Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
While scientists from the University of Waterloo were examining a 2.5-billion-year-old ruby, they discovered a rare find: evidence of ancient life.
Their clue was the carbon residue, or graphite, recently found encased inside of some of the oldest gemstones in the world.
“The graphite inside this ruby is really unique. It’s the first time we’ve seen evidence of ancient life in ruby-bearing rocks,” Chris Yakymchuk, lead researcher and University of Waterloo professor, said in a press release.
Some of the oldest ruby deposits in the world are in Greenland. This is where the team discovered a ruby sample which contained graphite -- a mineral made of pure carbon.
Analysis of the material found the graphite in the ruby showed remnants of early life, potentially long-dead cyanobacteria.
The graphite was found in rocks dating back 2.5 billion years ago in an era when there wasn’t a lot of oxygen in the atmosphere and the the majority of life was microorganisms and algae films, the team said.
Yakymchuk’s team recently published their finding in November edition of the peer-reviewed journal Ore Geology Reviews, with the journal Chemical Geology publishing their earlier findings in June.
Yakymchuk’s team was initially studying the stones’ geology to better understand what conditions are needed to form rubies.
“The presence of graphite also gives us more clues to determine how rubies formed at this location, something that is impossible to do directly based on a ruby’s colour and chemical composition,” Yakymchuk said in the release.
But just because graphite was found initially didn’t necessarily mean it was life.
To find out for sure, Yakymchuk’s team analyzed a property called isotopic composition, which measures the relative amounts of different carbon atoms. More than 98 per cent of all carbon have a mass of 12 atomic mass units (carbon-12). But sometimes, the carbon atoms are heavier, having a mass of 13 or 14 atomic mass units.
“Living matter preferentially consists of the lighter carbon atoms because they take less energy to incorporate into cells,” Yakymchuk said in the release.
“Based on the increased amount of carbon-12 in this graphite, we concluded that the carbon atoms were once ancient life, most likely dead microorganisms such as cyanobacteria.”
The team also determined that the very presence of graphite not only indicated early life, but allowed for the ruby to exist.
It turns out that the graphite changed the chemistry of the surrounding rocks, which allowed for ruby growth. Without the graphite itself, Yakymchuk’s team says it would have been impossible for the rubies to have formed.
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
The RCMP says it has uncovered a plot by two men in Montreal to sell Chinese drones and military equipment to Libya illegally.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a US$138.7 million settlement Tuesday with more than 100 people who accused the FBI of grossly mishandling allegations of sexual assault against Larry Nassar in 2015 and 2016, a critical time gap that allowed the sports doctor to continue to prey on victims before his arrest.
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
A 35-year-old man wanted in connection with the murder of Toronto resident 29-year-old Sharmar Powell-Flowers nine months ago has topped the list of the BOLO program’s 25 most wanted fugitives across Canada, police announced Tuesday.
The Canadian Medical Association is asking the federal government to reconsider its proposed changes to capital gains taxation, arguing it will affect doctors' retirement savings.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.