CSI Blog & Newsroom

Photographer: Nathan Fertig

“The average price of a Canadian home sold last month was just over $491,000, a 10 per cent drop in the past year,” wrote Pete Evans for CBC News on April 13, 2018.

Evans continued, “The Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday that the number of homes sold also plunged, by almost a quarter from the same month a year ago, which was the best March for home sales on record.

The real estate group blamed recent mortgage rule changes for wreaking havoc on the market, creating feverish demand for starter homes, but making it much harder to move up.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Ilya Yakover

“More than half of your body is not human, say scientists.

Human cells make up only 43% of the body’s total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists,” wrote James Gallagher, Presenter, The Second Genome, BBC Radio 4 for BBC News on April 10, 2018.

Gallagher continued, “Understanding this hidden half of ourselves – our microbiome – is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson’s.

The field is even asking questions of what it means to be “human” and is leading to new innovative treatments as a result.

“They are essential to your health,” says Prof Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute, “your body isn’t just you”.

No matter how well you wash, nearly every nook and cranny of your body is covered in microscopic creatures.”

Read the full article here.