Good morning, and welcome to the weekend.
Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and sit down with a selection of this week’s great reads from The Globe and Mail. In this issue, science journalist Ivan Semeniuk takes us into an underground research facility in Sudbury, Ont., trying to find the most elusive substance in the universe – dark matter – which is estimated to make up an estimated 85 per cent of all the mass in the universe.
Dark matter has so far revealed itself only through its gravitational influence on distant galaxies. But Jodi Cooley and her team of particle physicists at the SNOLAB are undertaking a new phase of the dark matter hunt, by assembling the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search – or SuperCDMS. The SuperCDMS is one of the most sensitive dark matter experiments built and it could mean that hundreds of dark matter particles should be passing through the experiment at every moment. Whether they interact with the detector, though, is an unanswered question.
Semeniuk donned mining gear and accompanied the researchers to the lab in an open-air elevator down a vertical shaft equivalent to the height of four CN towers. “What’s amazing about the experience,” Semeniuk says, “is going down into the relative darkness of a working mine, with all the grit and dust you would expect under your boots, and then having to strip, shower, change clothing and emerge into a bright laboratory environment that is cleaner than a hospital operating room.” A stray speck of dirt could carry a trace of natural radioactivity and throw off the experiment. If the SNOLAB team is successful in detecting dark matter, it could answer questions about the “origin and nature of the universe,” Semeniuk says. And it could also yield them a Nobel Prize.
Also, Temur Durrani and Susan Krashinsky Robertson dive into the very serious cybercrime problem plaguing Canada.
And, Josh O’Kane reports on how the rise of AI has led to the labour movement fighting back in Hollywood.
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Departing SNOLAB on June 12, 2023.Patrick Dell/The Globe and Mail
Deep under the surface of northern Ontario is a laboratory that is searching for dark matter – the mysterious particles that may be passing through our bodies like a ghostly wind that can never be felt. Ivan Semeniuk took a trip underground and observed as a team of particle physicists build an ambitious new experiment that may finally find dark matter. Its detection “would be a chance to perceive the building blocks of reality at a deeper level than we’ve ever seen before,” Semeniuk says.
Our cyberspace invaders: Why nobody can seem to solve Canada’s massive hacking problem
Photo illustration by the Globe and Mail/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
A cyberattack on Canadian chain bookstore Indigo wreaked havoc on the retailer for months. It crashed e-commerce, meaning customers could not shop online. Employees’ sensitive information was leaked to the dark web. And to this day, the FBI and RCMP still don’t who know the hackers are. The incident tells the story of a larger issue in Canada. Over the past year, many high-profile organizations have been the target of cybercriminals – including the Prime Minister’s Office. Business reporters Temur Durrani and Susan Krashinsky Robertson teamed up to tally the threat of cybercrime in this country – and to outline why it’s such a difficult problem to solve.
The rise of AI and the labour movement in Hollywood
Illustration by Cornelia Li
Recently, plenty of commercials and movie trailers have appeared online, purportedly the product of AI. They are disturbingly fake and glitchy, but generative AI models are developing so quickly that it’s possible they will one day be able to produce content close to the real stuff. As Josh O’Kane reports, acting unions are doing what they can to negotiate new contracts that include protection for members from having their work and likenesses reused or co-opted for studios’ profit. It’s a fight worthy of an episode of Black Mirror. Written by humans, of course.
Preserving Toronto’s only nude beach and one of Canada’s oldest LGBTQ landmarks
Chris Otchere enjoys the clothing optional beach at Hanlan's Point in Toronto on July 29, 2023.Jennifer Roberts/The Globe and Mail
The secluded Hanlan’s Point Beach in Toronto has long been a refuge for naturists as well as the city’s LGBTQ+ community. But now, the nude beach is facing a multitude of threats. Its ecosystem is suffering. Its privacy and seclusion is being encroached upon; the beach dodged plans for a concert space to be built next door. There has been a documented rise in homophobic harassment, as well. Naturist and LGBTQ+ advocates are pushing to protect the space. Zosia Bielski spoke with beachgoers on what Hanlan’s Point means to them.
Rohingya refugees gather to buy essentials at a market area in Kutupalong camp a day after Cyclone Mocha made landfall, in Ukhia on May 15, 2023.MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP/Getty Images
About a million Rohingya refugees live in the Kutupalong and Nayapara camps in Cox’s Bazar, on the southeastern tip of Bangladesh, between Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal. After decades of instability caused by military juntas, in 2015, Myanmar became a partial democracy, but Rohingya Muslims were not granted citizenship. And in 2017, the still-in-power military drove hundreds of thousands across the border in what is considered by the UN as genocide. Six years later, front-page media coverage of Cox’s Bazar has dried up but the Rohingya are still there and the refuge has become a nightmare.
Serve’s up: How ping-pong can help us all live healthier and happier lives
Ping Pong at Grossinger's Resort, in Liberty, New York, USA.Universal History Archive/Getty Images
Ping-pong has been a ubiquitous suburban basement activity in North America. In other parts of the world, it’s taken much more seriously (call it table tennis, okay?). The game, argues writer Daniel Sanger, can help us live healthier and happier lives, thanks to its positive effects on the brain and its low barrier to entry. It spread across the world thanks to Ivor Montagu, an English aristocrat, whose grandparents likely originated the game in the 1800s. Throughout his life, he solidified the rules of the game, became president of Britain’s Ping-Pong Association and used his family fortune to promote it. A game that could be played virtually everywhere and with minimal cost, he believed, was one for the proletariat and the peasant.
The science of boosting your creativity
lightbulb brainstorming creative idea abstract icon on business hand.baramee2554
Creativity can seem elusive – like the best ideas come to geniuses and people with special minds. As Wency Leung explores this weekend, that is a common misconception; true inventiveness doesn’t come from taking drugs or simply having a high IQ. Travel and meditation are proved to better foster creativity. Being exposed to new perspectives and keeping an open and calm mind can broaden your horizons. Another key element is process and practice; consistently sticking to a methodical approach to problem-solving is shown to enhance creativity, according to recent scientific research.
Drawn from the headlines
Georgia sheriff on Trump probe: “We’ll have a mugshot ready for you” – AXIOS, Aug. 2, 2023 as drawn by Brandon Celi
