Profs Make International Headlines

Guelph - Integrative Biology Prof. Paul Hebert and the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO) are featured today in the Wall Street Journal. The article focuses on how DNA barcoding has been used recently to detect mislabelled fish sold at stores and restaurants in New York and around Ontario. It mentions two recent U of G studies on the subject, and discusses how DNA barcoding is changing the way species are differentiated and identified. It also includes quotes from Hebert about various barcoding initiatives and barcoding’s potential impact around the world for cataloguing and discovering new species.

Hebert, who is BIO’s director, is spearheading the International Barcode of Life (iBOL) project. The consortium, which will involve more than 100 researchers from 25 countries once fully activated, will create the world’s first reference library of DNA barcodes for use in species identification around the globe.

Economics professor Ross McKitrick has been quoted in numerous newspapers and magazines around the world and interviewed by dozens of international TV and radio programs this week. McKitrick, who is currently in the United Kingdom on a research sabbatical, has appeared on BBC, CBC and Fox television news programs and been quoted in articles in Science, The Times of London, The Sunday Times, the National Post and the Daily Mail , among others.

McKitrick has been commenting on an email hacking incident involving a server used by the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. An unknown person broke into the system and released thousands of emails and other documents from climate change proponents.