Economics is known as the dismal science, but with numerous apocalyptic reports on the state of the world's fisheries, one could be forgiven for awarding the gloomy title to fisheries research. Canada has had a front-row seat to the drama of our depleted oceans with the collapse of the cod stocks off Newfoundland in the early 1990s, shutting down an industry that had thrived for more than 500 years.

Remember those days in high-school home economics? If you're female, you probably do. You concocted a scrumptious tiramisu, devotedly coddled that egg in a basket, or laboured over sewing that apron.

While most Canadians were celebrating Christmas last year in the relaxed company of their family and friends, Dean Sandham was holed up in an air raid shelter on Kandahar Airfield Base in Afghanistan.

Passion for volunteering test

The expression "knowledge mobilization" has been the talk of the town lately among researchers and funding agencies. And yet, this concept - in which knowledge stemming from university research is transformed into concrete actions that serve the interests of society - is far from new.

The transition to adulthood is a challenge for many young people. Throw in the stresses of attending university and living away from home for the first time, and it's no wonder some find it difficult to cope.

On a typical weekday, students enrolled at the University of Toronto Mississauga are arriving at their spacious suburban campus, some 30 kilometres west of downtown Toronto, in a thin stream, mainly by car or city bus. Most of the campus's 10,500 students come from the sprawling 905 belt in the Greater Toronto Area, and almost 90 percent commute to and from campus each day.

A roadkill in 1987 made ecological history in Newfoundland. There had been sightings and unconfirmed reports, dating back to 1985, of coyotes making their way across the 175 kilometres of winter pack ice that separate Newfoundland from Nova Scotia.