iN NUMBERS: From cattle to cancer, what researchers in BC are up to

Scientific advancement can sometimes feel abstract and distant, like something happening far away in the background of everyday life. But there are lots of researchers around BC working on projects that could help make the world a better place to live.

To break up the doom and gloom of the news cycle, we collected some figures to quantify what local researchers are doing to give us some hope.

Here are the numbers:

80: Per cent. That’s how much a new surgical innovation out of UBC cuts ovarian cancer risk.
100,000: People are affected by a rare disease called autosomal recessive congenital ichthyosis, but a new treatment developed by UBC researchers could help treat it.
7.9: Million dollars. That’s the budget for a UBC project that aims to reduce methane emissions from cattle in Canada.
44: Per cent. That’s the portion of Canada’s salmon population that scientists can assess due to a decline in publicly-available data, according to researchers at Simon Fraser University.
3,225: Posts on Strava, an app for runners to track their workouts, were analyzed by Simon Fraser University researchers to find out how to get people to enjoy running and encourage physical activity.
23: Per cent of youth reported disordered eating in BC and SFU researchers associated that finding with social media.
3.5: Billion dollars. That’s the economic impact of the Interior University Research Coalition between Thompson Rivers University, UBC Okanagan and the University of Northern British Columbia.
5: Millimetres. That’s the size that meets the definition of microplastic. Thompson Rivers University researchers are investigating nanoplastic which is about 5,000 times smaller.
200,000: Canadians suffer a mild traumatic brain injury each year and Okanagan College researchers are finding new ways to help students through recovery and persisting symptoms.