Barcode of Life: Guelph-based DNA database a digital Noah's ark aiming to ID all living organisms

From:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/international-barcode-of-life?google_editors_picks=true

DNA databank at the University of Guelph campus

is now the largest genetic reference library in the world

It is the main hub of the global International Barcode of Life project, a digital Noah’s Ark, helping scientists discover an unexpected treasure trove of new species in the wild, and has also emerged as a watchdog of sorts on food products.

Guelph’s genetic database, which currently includes 240,000 species stored on dedicated computer servers linked to the Internet, aims to identify all living organisms on Earth.

“The goal is for any person to recognize any life form,” said Paul Hebert, biology professor at the University of Guelph, and founder of DNA barcoding.

What started out in one standard-issue university lab a decade ago has expanded to two new buildings on the southern edge of the Guelph campus. Rooms are filled with lab-coated researchers and students working on state-of-the-art equipment such as fully automated robotic machines that hum along processing almost 100 samples at once, as opposed to the old-fashioned manual method of one sample at a time.

At the Guelph lab, areas are set aside for extracting the DNA through chemical processes from tissue samples sent to them from all corners of the world.

A standardized part of the DNA genome is replicated millions of times in a desktop machine called an amplifier. The individual units of DNA are then read in a larger machine called a sequencer that downloads to a computer the order of appearance of the DNA. These DNA sequences are compiled and analyzed for each sample to find out which are more similar to each other, or in other words, the same species group together.

The Guelph project — sponsored primarily by the federal and Ontario governments — began in 2003 after Dr. Hebert published a scientific article outlining his ‘‘DNA barcoding’’ method, originally developed as a tool for the identification and discovery of species diversity. (The technique was dubbed DNA barcoding, because it is like the universal product code – the black-and-white striped labels scanned by cashiers at stores. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration adopted this technique as a regulatory method for identifying food products.)

Dr. Hebert — who became fascinated with collecting insects as a child, and went on to a PhD at Cambridge — was primarily focused on butterflies and moths, so he set up working groups of scientists to cover the other animals and plants. To spread the net even wider, he then concentrated on establishing barcoding hubs on different continents that were connected in cyberspace, with Guelph as the epicentre.

Among the many researchers worldwide using the DNA facility is Scott Miller, deputy under-secretary for collections and interdisciplinary support at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who sends his insect samples from Papua New Guinea to the Guelph lab. Even though the Smithsonian has DNA capabilities, Dr. Hebert’s lab is the world’s leader in barcoding.

Dr. Miller said the barcode project has not only helped his research but has also been important in many non-scientific ways, such as air safety, by identifying the species most commonly involved in “bird strikes with airplanes.”

“It’s a virtuous and beautiful science” to bridge the gap between pure and applied science, said Dr. Hebert.

The DNA barcoding project has spread to 28 countries around the world, all contributing to the Guelph-based database. But there is still much work to be done because the 240,000 species in the genetic reference library account for only about 12% of the 2 million known species, or just under 0.25% of the upper estimate of 100 million species. It is currently populated by many of the large, better-known and easily found species, such as fish, birds and mammals.

The challenge over the next decade is barcoding the small, poorly known and difficult-to-find species, such as insects, fungi and single-celled organisms, Dr. Hebert said.

Dr. Hebert — who confesses to spending little time in the lab now that the project is spreading beyond academia — predicts that “we will see coverage for 1.5 million species by 2020.”

It took about 200 years for biologists to document that number of species the old way.

Two Ontario real estate associations oppose taxing foreign buyers in Toronto

From:

http://www.cp24.com/news/two-ontario-real-estate-associations-oppose-taxing-foreign-buyers-in-toronto-1.3085587

Two Ontario real estate associations have voiced opposition to following in Vancouver's footsteps and implementing a tax on foreign homebuyers, saying that such a "knee-jerk reaction" could have negative implications for the economy.

In letters penned to the provincial and municipal governments last month, the Toronto Real Estate Board and the Ontario Real Estate Association argue that instituting a tax on foreign homebuyers would do little to address affordability issues in Toronto's housing market.

Instead, it could cause house prices to soar in regions surrounding Toronto, thus pushing prices in Toronto even higher, the groups argue.

"both demand and supply issues should be considered as contributors to the growing affordability challenge. Of particular importance is what could be done at the local and provincial levels to bring more supply into the marketplace."

The associations suggest a number of measures including reducing or completely eliminating provincial and municipal land transfer taxes, and boosting a tax rebate for first-time buyers to reflect today's home prices.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday that she is waiting for more data to help gauge the differences between Toronto and Vancouver's housing markets, and to see what the impact of Vancouver's tax has been.

Ontario, B.C. and the federal government are all part of a working group currently looking at ways to address affordability issues, she noted.

In Metro Vancouver, home sales dropped 26 per cent following the Aug. 2 introduction of the 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said there were 2,489 homes sold in Metro Vancouver in August, down from 3,362 a year ago.

Some critics have voiced concerns that the Vancouver tax could cause investment to shift to Toronto, further stoking the flames of the city's already red-hot housing market.

Comments:

 do we know all the jurisdictions in the world that have taxes on foreign buyers? or plain simple dont allow foreign buyers? is there a database of this?

"Instead, it could cause house prices to soar in regions surrounding Toronto, thus pushing prices in Toronto even higher, the groups argue." - this is interesting, because it means that prices are going to soar in regions around Vancouver, now that Vancouver has implemented tax on foreign buyers. So it's a good time to invest in properties in areas around Vancouver. We should identify what are all the areas around Vancouver and track how their house prices move over the next months and years. is there a database of this?

"The organizations suggest there is a lack of research demonstrating how much foreign buyers are really driving up prices in Toronto." This kind of information would be very useful! it would be wonderful if this could be open data - why is this not being tracked already, by the Toronto Real Estate Board and the Ontario Real Estate Association?  and other real estate associations (in Canada and around the world)? what are they doing to track this? what other stats do they/can they track? what other stats are other real estate associations in the world tracking? find a list of all real estate associations in the work, contact them and ask them what stats they are collecting, and how it is being used, and then suggest the same to the real estate associations that are not tracking those stats. is there a database of this?

The associations suggest a number of measures including reducing or completely eliminating provincial and municipal land transfer taxes, and boosting a tax rebate for first-time buyers to reflect today's home prices - how does this work in other parts of the world? do we know which jurisdictions in the world have no/very high land transfer taxes and tax rebate for first time buyers? is there a database of this?

"Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said Friday that she is waiting for more data to help gauge the differences between Toronto and Vancouver's housing markets, and to see what the impact of Vancouver's tax has been." where is this data going to come from, how is it going to be collected? will she share her methodology for collecting?

"Ontario, B.C. and the federal government are all part of a working group currently looking at ways to address affordability issues, she noted." what is this working group, who is it composed of?, is there any transparency?

In Metro Vancouver, home sales dropped 26 per cent following the Aug. 2 introduction of the 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers. - lets track how house prices and sales numbers move all over the world - month over month - all jurisdictions - is there a database for this? 

Some critics have voiced concerns that the Vancouver tax could cause investment to shift to Toronto, further stoking the flames of the city's already red-hot housing market.how is this being watched and monitored?

Canadian economy pumps out disappointing inflation, retail trade numbers

The Canadian economy produced two batches of disappointing numbers Friday that experts said were certain to catch the Bank of Canada's attention.

But despite unexpectedly weak inflation and retail sales data released by Statistics Canada, economists predicted the central bank will refrain from touching its benchmark interest rate any time soon.

The country's annual inflation rate was 1.1 per cent in August as lower fuel prices dragged the reading to the lower reaches of the Bank of Canada's target range. The result was below the 1.3 per cent year-over-year increase in July.

The federal agency also released fresh retail trade figures that showed total sales slipped 0.1 per cent in July, compared with the previous month. Revised figures showed that month-over-month retail sales were essentially flat in May and June after rising 0.8 per cent in April.

On inflation, the August consumer price index found prices rose in most major categories compared with a year earlier -- with the cost of electricity, air transportation and passenger vehicles contributing the biggest upward pushes to the overall inflation rate.

A closer look at the numbers revealed that Canadians paid 14.5 per cent more for apples compared with a year earlier, 9.3 per cent more for fresh or frozen fish and 5.3 per cent more for cigarettes.

But increases like those were offset by lower prices for items like gasoline, which dropped 11.5 per cent, fuel oil, which fell 11.8 per cent and natural gas, which slid 9.9 per cent.

Economists had predicted inflation to ring in at 1.4 per cent in August, according to Thomson Reuters.

Desjardins senior economist Jimmy Jean wrote in a research note to clients Friday that by coming in under expectations the inflation rate is "preoccupying" for the Bank of Canada.

The August reading was near the bottom fringe of the central bank's target range of one to three per cent.

Jean noted core inflation, which omits some volatile items like gasoline, fell below two per cent after five months above that level. The Bank of Canada's core index was 1.8 per cent last month, down from 2.1 per cent in July.

Still, with Canada struggling to find a way out of a prolonged period of slow-growth, he doesn't expect this report to prompt the bank to make a move for nearly two years.

Jean recalled that while the economy just emerged from a second quarter that delivered the country its worst contraction since 2009, the third-quarter forecast is much stronger.

Statistics Canada's retail trade data showed that overall sales dipped slightly in July and totalled just over $44.1 billion.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/2016/09/20/u-of-c-researcher-teleports-photons-across-calgary.html

U of C researcher teleports photons across Calgary

Professor Wolfgang Tittel of the university’s physics and astronomy department has made waves (or is it particles?) in the science community by teleporting the quantum state of a photon six kilometres across the city – a new distance record.

His paper was recently published in the journal Nature Photonics.

It all has to do with quantum entanglement. If you’ve been reading your Popular Science magazines, you know that quantum particles can become entangled, meaning they’re kind of like soulmates. Even when they’re far apart, they can still affect one another instantaneously in a way Einstein described as “spooky.”

That’s where Tittel comes in. He and his crew started by creating a pair of entangled photons and then zipping one off to city hall through fibre optic cable infrastructure lent by the city.

At the same time, they cooked up a third photon (not entangled) at the city’s data centre in Manchester and sent it to arrive at the same time as the entangled photon.

“It turns out that the particle that remained here was in the same state as the particle we created in Manchester. Somehow, that state was transferred between city hall and the university over 6.2 kilometres.”

Tittel said as this process is refined, they’ll be able to encode keys – zeros and ones – into a photon’s state and send it along. If anyone intercepts the photon’s state along the way, the sender and the receiver will both know.

“If we find out this has not happened, then we know two people can share a perfectly encrypted key,” said Tittel.

Say cheese..... not meat. Scientists have found that not all saturated fat is bad for you. When it comes from dairy foods, it boosts heart health - consuming 5 grams per day of sat fat found in milk products drops cardiovascular disease risk by 21%. But when it comes from meat, the risk rises 31%.