MaRS

Water coolers: Where is all happens in Canadian culture

Canadian office culture may not seem intimidating, but if you’re a new Canadian, your qualifications and global experience may not be enough to move ahead in your career. Understanding the value of small-talk in the office can be paramount to progressing into a management position. That’s where MaRS client KIOSK steps in.

KIOSK offer English as a Second Language (ESL) communications solutions and specialized language camps, helping new Canadians who have  skills to integrate into the workplace.

Statistics Canada reported in March that Toronto’s visible minority population  could more than double from 2.3 million in 2006 to nearly 5.6 million by 2031. This means the work of organizations like KIOSK will only become more important with each passing year — for immigrants and businesses alike.

Andy Grove sounds the alarm about innovation

By dropping the social in innovation, is North America breaking the innovation chain?

Andy Grove, a co-founder of Intel and a Silicon Valley icon, is sounding two alarms about innovation’s future. Both flow from his disagreement with the accepted article of faith that the US tech sector necessarily should focus high-end jobs in the US and export manufacturing jobs.

The race is on

Paradigm shifts and productivity have driven Canada’s digital media economy for the last 30 years (read this primer for more information)—but how is Canada currently faring from the standpoint of generating intellectual property?

In this post, I look at the state of Canada’s global competitiveness in the 21^st century.  Who are our competitors? Where are our IP strengths and weaknesses? What are our competitive advantages? And how can we boost our productivity, both across the board and specifically in digital media?

Lucy Bernholz, author of Philanthropy2173

So says Lucy Bernholz, author of Philanthropy2173. This popular blog was named the best blog in its category by Fast Company and if you’re like me, you have the blog updating automatically on your iGoogle page. Understanding the changing world of philanthropy and the nature of giving is a quest for many foundations and charitable organizations. The need to understand is only amplified by the increasing demand on people’s generosity.

Referred to often as the “global threat set,” climate change, drought, food shortage, population growth and aging will draw on human and financial resources with increasing intensity. Keeping pace with this threat set is vital. Lucy Bernholz is at the vanguard of these changing times.

DNA Part II, courtesy of Toronto

One surprising finding from the Human Genome Project was that our genome is of a relatively modest size compared to some lowly organisms (e.g. the marbled lungfish and the amoeba Polychaos dubium have genomes 40-200 times the size of ours).  How is it that we can make do with a fraction of the genes of these more simple species?  We are important after all!

Driven by gene envy, scientists the world over have tried to figure out just how we can generate sufficient complexity from such a (ahem) puny genome.

Canada to the rescue!  The results of a pivotal research study that sheds light on this puzzle has recently been published in Nature.  The work was conducted at the University of Toronto by a team led by Ben Blencowe and Brendan Frey.