It takes two weeks to dress the venue (which is in a mall, remember) for the occasion each year

An increasing number of people in France espouse a clothing-free lifestyle

Some 250 volunteers transported more than 2,000 books

Mary, a 54-year-old Asian elephant at the Berlin Zoo, is the “queen of showering,” but her companion Anchali seems to have figured out how to exploit that habit to play pranks

The team traveled from New Zealand to Tonga along a humpback highway to collect environmental DNA and raise awareness of the plight of the marine mammals

Cenotes in the Yucatán Peninsula are time capsules preserving remnants of Maya culture and fossils of extinct megafauna

From Scotland to Japan, these multiday treks offer adventure and a truly immersive experience

From Setsubun in Japan to Fèt Gede in Haiti, these festivals relish in the macabre

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest capture quintessentially Cuban scenes

These amazing images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest show the Arctic animals at their fierce but adorable best

You asked, we answered

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest show how communities in Mexico and beyond mark Día de los Muertos.

A clinical social worker explains the vital role of the old-fashioned rotary phone for those dealing with death and loss

On the island of Laeso in Denmark, one man is reviving the lost art of eelgrass thatching and, in doing so, bringing attention to a plant that has great potential

Adverse weather has cancelled ferry crossings between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia heading into the long weekend.

Shallaway Youth Choir is bringing a program of music to the Basilica in downtown St. John’s on Remembrance Day. Artistic director Kellie Walsh says the choir will sing about such topics as the Unknown Soldier and schoolchildren who care for Newfoundland graves in London. Where Once They Stood will be performed at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday.

Nellie Winters is 87. From the time she was a child, her hands and mind have been busy pursuing her love of Inuit art and craft.

Police have reported that a man was fatally electrocuted in Torbay on Saturday evening. Two others are being treated for injuries.

Bombardier control box recovered during second dive to a World War 2 bomber at the bottom of Gander Lake.

Hundreds congregated in downtown St. John's Monday morning to pay tribute to Newfoundland and Labrador's fallen soldiers, and honoured the dead for the first time at the newly refurbished National War Memorial and tomb of the Unknown Solider. 

After a year of negotiations, the postal union has given Canada Post a 72-hour strike notice. At a solidarity rally in St. John's last week, local president Craig Dyer says a strike could mean parcels — including Christmas presents — won't make it to rural communities.

People using the library in the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John's are being forced to use alternate entrances due to an unsafe staircase in front of the building.

About a thousand people stood solemnly in the rain at a cenotaph in downtown Halifax on Monday morning to pay tribute to veterans on Remembrance Day.

As Nova Scotia politicians make their fall election promises, Julie Leggett is urging them to commit to helping people on income assistance stay cool during heat waves.

As Week 3 of the provincial election campaign begins, there are questions about how Nova Scotia's major political parties plan to combat the rising number of opioid overdose deaths. 

Elections Nova Scotia is investigating PC candidate Susan Corkum-Greek's campaign to determine whether it broke the law by handing out gift cards on Saturday outside a Tim Hortons in Lunenburg, N.S. 

Dominic April fell in love with forging after his career in the military came to an end in 2015. Now operating a blacksmith studio near Quebec City, he hopes to help other veterans dealing with PTSD find creativity and purpose.

Amid rapid global advances and deployment of artificial intelligence technologies, the federal government has invested millions to combine the minds of three existing institutes into one that can keep an eye on potential dangers ahead.

Mosquito-borne disease is a major global public health issue. One path toward the development of evidence-based strategies to limit mosquito biting is the study of the mosquito nervous system—in particular, the sensory systems that drive biting behavior. The central nervous system of insects consists of the brain and the ventral nerve cord. Here, we describe a protocol for dissecting, immunofluorescent labeling, and imaging both of these structures in the mosquito. This protocol was optimized for Aedes aegypti and works well on Anopheles gambiae tissue. It has not been tested in other mosquito species, but we anticipate that it would work on a range of mosquitoes, and, if not, our protocol will provide a starting point from which to optimize. Notably, a limited number of antibodies cross-react with Ae. aegypti proteins. This protocol is intended for use with validated antibodies and can also be used to test new antibodies as they are generated. It has been successfully used to visualize protein tags, such as green fluorescent protein, that have been introduced into the mosquito to amplify or detect their presence.

Laboratory study of field-collected mosquitoes can allow researchers to better understand the ways variation within and among mosquito populations shapes burdens of mosquito-borne disease. The Anopheles gambiae complex comprises the most important vectors of malaria, but it can be challenging to keep in the laboratory. For some species of mosquitoes, especially An. gambiae, it is very difficult to bring viable eggs into the laboratory. Instead, it is preferable to collect larvae or pupae and then transport them as carefully as possible back to the laboratory. This simple protocol allows a researcher to start new laboratory colonies from larvae or pupae collected from natural breeding sites or proceed directly to their planned experiments. The use of natural breeding sites provides additional reassurance that the resulting colonies are representative of natural populations.

Sleep studies in Drosophila melanogaster rely mostly on behavioral read-outs to support molecular or circuit-level investigations in this model. Electrophysiology can provide an additional level of understanding in these studies to, for example, investigate changes in brain activity associated with sleep manipulations. In this protocol, we describe a procedure for performing multichannel local field potential (LFP) recordings in the fruit fly, with a flexible system that can be adapted to different experimental paradigms and situations. The approach uses electrodes containing multiple recording sites (16), allowing the acquisition of large amounts of neuronal activity data from a transect through the brain while flies are still able to sleep. The approach starts by tethering the fly, followed by positioning it on an air-supported ball. A multichannel silicon probe is then inserted laterally into the fly brain via one eye, allowing for recording of electrical signals from the retina through to the central brain. These recordings can be acquired under spontaneous conditions or in the presence of visual stimuli, and the minimal surgery promotes long-term recordings (e.g., overnight). Sleep and wake can be tracked using infrared cameras, which allow for the measurement of locomotive activity as well as microbehaviors such as proboscis extensions during sleep. The protocol has been optimized to promote subject survivability, which is an important factor when performing long-term (~16-h) recordings. The approach described here uses specific recording probes, data acquisition devices, and analysis tools. Although it is expected that some of these items might need to be adapted to the equipment available in different laboratories, the overall aim is to provide an overview on how to record electrical activity across the brain of behaving (and sleeping) flies using this kind of approach and technology.

All PCR- and DNA-based blood meal analyses require host DNA from a mosquito blood meal to be effectively preserved between the time when the specimen is collected and the extraction of DNA. As soon as a mosquito ingests blood from a host animal, digestion of host cells and cellular components within the blood meal by enzymes in the mosquito midgut begins to degrade the host DNA templates that are the targets of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Without effective preservation, host DNA is typically undetectable by PCR 48 h after feeding, because of digestion. Preservation methods for mosquito blood meals vary in their efficacy, and the logistics of fieldwork can limit the options for preservation of blood meals and maintenance of the integrity of host DNA. This protocol describes a method of blood meal preservation that is effective, convenient, and amenable to fieldwork in remote locations where cryopreservation at –20°C or –80°C may not be feasible. It uses a Flinders Technology Associates (FTA) card, which is a chemically treated card that lyses cells and allows nucleic acids to be preserved. This method is also expected to preserve the DNA or RNA of pathogens present within the engorged mosquito abdomen, including RNA viruses.

The insect eggshell is a multifunctional structure with several important roles, including generating an entry point for sperm via the micropyle before oviposition, serving as an oviposition substrate attachment surface, and functioning as a protective layer during embryo development. Eggshell proteins play major roles in eggshell tanning and hardening following oviposition and provide molecular cues that define dorsal–ventral axis formation. Precise eggshell formation during ovarian follicle maturation is critical for normal embryo development and the synthesis of a defective eggshell often gives rise to inviable embryos. Therefore, simple and accurate methods for identifying eggshell proteins will facilitate our understanding of the molecular pathways regulating eggshell formation and the mechanisms underlying normal embryo development. This protocol describes how to isolate and enrich eggshells from mature oocytes of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and how to extract their eggshell proteins for liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) proteomic analysis. Although this methodology was developed for studying mosquito eggshells, it may be applicable to eggs from a variety of insects. Mosquitoes are ideal model organisms for this study as their ovarian follicle development and eggshell formation are meticulously regulated by blood feeding and their follicles develop synchronously throughout oogenesis in a time-dependent manner.

After more than a century of searching, scientists have discovered a gene in snails that may control asymmetries inside many animals

A Two-Day Festival in the historic Arts & Industries Building brings community, artists and scholars together for a “Culture Lab”

Food is a focal point for understanding broader environmental problems. In this podcast, we learn how food buyers are influenced in surprising ways.

The Northwest Territories Power Corporation expects that by the end of March it will have generated 72 per cent of power for the North Slave region using hydro, and 28 per cent from diesel. Last year, about half the region's power was from diesel because of low water levels.

More than 50 Norman Wells residents gathered at the Royal Canadian Legion on Thursday night to voice frustrations over high heating fuel prices.

Tammy Roberts, Home Base's executive director, said before these services launched, there was "no place for youth to go" other than the emergency room or to RCMP cells. 

Water quality guidelines for mercury are 0.02 micrograms per litre of water. Several results show that levels at four sites are far above that threshold. During the second week of October, one value close to the mine was more than seven times the acceptable level.

Stephanie Yuill spent five weeks visiting First World War sites across Europe on a bike she bought from the grocery store. 

Hay River RCMP say they believe two weekend incidents, including one in which a person was shot, are linked to drugs and organized crime.

A group of volunteers have been providing emergency services to West Dawson residents during the periods of freeze up and break up, when there is no reliable access across the Yukon River to town.

A man who fled from police, drove onto a walking trail, triggered a shelter-in-place advisory for the Chateau Nova hotel in Yellowknife and subsequently broke into a home was on bail at the time and under house arrest, police say.

Newspaper editor Horace Greeley unsuccessfully ran against incumbent Ulysses S. Grant in November 1872. Twenty-four days later, he died of unknown causes at a private mental health facility

A new film revisits the 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975

As a child, the future president acquired a marine animal's skull, which became the first specimen in his natural history collection

During and after the Civil War, inventive illustrations allowed Democrats and Republicans to turn American ballots into powerful propaganda

A new exhibition at the British Library explores the public, private and spiritual lives of such figures as Joan of Arc, Christine de Pizan and Hildegard of Bingen

Texts like the "Sortes Astrampsychi" promised insights on clients' love lives, career prospects, financial woes and families