Advances in missile technology by both the Russians and the Chinese have the potential to paralyze leaders and decision-makers in a crisis, Canada’s top military commander warned in a speech Wednesday. The remarks by Gen. Jonathan Vance, the chief of the defence staff, are among the most stark and forceful delivered to date about the urgency…

Canada plans to focus its next budget on tackling climate change and its effects, but the insurance industry, amid skyrocketing costs, is concerned the government will move too slowly on the key first step of mapping flood risks. Flood mapping is used to underwrite flood insurance, assess bank exposure across mortgage portfolios, inform home buyers,…

Scientists say they have used the gene editing tool CRISPR inside someone’s body for the first time, a new frontier for efforts to operate on DNA, the chemical code of life, to treat diseases. A patient recently had it done at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland for an…

New research suggests K2-18b, a “mini-Neptune” that lies roughly 125 light-years from Earth, could be potentially habitable.  Mini-Neptunes are planets less massive than Neptune, with barely any core or solid surface but with a thick hydrogen-helium atmosphere. However, there has been debate over whether these types of planets could host an environment that could be potentially…

Chinese social media platforms began censoring references to coronavirus and keywords critical of the government’s handling of the infection as early as December, Toronto-based cyber research group Citizen Lab said in a report on Tuesday. Chinese messenger app WeChat, owned by Tencent Holdings Ltd , and JOYY Inc.’s video streaming app YY blocked keyword combinations that included criticisms of President Xi Jinping,…

Two ancient weasel ancestors fight in a reconstruction based on a fossil skull and teeth. Corumictis wolsani is the oldest weasel ever found in North America, researchers report. (Henry Sharpe) A tiny skull once thought to belong to an ancient miniature cat is actually the earliest relative of wolverines, minks, otters and weasels ever found in…