitory neural circuitry! Find out more about Shane Simon on his podcast: GET LEARNT at https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/get-learnt

This week I went for a walk and stood in a line with Sian Ford from the Earth Science department. We talked about her research on the origins of life. Specifically, how “lipid membranes” (the things that surround all the important junk in your cells) could have formed. We also talked about all the birding she does in her spare time! You can follow her on Twitter at @sianford I opened the show with a quick announcement of the winners of the 2019 Ig Nobel Prizes. If you like what you heard, want to chat, or maybe want to be a guest, let me know on Twitter @adamfortais or by email at almamac@mcmaster.ca .​ See you next week!

I hung out with Carmen Lee (a fellow soft matter physicist) at one of our favorite places to study and she told me all about Soapbox Science (an outreach event in Toronto that she will be presenting at), and a really cool Nobel Prize conference she got to attend in Germany. https://www.ryerson.ca/scixchange/ http://soapboxscience.org/ https://thewordonthestreet.ca/toronto/ https://globalyoungacademy.net/events/69th-lindaunobel-physics/ https://biobeat.nigms.nih.gov/2015/03/5-reasons-biologists-love-math/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/540621/physicists-solve-the-mystery-of-interleaved-phone-books/ http://www.boonie.rocks/

Note: We had some microphone difficulties about halfway through the episode this week. Sorry! Hamza joined my lab a year ago. In his undergrad, he did some horrible things to microwaves, and wonderful things to grapes. Here, watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGX289yjew8 His work on grape plasma went viral. https://www.altmetric.com/details/55788275/news We then talked a little about the Ig Nobel prizes, and why researching fun questions can be useful. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize Completely unrelated, ever wonder what Earth would be like if it were made completely out of blueberries? Blueberry world: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1807.10553.pdf Follow Hamza on Twitter, and ask him about anything! Grapes or non-grapes. Whatever! https://twitter.com/hamzakhatt

Placenta is an incredible organ, and Christian Bellissimo tells us why. I guess I kind of always though the placenta was like the white of an egg. Oh boy was I wrong! Of course we know that early life stressors, including those during pregnancy, impact long term health of the baby. Usually we think smoking or drinking, but maternal obesity is also something than can affect the child. Christian and I talk about his work trying to understand how changes in development of the placenta may increase the risk of offspring disease later life. You can tweet questions to Christian here. You can read about the work that goes on in the Sloboda Lab (where Christian works) here. Aaaand... I joked about placenta recipes on the show, but I don't think I'm going to share any links. Use your judgement. Or consider getting on the list to donate it?

Arsenic is bad for you. It can be found in large quantities in rat poison, and it can be found in smaller (but still dangerous) quantities in groundwater. This is of particular concern in South-East Asia, and more specifically Bangladesh, where citizens have been developing cancers, skin lesions, and other horrible effects due to long-term arsenic exposure. But unlike many water contamination issues, human's aren't totally to blame! This week we welcome Reisa San Pedro, a 2nd year MSc student in the Geography and Earth Sciences department at McMaster University. We discuss the origin of the arsenic, why it's dissolving in the groundwater, and what's being done to better understand and avoid arsenic contamination in these affected countries.  For more details on her work, you can visit her supervisor's website. PS. Reisa is defending her MSc in September! Wish her luck! (not that she needs it...)