McGill, MUHC and Douglas researchers get top marks from Quebec Scienc...( This release is available in A HREF ...),Health

Scientists from McGill University, the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute earn top marks in Qubec Science's Top Ten Discoveries of 2008 for their groundbreaking work.

Published in the magazine's February issue, the prestigious annual ranking honours projects by: Alain Brunet, The Douglas/McGill Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry; McGill Earth and Planetary Sciences professor Don Francis and Ph.D. candidate Jonathan O'Neil; leading cancer researchers Morag Park and Janusz Rak of McGill and the MUHC.

McGill Earth and Planetary Sciences researchers Jonathan O'Neil, Ph.D. candidate, and professor Don Francis, were singled out for their discovery of Earth's oldest rocks, found in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt located in Northern Quebec. The researchers used an isotopic tracer to obtain an age of 4.28 billion years for an unusual amphibolite comprised in the belt, making it 250 million years more ancient than any previously discovered terrestrial rocks. The findings offer scientists clues to the earliest stages of our planet's evolution. The rocks are significant not only for their great age but for their chemical composition which gives an unprecedented glimpse of the processes that formed Earth's early crust. "I'm really interested in how the Earth was created, and with these rocks, present very shortly after the Earth's birth, we can begin to understand how the first crust formed on our planet."

To interview Jonathan O'Neil/Prof. Don Francis: contact Cynthia Lee at 514-398-6754

A clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at McGill, Alain Brunet, PhD, has bee
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