“Unleash Your Inner Scientist: The Globe’s Thrilling 2024 Science Challenge!”

c. Alberta’s two major cities are ideally situated for the eclipse on Aug. 22, 2044. Begin your preparations now; it will arrive sooner than anticipated!

c. The telescope, engineered by Ontario’s Canadensys Aerospace Corp., was the first astronomical device to reach the moon’s surface. Regrettably, the lander toppled after it landed, leaving the telescope aimed at lunar soil.

a. While beaver moons exist, no beaver planets have been discovered thus far. Nevertheless, the eyeball planet (LHS 1140 b), popcorn planet (WASP-107 b), and vodka planet (TOI-270 d) were all examined by the JWST this year.

a. As described in a report published in Nature Communications, the trefoil-shaped knot comprised a backbone of only 54 atoms, which included six atoms of gold.

b. Utilizing recognized international criteria, the evaluation published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, discovered that both Mt. Garibaldi and Mt. Meager in British Columbia are classified as very high risk volcanoes, with four others categorized as high-to-moderate risk. The evaluation also indicated that Canada “falls considerably short of the internationally advised volcano monitoring standards for volcanoes of all threat levels.”

a. Researchers of the study, released last July in Communications Earth & Environment, noted that the unpredicted outcome relates to the heightened movement of sea ice from the Arctic Ocean, which has been released due to climate change and can now encroach into the Northwest Passage, obstructing its narrowest passages more effectively than before.

b. While the 2024 hurricane season will be remembered for Hurricane Helene’s remarkable destruction in North Carolina, Hurricane Debby’s track to the north ultimately rendered it the most expensive weather incident in Quebec’s history. Both storms served as sobering reminders that the ramifications of hurricanes can impact areas far removed from the shoreline.

b. Canada ranks first in a regional assessment of pyrocumulonimbus occurrences. This indicates that a greater number of wildfires in Canada may escalate in ways that result in quicker-than-anticipated rates of spread.

b. In their depiction of an ancient plant exhibiting a straight woody trunk crowned with a dense tuft of frond-like foliage, scientists perceived something akin to truffula trees from the classic work by Dr. Seuss.

a. Much like chimpanzees who can visually recognize themselves in a mirror, a study from the University of Waterloo published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B revealed that Eastern garter snakes exhibit self-recognition through olfaction.

a. Mushrooms that thrive on decaying matter are a scientific rarity. However, in 2024, researchers discovered fungi growing on a dead muskrat inside a cave in New Brunswick. To investigate this phenomenon further, they later introduced a deceased beaver carcass, successfully replicating the occurrence. They have consistently returned to observe the dead beaver to study the mushrooms, most recently this past spring.

c. The notable initiative, known as the FlyWire project, is regarded as a significant advancement in understanding brain structure and function.

d. The research, published last February in Nature, unveiled that a modification in a gene named TBXT could clarify how the common ancestor of the hominoids – our lineage on the primate family tree – lost its tail after diverging from old-world monkeys approximately 25 million years ago. Notably, this alteration seems to have come at a considerable cost. Variants of this gene, which can impact spinal cord development, are also associated with a heightened risk of spina bifida.

a. As reported in the journal Science, a coalition of U.S. and Canadian scientists examined over 60,000 individuals who underwent sugar rationing in utero throughout the initial 1,000 days of life. In addition to a lower incidence of Type 2 diabetes, these individuals were also 20 percent less likely to develop high blood pressure. Researchers indicate that the study underscores the significant impact of early childhood nutrition on subsequent health outcomes.

b. The medication, which is given via injection twice annually, was found to demonstrate 100 percent effectiveness in preventing HIV in a clinical trial involving adolescent girls and young women and 99.9 percent effectiveness in a second trial with participants of diverse genders. As reported by Science magazine when naming it the breakthrough of the year, the medication possesses the greatest potential among interventions to date for reducing global HIV infection rates.

c. Beginning in the 1980s, Hinton’s contributions to artificial neural networks—computer programs capable of self-adjustment to enhance their performance—were instrumental in the advancement of AI. Presently, they empower all other applications mentioned in this inquiry.

a. Inaugurated 95 years ago, the Ambassador Bridge, located just a few kilometers upstream of the new Gordie Howe bridge, currently stands as the busiest border crossing between Canada and the United States.

a. In a study released in Scientific Reports in February, experts revealed that the stone container “holds a deep red cosmetic formulation that likely serves as a lip-coloring paint or paste.”

b. In an article released last March in the journal Historia Mathematica, Glen Van Brummelen from Trinity Western University in British Columbia demonstrated that the decimal point was introduced by Giovanni Bianchini, an Italian astrologer, in the 1440s. This discovery extends the usage of the decimal point by over a century and suggests that the 15th century was a more inventive period for mathematics than generally perceived.