University of Alberta

18 April 1997

New treatment offers hope for cancer cure

Workerless future, or futureless work?
The bad news is . . . the future of work probably doesn't include the leisure-filled life 60's futurists predicted we'd have by now. The good news is that we control the future of work. Dr. Graham Lowe, sociology, says "Canada is at a critical juncture in terms of its economic life."

Med class, 2000, and pharmacy class of '98 join forces
During a supper time discussion about Vitamin K, a group of medical students were astonished at a third-year pharmacy student's input. Their surprise convinced them they had much to learn from each other. The students approached two faculty members, Cheryl Cox, pharmacy, and Dr. Philip Klemka, medicine, and recruited two others students to help plan ways to bridge the gap. The result was 50 students voluntarily attending an 8:00 a.m. collaborative session March 25 and the establishment of the Alberta Collaborative Heath Interdisciplinary Learning Initiatives (ACHILI).

"Demography is not necessarily destiny"
Canadians know roughly how many five-year-olds are going to enter Grade 1 next year, and they know roughly how many people are going to die in the same year. What happens between those two milestones is increasingly difficult to predict, says Michael Adams, the author of Sex in the Snow: Canadian Social Values at the End of the Millennium.

Allan Tupper accepts VP academic position at Acadia University
Acadia's gain is the U of A's loss. Dr. Allan Tupper, a respected political scientist well-known for his analysis of political issues in this province and Canada, has accepted the vice-president (academic) position at Nova Scotia's Acadia University.

Creative writing student wins international prize
Tim Bowling, a U of A creative writing graduate student, has won the Petra Kenney Memorial Prize. The international poetry award includes a trip to London, England to accept the prize at a special reception at the Canadian High Commission; 1,000 pounds; and a Royal Brierley Crystal vase.

Tyrell's treatment for hepatitis B shows promise
The antiviral therapy developed by Dr. Lorne Tyrrell for treating chronic hepatitis B continues to yield encouraging results.

Anthropologists to dig Siberian soil
It'll be summer in Siberia for half a dozen U of A students, thanks to an agreement between the University of Alberta and Irkutsk State University, Russia. Two representatives of the Russian university were on campus last week to sign an agreement allowing the U of A to set up an anthropology field station at Lake Baikal, about 300 km east of Irkutsk.

"Chasing the serpent in the city of God"
The story has political intrigue, Indiana Jones type suspense, and . . . snakes with legs. Dr. Michael Caldwell, biology, is a major news story in the April 17 New York Times, and the prestigious science magazine Nature with his discovery of an evolutionary missing link-- a snake with "a couple of toes at least."