Photo by Tyler Black

This photo shows an oil slick on a test lake. As Canada faces critical decisions on the use and distribution of energy resources, the need for strong scientific evidence is becoming clearer. We need to understand the impacts of oil spills and how to best clean them up. Whole ecosystem research on oil spills can help us understand how complex substances such as diluted bitumen, an unrefined crude oil from the Alberta oil sands, behaves in freshwater environments. We can also learn the risk bitumen poses to the fish and other organisms that live there. By adding oil to complex natural systems, like those at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, we can test various methods of oil spill remediation under realistic conditions, to help efforts to respond to spills. Reflected in the water in this photo is the forest that surrounds the test lake. An oil sheen covers the surface as a result of the oil added experimentally.

Photo by Amanda Semenuk
Alex Smith

We recently discovered a new item on the menu for the carnivorous pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea). Previously, it was thought that the plant captured vertebrates accidentally. However, juvenile spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) are falling victim to the plant’s watery trap by the dozens and may be an important nutrient source for this population of pitcher plants in Algonquin Park, Ontario. Compared to the plants’ typical prey, each trapped salamander can contribute a substantial amount of nitrogen, equivalent to that found in over 400 ants. Why are these cup-shaped leaves so attractive to the salamanders? How important are these meat-eating plants as a cause of salamander death? How much nutrition do the plants gain from their salamander meals? These are the questions we continue to ask as we unravel this surprising source of

Photo by Scott Bell

This image shows dopamine neurons, which underlie many important processes in the brain. Losing them can impact movement, mood and addiction. Obtaining dopaminergic neurons from live animals to study is difficult, so we make these neurons by culturing them from stem cells. In this image, a sphere of dopaminergic neurons is shown one day after attaching to a coverslip. The neurons have been stained —a mature dopaminergic marker in red, and an immature dopaminergic marker in green. The more immature dopaminergic neurons, on the exterior of the sphere, have extended processes and have migrated away from the central sphere, giving the impression of a shining star. We use this process to produce highly pure cultures of dopaminergic neurons, allowing us to model how the human midbrain can be affected by environmental and genetic factors that may contribute to neurological disease.

Photo by Maude Perrault-Hébert

In the fire’s aftermath, the forest floor is covered by a layer of calcined organic matter. During the months that follow, ash washed by successive rains fertilizes the ground. The site is soon recolonized by species whose reproductive strategy is adapted to fire. This photograph, taken during a controlled burning in La Mauricie National Park, documents the immediate impacts of fire on forest soils. These observations help to identify sites favourable to the establishment of conifer seedlings planted to ensure reforestation. Digital photography.

Photo by Jacopo Profili

These “flowers,” whose petals are formed of silver salt crystals, are cultivated on a microscopic scale. The process begins by submitting a field sown with nanoparticles of silver to the effects of a plasma, as if the lightning’s energy electrified the ambient air for several minutes. Rather than melting and merging into larger drops, miniscule silver beads incorporate nitrogen and oxygen from the air, forming micrometric crystals. The experiment had a fascinating result: the creation of a material never before seen in this world! Scanning electron microscopy Colourized image.

Photo by James King and Marie-Pierre Bastien-Thibault

Glacial melting caused by climate change is raising a multitude of environmental and social issues. These issues are even more significant when the glacier in question feeds a river’s main tributary. Such is the case in the Yukon with Ä’ą̈y Chù or Slim’s River. The riverbed of this waterway vital to Indigenous communities is gradually drying up. Dunes are formed by ever more frequent dust storms. Taken during one such storm, this photograph shows a member of the research team returning after installing a meteorological station. Digital photography.

Photo by Emily Savaria

With so many cultivated varieties producing bulbs, bulbils, leaves and flower heads of various shapes and colours, Québec garlic has lots of flavours—several distinct flavours, in fact! Categorizing the diversity of garlic remains a challenge, however, since the plant adapts to variations in its environment. For example, one variety’s small white bulb can yield a large purple bulb the following season. To better commercialize the different varieties, their morphological characteristics and tastes need to be catalogued according to genetic identity. Digital photography stitching.

Photo by Mengnan Guo

This image depicts the surface shapes of copper sulphide (chalcocite [Cu₂S]) formed by corrosion of copper in an aqueous sulphide environment. Copper is one of the first metals used by humans and one of the fundamental materials of civilization. Today, it has been chosen for containers for used nuclear fuel because of its stability under the oxygen-free and cool conditions in deep geologic repositories. Current studies focus on determining corrosion mechanisms and rates, and on measuring the distribution of corrosion damage on containers with a copper coating or shell. In these containers, sulphate-reducing bacteria are expected to produce sulphide that will be transported to the container’s surface through the clays compacted around it.

Photo by Crystal McRae

A symbiotic crab keeps a watchful eye on its home, a Pocillopora acuta colony in a heat stress experiment within a flow-through seawater experimental tank system at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Taiwan. Climate change-induced ocean warming is pushing coral beyond its temperature limits, resulting in mass bleaching events everywhere in the world. Under heat-stress conditions, corals expel their symbiotic algae and turn white. If conditions don’t improve, corals begin to starve, leading to high mortality and degradation of the reef. The current decline of coral reefs is putting millions of people and approximately one-third of marine organisms at risk due to a critical loss of ecosystem function and services. This experiment was designed to understand mechanisms of thermal tolerance in corals that allow for resilience in a warming ocean, and to test innovative active management techniques (assisted evolution) to enhance thermal tolerance.

Photo by Arandeep Dhanda

This image shows a fluorescent overlay of HeLa cells infected with the common foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, showing the bacteria spreading from cell to cell. The sample was stained with phalloidin to label filamentous actin (green) and DAPI to label the DNA in the host cell nuclei as well as the bacteria (blue). It was transfected with GFP-CD147 (pseudo-colourized magenta) in the cell initiating the spreading event.

Photo by Jessica deHaan

This photo shows Ceratina calcarata, a tiny bee native to eastern North America that digs its nests into raspberry twigs. The mother’s chosen nesting site can have long-term consequences for developing bees. Sunny sites are hotter than shady sites. Insects cannot regulate their body temperature, so their physiological processes are influenced by their environmental temperature. Insects reared in cooler temperatures grow to a larger adult body size than those reared in warm temperatures. Developmental temperature also influences cell size in some insects. The relationship between temperature and body size in insects is known as the temperature-size rule (TSR). By measuring the width of the bee’s head and the size of the units of its compound eye (ommatidia), we can determine whether C. calcarata conforms to the TSR. In this view of a female’s head, you can see the compound eyes, the simple eyes (ocelli) on top of the bee’s head, and tiny sensory hairs on the face and antennae.

Photo by Benjamin Kingston

This image shows an ovarian tumour biopsy sample. State-of-the-art technology is now allowing researchers to map tumours in three dimensions with the resolution to see individual cells. This is helping scientists understand how tumours grow and how drugs are transported to cancer cells. As in this image, tumour biopsies are taken from patients and treated with chemicals that make them as transparent as glass. Key structures are then labelled with different colours, and high-speed microscopes take detailed three-dimensional images. Individual cells can be identified by their blue nuclei, and the bonds holding cells lining the tumour blood vessels show up in red. The information extracted from these images forms a detailed map that is unique to each individual tumour. By creating detailed tumour maps, scientists hope to engineer drug carriers that can navigate through the tumour to seek out and destroy cancer cells more effectively.

Photo by Yih Yang Chen

This image shows a portion of a blood vessel that has been grown within a microfluidic device. Blood vessels are composed of many cells that have bonded to each other through membrane proteins (red). As blood flows past the cells, their cellular skeletons (green) align in the direction of blood flow. The blue dots are the nuclei of the cells, where DNA is stored. We stained the cells with DAPI, phalloidin, and antibodies that bind to vascular endothelial cadherin. Growing blood vessels inside microfluidic devices allows researchers to figure out what happens to medicines and nanoparticles once they are injected into the blood.

Photo by David Patch

Pictured are three silver-coated nylon fibres (centre) woven among a series of thinner polyester threads in clothing. This research aims to identify the release of silver nanomaterials from clothing into the environment. These silver-coated fibres are found in numerous types of athletic clothing for odour control but may pose a risk to the environment and humans, because of the toxicity of silver.

Photo by Christopher Ahuja
Maryam Dadabhoy

This image shows human iPS-derived neural stem cells forming neurospheres. The neurospheres are on a 1% QL6 self-assembling peptide biomaterial matrix, which is providing a promising approach for treating spinal cord injury. After a traumatic spinal cord injury, the microenvironment around the lesion worsens, leading to high counts of neuronal cell death that leave behind cystic cavitations. QL6 can be used as a novel, extracellular matrix-like lattice that can fill in these cavities and support grafting transplanted neural stem cells. The processes growing from the large spherical cell clusters onto the fine biomaterial surrounding them provide future hope for an effective regenerative therapeutic strategy for spinal cord injury.

Photo by Jason Nguyen

The image shows cells from the head cartilages of a Xenopus tropicalis (western clawed frog) tadpole (red) and its surrounding tissues. These tissues, including muscle and epithelium (green), are made up of individual cells, each containing nuclei (light blue). Colours are produced by immunostaining of Col2 protein in the extracellular matrix secreted by chondrocytes. Here, cartilage is undergoing a process called “hypertrophy,” in which its cells are increasing in size.

Photo by Stephanie Gallant

This image shows magnetic cobalt ferrite crystals, ranging in size from about 50 nm to 600 nm, roughly 10,000 times smaller than a poppy seed. Nanomaterials research focuses on the unique optical, electronic and magnetic behaviour of nanostructure materials. Materials scientists aim to understand the phenomena behind these properties, finding applications to which the specialty materials are best suited. Despite all particles having the same chemical composition and the same atomic arrangement, three distinct shapes can be seen: spheres, disks and octahedra. These cobalt ferrite crystals are being used to investigate how shape and size play a role in enhancing electromagnetic fields for use in optical sensing devices.

Photo by Rebecca Osborne

Only two days after their hearts began beating and with newly formed eyes (the small black dots), these developing snail embryos are just hours away from heading out into the world for the first time. Freshwater snails represent an important part of aquatic ecosystems by acting as nutrient recyclers. They are also an excellent “canary in the coal mine” that helps us to understand the impacts of chemicals that find their way into our waterways and how we can better regulate these chemicals. We used time-lapse macrophotography to capture the entire development of freshwater snail embryos — from the first cell division to hatching — at five-minute intervals. This technique allows us to describe development in freshwater snails at a novel level of detail. By photographing this microscopic miracle of life, we are studying how pollution can cause multi-generational effects long after the exposure has ended.

Photo by Martin Badley

This image displays the grain structure of a uranium dioxide (UO₂) pellet. Naturally stepped virgin surfaces of UO₂ crystals were sintered together to form a nuclear fuel pellet. Such pellets fuel nuclear power reactors, which have been used commercially since the 1950s and currently generate approximately 10% of the world’s electricity. When used nuclear fuel is removed from a reactor, it is extremely radioactive. The radioactivity will decrease over time. However, the used fuel will remain a human health risk for hundreds of thousands of years. For the long-term safety of people and the environment, the used fuel is encapsulated within a robust, corrosion-resistant container engineered to prevent the release of radionuclides into the environment. To ensure safety in case a container is breached, the rate of radionuclide release from a breached container must be assessed. Using various corrosion experiments, the rate at which radionuclides would be released from the pellets can be determined.

Photo by Brian Chen

Egg chambers of the fly Drosophila melanogaster contain “nurse cells,” with the large cells on one half and a single oocyte ensheathed by many small epithelial cells on the other. Each cell nucleus is visualized by sequestering fluorescent proteins into the nucleus, and the different fluorescent intensities reflect the amount of protein being produced by each cell. Different colours of fluorescent proteins simultaneously track the maternal and paternal copies of a gene being translated into protein products. Tracking when, where, and how much protein is being produced by a cell is important for understanding cell biology. We use these flies to measure protein production over time in every single cell in the living animal. This allows us to examine how changes in the environment affect protein synthesis and influence which parental copy of a gene is being produced at any given time.

Photo by Ahmad Galuta

The image shows a neural network restored from stem cells. A fluorescent antibody that recognizes β-iii tubulin was used to show neurons in green, and DAPI to shown cell nuclei in blue. The road to regeneration for spinal cord injury has been steep and rocky. In healthy individuals, neurons relay vital information between the brain and spinal cord. In spinal cord injury, however, neuron networks are severed, preventing information from being exchanged. The neuron doctrine, established in the late 19th century, claimed that severed neurons could not regenerate. Today, however, we know that the spinal cord contains stem cells that can be transformed into neural networks under the right conditions, thus shattering the old doctrine. While animal studies have restored neural networks from stem cells, human studies have not yielded success. We have been able to identify key differences between animal and human models in forming neural networks, reaching one step closer to restoring function lost to spinal cord injury.

Photo by Margaret Ho

This image shows a retinal organoid, a small three-dimensional model of a retina. Currently, there is no cure for vision loss. Photoreceptors, the cells responsible for sensing light, are unable to regenerate if they are damaged as a result of disease or injury. Using stem cells to grow retinal organoids allows researchers to better understand retinal development and disease progression, develop more efficient drug-testing protocols, and supply valuable cells for transplantation. The retinal organoid shown has been cultured in a dish for 20 weeks, then fixed and cryosectioned for immunocytochemistry to visualize recoverin and rhodopsin. The nuclei of the cells are stained in yellow, and the photoreceptors at the edge of the organoid are stained in orange and red.

Photo by Patrick D’Aoust

Pictured are sulphate-reducing (sulphate-breathing) bacterial communities attached to an extruded polyethylene carrier. In this application, bacteria within an experimental wastewater-treatment reactor biologically remediate surface waters impacted by heavy metals. The ribbed polyethylene carrier is stained black by the organisms and scintillates in the light. The bacteria are attached to the vertical faces of the cavities. By breathing sulphate and releasing hydrogen sulphide, the bacteria within the reactor precipitate soluble metals in the contaminated waters, a significant step in detoxifying the water.

Photo by Nafiseh Zaker
Gianluigi Botton

“Not so long ago in a galaxy so close to us” could be said of this image inside a lithium-ion battery. We all have at least one of these tiny galaxies in our pocket or our bag when we are carrying our cell phones or laptops. The celestial bodies in this galaxy are the small spherical particles made out of nickel cobalt aluminum oxide in their core and alumina on their surface. Carbon black or another binder plays the role of the gravity to bond the whole system together, and lithium ions are like shuttles that transfer charge from anode to cathode, storing or releasing energy.

Photo by Étienne Artigau

More than 25 years ago, astronomers first discovered a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. Today, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been catalogued, several of which may even be “inhabitable.” One means of detecting such planets is to measure the minute effect they have on their star’s light spectrum. This effect is the result of the exoplanet’s gravity causing the star to slightly move back and forth. The resulting trace on this barcode is just one thousandth of a pixel in size! An image like this is merely the starting point in a long process aimed at uncovering and characterizing an exoplanet. Monochrome infrared image obtained by the SPIRou spectropolarimeter through the efforts of the SPIRou team, colourized from blue to red to indicate wavelengths between 1 µm and 2.5 µm.

Photo by Mathieu Létourneau-Gagnon

This is no scene from the infernos of hell, but rather an image from an engineering experiment. A screw was inserted into a wood structure, subjected to intense heat. The goal? To better understand how wood behaves during extended exposure to fire. The combustible nature of wood is of concern to the construction industry. Its low thermal conductivity, however, can effectively insulate the screws and nails holding structures together. In addition to stemming from a renewable resource, wood provides structures with great resistance, even after being exposed to fire for two hours! Digital photography.

Photo by Constance Le Gloanec

This mass of plant cells is, in fact, a developing flower of Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress. Like leaves, flowers are organs whose anatomy is determined from the first stages of their development. Still shrouded in mystery, this phenomenon known as organogenesis is easier to observe in certain plant mutants. This photograph shows the stocky cells of an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant called botero, in reference to rounded shapes in the works of Columbian artist Fernando Botero. As part of the microscopy imaging, it is possible to distinguish the contours of cells using a fluorescent marker. Magnified 40x Confocal microscopy.

Photo by Samuel Génier, Laurie Côté and Marilou Boisvert

Made visible by fluorescent markers, four cell nuclei appear in cyan. The long, pink filaments are actin—proteins forming the cells’ cytoskeleton. The red dots are mitochondria and the green points are peroxisomes. The latter, still poorly known, are the subject of a study using a particular cell line: cancer cells from the cervix of Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1951. Capable of multiplying endlessly, these immortal cells can be found living timelessly in specialized laboratories around the world. Magnified 630x Confocal microscopy Pseudocoloration.

Photo by Mathieu Boulianne and Jonathan Bélisle

The concentration of molecules of interest known as cannabinoids found within cannabis inflorescences varies in relation to the plant’s maturity. To determine the ideal time to harvest, the trick is to dissect not the flower but its image! The image is divided into zones using an algorithm that employs artificial intelligence to analyze the pistils’ colour and form. The results are compared with an image bank to determine the degree of maturation of the Cannabis sativa plant, which in turn provides information about the concentration of cannabinoids. Digital photography.

Photo by Tommy Pontbriand

With an exceptional vision provided by two oversized eyes, the amphipod Themisto libellula is a deadly predator of zooplankton. This crustacean is very active from the spring through the fall, decimating the populations of other crustaceans, such as copepods, as it accumulates large reserves of lipids needed to survive the winter. This species typical of the arctic regions proliferates in cold, salty waters that are well oxygenated. Since the amount of oxygen in water decreases as the temperature rises, global warming threatens Themisto libellula with heat suffocation. Specimen size: 1.5 cm Digital photography.

Photo by Louis-Georges Esquilat

This photograph was taken in waters a few metres deep in the northern section of the St. Lawrence maritime estuary. Several species can be seen, including green sea urchins and coralline, a pink seaweed. To calculate populations, researchers photograph quadrats—square frames such as the one shown here. They also dive underwater to measure physicochemical parameters such as dissolved oxygen levels, water temperature and water acidity. The information gathered helps to understand the ecosystem and manage aquatic environments suitable for fishing and aquaculture. Digital photography Colours reworked with Photoquad software.

Photo by Pénélope Germain Chartrand and Nia Perron

Somewhere in a peatland in the Northwest Territories near the 62nd parallel, an ant is in perilous combat with an insectivorous plant. Were you aware that peatlands sequester large amounts of atmospheric carbon? Global warming impacts this environment in two ways. It melts the permafrost, releasing methane, a greenhouse gas. Northern peatlands, thus warmed, develop more, thereby absorbing more CO₂, another greenhouse gas. Studying this phenomenon is the first step in understanding how ecosystems respond to environmental changes. Digital photography.

Photo by Yann Lenzen

Over the last 30 years, hundreds of thousands of Mongolian nomads have settled in makeshift living quarters around the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Global warming is one factor forcing them to adopt a sedentary lifestyle. A rise in temperature of more than two degrees over the last 70 years has dramatically impacted their lifestyle, resulting in the loss of livestock because of extremely dry summers followed by especially harsh winters (a phenomenon known as dzud). Facing economic and cultural pressure, these nomadic families often have no choice but to migrate towards the capital, where other challenges await them. Digital photography.

Photo by Laurent Houle

The ghostly silhouette of this axolotl larva—just 16 days old—reveals two nasal cavities (the white areas at the bottom of the image). The eyes can be distinguished just above. The appendages on each side of the body are not legs, but six external gills. This salamander variety is renowned for an extraordinary ability to regenerate tissues, even its brain (in green)! The axolotl has been the subject of many studies, including this one, which aims to characterize the main stages in morphological changes governing brain and skull development. Specimen length: 1.6 cm X-ray microtomography with contrast optimization using phosphotungstic acid.

Photo by Nuwan Hettige

These neurons grown in vitro are from a young patient with a rare neurodevelopmental disease. Surprisingly, they do not come from the brain. Instead, researchers isolated living cells in the child’s urine to reprogram them into stem cells. Exploiting their ability to develop into any cell type, the stem cells were then induced to become neurons. Just like neurons in the child’s brain, these cells express the defective gene causing the disease. This makes it possible to study a patient’s neurons without touching the brain! Magnified 20x Confocal microscopy Cells stained using immunocytochemistry for neuronal markers TUJ1 and GABA.

Photo by Williams Marcel Caceres Ferreira

Hierarchically structured materials, such as bamboo and bones, are found in nature. At the nano, micro and macroscopic level, these materials have small, rigid frames that provide high-level mechanical performance. In a word, they are resistant! Such is the case with this composite material photographed on a micrometric scale. All along a horizontal carbon fibre, titanium dioxide crystals can be seen forming. For example, this synthetic material may be integrated into plastics to make them stronger. Diameter of the carbon fibers: 10 µm Size of the titanium dioxide crystals: ≈1 µm, magnified 1500x Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) under high vacuum at 15 kV.

Photo by Omaima Rebay

This scene worthy of a stunning Caribbean view is, in fact, the image of a bacteriological culture. The various structures observed were formed by Myxococcus xanthus. The gold fruiting bodies of the dormant bacterium are emerging out of a deep blue “sea” lacking in nutrients. By approaching the pink zone rich in nutrients, M. xanthus can finally wake up. Bacteria cells move collectively. Here, their behaviour is being studied to develop, among other things, medications against pathogenic bacteria. Microscopy.

Photo by Camille Pelletier-Guittier

To catalogue wildlife in agricultural areas, camera traps can be placed in windbreak hedges. The cameras are configured to take a picture whenever an integrated sensor detects movement. These discreet devices are less bothersome to wildlife than a human observer. While most of the images obtained show large mammals, such as white-tailed deer, occasionally they capture something quite unexpected. Here, for example, a flock of bird pests that includes juvenile red-winged blackbirds takes sudden flight, creating this unaltered image with its apocalyptic appearance. Such pests are a nightmare for farmers. Image captured with a camera trap.

Photo by Gabrielle Raymond

Tungsten carbide is one of the hardest materials and most resistant to abrasion. It is used to reduce the wear of metal parts exposed to repeated friction. In powder form, this carbide can be incorporated into a steel matrix. When heated, it forms microspheres that reduce the contact surface with the abrasive material. If the temperature is too high, however, the precious carbide dissolves and forms welts when cooled. The intended properties are lost, but the result can be quite beautiful! Magnified 400x Scanning electron microscopy in backscattered electron mode.

Photo by Jack Bauer

You are looking at three Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes. Two of them, whose pharynx is marked in green, carry a mutation that does not impede their reproductive functions. The third worm is also affected, but it is unable to reproduce. The purpose of this experiment is to observe the division of sperm and egg precursor cells in a living being, normal or mutant. For this study, C. elegans is the ideal laboratory animal: transparent and small enough to remain relatively immobile during observation under a microscope. Using a zoom function, the cell division under study can be filmed live! Length of the C. elegans larvae: 250 µm Magnified 63x Confocal microscopy.