Research & Ideas

Prof. Kristen Bos wearing a long-sleeved, black and white flower patterned dress and large purple clover-shaped earrings, facing off camera, with a glass and concrete building and a grassy hill in the background

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Prof. Kristen Bos investigates how pollution has affected – and continues to affect – Indigenous communities

Suman Roy, wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the words

Hunger Pains

Food bank use in Toronto is soaring. Can a U of T Scarborough lab help?

Illustration of a gamer's desk, depicting a video game console, monitor, two controllers, an open notebook, and a video game character wielding a sword coming out of the console, next to a stoppered potion bottle with red liquid

Game Time

Most of today’s students play video games. Why not study them, too?

A grassy field full of white clovers in a Toronto park, surrounded by trees and condo buildings in the distance

Cities Are Driving Evolution

Globally crowdsourced study shows that white clovers are biologically adapting to city life, demonstrating the profound impact of urbanization

Close up of Prof. Gillian Hadfield in a black turtleneck sweater, smiling against a solid dark-brown background

Will AI Be a Force for Good?

New technologies are difficult to regulate. With artificial intelligence, it may be time to rethink our approach, says Gillian Hadfield

Researcher in safety goggles and a lab coat examining one of five test tubes with different coloured lids, four of them containing DNA fragments suspended in liquid and the fifth containing a longer DNA chain

The Power of Information

The world produces mountains of data every day. A new U of T institute will help us make better sense of it all

Black and white closeup of Chen Yang looking at the camera

From Anxiety to Action

U of T students are collaborating with faculty on research that could improve the mental health of youth worldwide

People fishing along the shoreline

Hunger in the North

Too many people in Nunavut don’t get enough to eat. Anthropologist Tracey Galloway believes Inuit communities, not southern governments, have the solution

Collage of parts of the face of people from different races and a small, seated figure with a bent head coloured in black

Blurring the Blue Line

Student Rachel Bromberg and alum Asante Haughton are helping to create a response service for mental health crisis calls in Toronto that relies less on police

Illustration of a giant vial of insulin and a tiny figure standing on the cap looking down a hole in the centre, through which shines a light

The Miracle of Insulin

A century after U of T scientists discovered the life-saving extract, researchers are finding new ways to improve the lives of people with diabetes

Photo of front campus field and Convocation Hall with flower emoji illustrations floating above

Clearing the Air

U of T wants to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2050. It’s enlisting on-campus ingenuity for help

Abstract illustration showing a red-coloured body and face, with small black and white pieces flowing from inside body out of the mouth, and the U.S. Capitol Building dangling on puppet strings from one hand

The Extremism Machine

Online disinformation poses a danger to society. Researchers at U of T’s Citizen Lab are tracking it – and trying to figure out how to stop it

Back profile of a police person as they face blazing fire in the background

Eliminating Excessive Force

U of T Mississauga professor Judith Andersen’s training techniques improve police performance in tense situations. The challenge: getting police to use them

A collage containing an illustration of Sir John A. Macdonald with

Whose Stories Do We Tell?

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography aims to record noteworthy lives from “all points of view.” Six decades into its mission, what that means is still up for debate

Who Cares for the Caregivers?

There is a steep personal cost to caregiving, from chronic stress to physical injury. How can we help those who minister to family and friends?

Outdoor shot of Kipling Acres building and grounds

Strange Bedfellows

A growing number of city-dwellers live in condos – and now high schools, theatres and daycares are taking up residence there, too, creating benefits for everyone

Close up picture of a model of a human heart created with a 3-D printer

Pumped Up

These 3-D printers create perfect models of life-sized human hearts, spines and other body parts