CBC News

Canada's research and development funding system is too complicated and confusing, a government-appointed panel said Monday.  Creating a new arm's-length funding agency and putting a single cabinet minister in charge of innovation would streamline the application process and give the government a clear voice on the issue, Tom Jenkins, the panel's chair said.

The federal government needs to get its act together and co-ordinate its climate change programs, Parliament's environment watchdog said Tuesday, as he cast doubt on whether Canada will meet its various emission reduction targets.

Seismologists will tell you no one can actually predict an earthquake. And yet in a courtroom in Italy six scientists and one official are on trial for manslaughter, charged with failing to sufficiently warn people in the Medieval town of L'Aquila of the quake that toppled buildings and killed 300 in April of 2009. Scientists world-wide are outraged but those behind a criminal case and a separate civil case insist they will hold them accountable.

A consortium of Alzheimer's researchers, including a team from Canada, has identified five additional genes that each add to risk of dementia later in life.

Businesses are increasingly relying on universities to help them with science and technology research. University research contracted by bu sinesses increased five fold between 1999 and 2008, to $1.97 billion, reported Janet Walden, vice-president of research partnerships for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Friday.

Almost $90 million once earmarked for an HIV vaccine-production facility in Canada will instead be spent on vaccine research and preventing mother-to-child transmission of the virus, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has announced.

Energy group BP on Thursday signalled its intention to press on with plans to back extraction of oil from Canadian oil sands after defeating shareholders opposed on environmental grounds.