Frontier issue 4 by The University of British Columbia

Office of the Vice President Research

A Journal of Research and Discovery > Issue 04 > June 2008

pests on the prowl Targeting BCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pine beetle epidemic

Hope for Huntingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

How research is poised to transform lives

From the inside out

Corporate social responsibility at work

More than words

Tapping into the power of operatic communication

June 2008 Cover Photo > Klaus Botte Source: Natural Resources Canada

Above > Alamy/Tracy Ferrero

8 Battle of the bark

The pine beetle is transforming BC’s lush greenery into a sea of red death. Jörg Bohlmann looks to the conifer tree for clues on how to halt the beetle’s rampant spread 03 From waste to worth

16 The lens of language

Waste cooking oil is finding new life as Naoko Ellis advances research into the viability of a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based oil

How Sharon Thesen is constructing the world through the creative imagination

06 Between the lines

Sustainable business practices used to be seen as an oxymoron. How James Tansey is making corporate social responsibility business as usual

Nancy Hermiston is examining the links between music cognition and improved learning development through one of the most complicated art forms 12 The hunted/r

Jeff Carroll’s research into Huntington’s disease is not only offering hope for the afflicted; it’s changing the course of his own genetic destiny

A MESSAGE FROM THE Vice President RESEARCH

2008 is an exceptional year at UBC. Not only does it mark 100 years of excellence in education and research, but it is also the year UBC will be hosting Congress 2008, the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences that is a forum to discuss the most important social and cultural questions of our day.

18 In the company of giants

20 Greater than the sum of its parts

Is it nature or is it nurture? Why Joseph Henrich is unconvinced either category gives a complete picture of human behaviour

All great universities recognize the invaluable contributions that the humanities and social sciences make to the world and this issue of frontier showcases why UBC agrees. Humanities research, like Sharon Thesen’s explorations into seeing the world through poetic language, helps enrich our lives in unexpected ways. Social science research keeps us informed about critical issues such as James Tansey’s work into how companies can better manage their corporate social responsibilities. But whether the social or natural sciences, researchers in this issue share one commonality: an interdisciplinary approach. UBC was among the first universities to champion the value of tackling issues from perspectives that cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries.

This approach is amply evident in the research of Nancy Hermiston, who is exploring learning development through the medium of opera, and Joe Henrich, who is integrating psychology, economics and evolutionary science in an effort to provide a more comprehensive view of human behaviour. As we look towards the next 100 years of groundbreaking research, UBC’s commitment to supporting the social sciences and humanities will continue to be a top priority. After all, you need not look further than the pages of this current issue to understand why.

Dr. John Hepburn, Vice President Research

As the irreversible decline of oil availability looms in the not-so distant future, Naoko Ellis is using a grassroots UBC research project to promote the widespread environmental and economic benefits of biodiesel

June 2008 Cover Photo > Klaus Botte Source: Natural Resources Canada

Above > Alamy/Tracy Ferrero

8 Battle of the bark

The pine beetle is transforming BC’s lush greenery into a sea of red death. Jörg Bohlmann looks to the conifer tree for clues on how to halt the beetle’s rampant spread 03 From waste to worth

16 The lens of language

Waste cooking oil is finding new life as Naoko Ellis advances research into the viability of a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based oil

How Sharon Thesen is constructing the world through the creative imagination

06 Between the lines

Sustainable business practices used to be seen as an oxymoron. How James Tansey is making corporate social responsibility business as usual

Nancy Hermiston is examining the links between music cognition and improved learning development through one of the most complicated art forms 12 The hunted/r

Jeff Carroll’s research into Huntington’s disease is not only offering hope for the afflicted; it’s changing the course of his own genetic destiny

A MESSAGE FROM THE Vice President RESEARCH

18 In the company of giants

20 Greater than the sum of its parts

Is it nature or is it nurture? Why Joseph Henrich is unconvinced either category gives a complete picture of human behaviour

Dr. John Hepburn, Vice President Research

Biodiesel reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 78 per cent, carbon monoxide by 48 per cent and particular matter (linked to asthma) by 47 per cent

Photos > Alastair Bird

It has the power to transform formerly nomadic cultures into major power players of the world economy. It has been the cause of bloodshed, strife and war. To the average individual, its impact has been even more immediate, as modern conveniences once thought of as luxuries have been changed into everyday necessities. In the 21st century, no other commodity has arguably had as much positive and negative influence on the fabric of society as oil. It is estimated that more than 600 million vehicles around the world are fueled by petroleum-based oil. While 26 billion barrels per year are required to fuel society’s insatiable thirst for oil, only about six billion barrels are being uncovered annually and these numbers are rapidly dropping. As anxiety over dwindling supply and the ramifications of increased fuel consumption continue to reach unprecedented heights, a grassroots research project originating at UBC is helping the case for alternative sources of energy tentatively find its footing. Known as the Biodiesel Project, it has proven that biodiesel can potentially be a viable option to petroleum, if given the support to grow. The idea for the Biodiesel Project began to germinate in 2002 as a what-if inquiry into the possibility of producing a clean fuel by Dr. Naoko Ellis, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at UBC Vancouver.

June 2008

Her initial call for a thesis project to carry out research in this endeavour was met with no response but when UBC science students Peter Doig and Geoff Hill approached Ellis to supervise the development of a methodology to produce biodiesel using waste cooking oil, the initiative really took shape. Transforming vegetable oil into a useable fuel is not a novel concept. Taking a new spin on an established theory, the Biodiesel Project team began investigating ways to utilize the seemingly unlimited supply of used oil produced by UBC cafeterias as a way to efficiently eliminate this waste. The conversion process starts with a filtering system that eliminates any solids and water in

In its pure form, biodiesel is 10 times less toxic than table salt and as biodegradable as sugar the used oil. The filtered oil is then mixed with methanol through a catalyst, which is subsequently purified and evaporated. Ellis explains: “Once pretreatment is done with filtering, we mix the oil with methanol and a catalyst, which in our case is potassium hydroxide. After about two

hours, the conversion happens, resulting in a two-phase product: one is biodiesel and the other is glycerol. By density difference, we are able to extract the glycerol from the bottom, leaving biodiesel. This substance is then purified further. The process is quite simple actually.” Once the methodology was mastered, Ellis teamed up with two students from the Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA) who not only began securing the funding needed to expand the operation but also became key players in “closing the loop” on utilizing the waste on campus. Shortly afterwards, the team was producing 100 litres of clean fuel per week at a cost of approximately $0.20 per litre. During the last five years, the Biodiesel Project trained over 30 students and had even secured a cooperative venture with UBC Plant Operations, which agreed to run its campus lawn equipment with a 20 per cent biodiesel blend in order to determine the feasibility of long-term usage. But in 2006, the Biodiesel Project quietly dismantled its operations due to losing the space for production: “Economically, the project just does not make sense at this point. At UBC, we could make ends meet with subsidy because the waste oil comes to us for free but to have somebody trained to produce the reaction was the significant cost to the operation, not the chemicals. The EYA helped us tackle this by training young

people but without more large-scale subsidy for biodiesel production, we couldn’t move forward.” Despite the fact the Biodiesel Project has been suspended for more than a year, interest has yet to fade. Recently, the city of Quesnel asked the EYA to complete a feasibility study that assesses the possibility of setting up a large-scale biodiesel processing plant in an effort to reap some of biodiesel’s economic and environmental benefits. Aside from being a cost-effective alternative to petroleum-based oil production, the environmental benefits of biodiesel are staggering. According to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy, biodiesel reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 78 per cent, carbon monoxide by 48 per cent and particular matter (linked to asthma) by 47 per cent. Biodiesel is also 10 times less toxic than table salt, which means a major spill would be messy but substantially less damaging than a major spill of petroleum. Statistics like these have fueled Ellis to centre her latest research on improving the methodology developed by the Biodiesel Project. Through an NSERC strategic grant, Ellis is researching new catalysts for reaction: “Technically speaking, it makes a lot of sense to have a catalyst that is solid not liquid because of separation. Also, I am pursuing a supercritical methanol reaction system to

produce biodiesel and for this, we don’t need any catalyst at all.” Ellis’ hope is to take her research from small-scale operations like the Biodiesel Project and apply that knowledge on a larger scale. Since Canada is currently importing most of its biodiesel (made from soya bean oil) from the US, Ellis sees the need for government subsidy to make the production of renewable sources of energy more competitive locally: “Politically, Canada is catching on and provincial governments are saying they will contribute $3 million to promote biodiesel. By the year 2016, they have expressed a commitment to employ five per cent blends of renewable resources. But so far, the link between research and implementation has been very disconnected.” While she is reluctant to predict any drastic action in biodiesel implementation by the Canadian government any time soon, Ellis will continue to adamantly promote a future where a diversity of strategies for fuel sourcing is integral to fostering a cleaner, more livable world. Dr. Naoko Ellis has received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF) and the Korea Energy Economics Institute.

June 2008

Biodiesel reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 78 per cent, carbon monoxide by 48 per cent and particular matter (linked to asthma) by 47 per cent

Photos > Alastair Bird

June 2008

Be tween the Lines

Photos > Tim Matheson

Operatic communication is giving Nancy Hermiston insight on how music has the power to tackle societal issues in unconventional ways

ancy Hermiston, Director of the UBC Opera Ensemble and University Marshall, knows a thing or two about the power of alternative forms of communication. After more than three decades as a professional opera singer that included an operatic debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall and a permanent engagement with the prestigious Nürnberg Opera in Germany, she has personally observed the transformative effect of opera on its audience: “There’s something particular about opera that communicates on a different level from all other art forms. I’m not sure whether it’s the sound and power of the human voice or the voice coupled with the marriage between the text, music, acting and orchestra but somehow it puts people in touch with their emotions and can truly move them. It’s an impressive asset to society.” Hermiston readily points to The Dream Healer, UBC Opera Ensemble’s newest production that made its world premiere in March 2008 at UBC’s Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, as an example of an opera that does more than showcase the extraordinary performance abilities of its cast. Based on Timothy Findley’s best-selling novel Pilgrim, the production paints a complex picture of the disintegration of the human psyche through the medium of opera, while at the same time, directly and openly tackles society’s stigmas about mental illness. As a means to further encourage public dialogue about the questions raised in The Dream Healer, UBC’s Department of Psychiatry and the UBC Institute of Mental Health hosted a series of symposiums that addressed key issues surrounding mental health and wellness. “In The Dream Healer, we have put a spotlight on the plight of people suffering from various forms of mental illness in our society through the art form of opera. This collaboration between the UBC Department of Psychiatry, the UBC Institute of Mental Health and the UBC Opera Ensemble is an opportunity to bring two very different areas of research together at UBC,” says Hermiston. “Because each of these departments has their own ‘audience,’ so to speak, we were able to bring these different constituents together in the hope that it will spark discussion and provoke thought surrounding one of the most important issues that society faces today: the mental health of our citizens, their care and treatment and the recognition of and solutions for the stigma of mental illness in the workplace and in society at large. Opera has frequently, in its history, been an agent for change and we hope that this project can continue that tradition.” Inspired by the collaborative success of The Dream Healer, Hermiston is hoping to begin collaboration with other university researchers on the effects of music in society, in particular, music

cognition, music therapy, music education and the learning disabled. Currently, she is in the process of investigating how opera singers multi-task and communicate to each other and to the audience on multiple levels when performing. Hermiston explains: “Operatic performance is very different than theatrical performance because we have to balance a dynamic that includes singing, speaking and acting in our native language as well as many others. Most opera singers now need to have a working knowledge of French, Italian, German, Russian and Czech. I suspect there is something like a kind of simultaneous translation when we are acting and reacting on the stage. We must then couple that with moving, dancing, listening to the orchestra, interacting with large casts of soloists, leads and dancers, all while following the conductor. I would venture to say that opera is probably the most complicated art form.” According to Hermiston, the multi-tasking aspect of opera has also demonstrated potential links to improved learning development, which is offering ample opportunity for further inquiry. For example, she has repeatedly observed through her teaching how opera students suffering from dyslexia and attention-deficit have seen their disabilities eventually diminish after intensive work on the operatic stage, an improvement that she believes could be attributed to the

“ There’s something particular about opera that communicates on a different level from all other art forms.” multi-tasking aspect of opera. By documenting the multi-tasking process involved in operatic performance and the effects of this process on the individual, Hermiston believes this research could greatly benefit learning-challenged students by helping them better understand their learning needs and in turn, help them develop their skills in ways that are natural to them. Hermiston is part of a team of researchers who are currently in the early stages of applying for a Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) grant that she hopes will soon translate to an interdisciplinary collaboration that will stimulate research into such topics as cognitive behaviour, memory, brain function, physical coordination, perception, information processing, and expression in the performing arts. In the meantime, she is content to proudly advocate the far-reaching benefits of an art form that is rarely appreciated for more than its entertainment value.

June 2008

Be tween the Lines

Photos > Tim Matheson

Operatic communication is giving Nancy Hermiston insight on how music has the power to tackle societal issues in unconventional ways

June 2008

battle of the bark

As the pine beetle epidemic penetrates Alberta, Jörg Bohlmann is unlocking the conifer tree’s survival secrets in an effort to undermine these persistent pests Majestic and proud, the conifer tree stands as one of the world’s tallest, largest and oldest living things. Stretching hundreds of years, its extended life span is testament to its resilient nature and its curious ability to deter its enemies using molecular defenses embedded within its bark. There, the workings of a highly sophisticated chemical-defense process take shape, in the form of chemical mixtures known as terpenoids (or the hydrocarbon and resin acid compounds normally found in the essential oils of plants), which have proven enormously effective in both repelling and physically deterring its adversaries. While few organisms have managed to penetrate these natural defenses, an industrious and persistent pest has slowly but surely evolved the necessary tactics to disarm these previously impenetrable giants and at the same time, is multiplying en masse in formerly inhospitable areas that have suddenly become balmier due to global warming. “When you apply physical damage to a conifer, you’ll notice it starts bleeding sticky, gooey resin that is a mixture of terpenoid chemicals. This is what the conifer tree produces that allows it to be actively protected against pests,” says Dr. Jörg Bohlmann, UBC Vancouver Associate Professor of Forestry and Botany. “The pine beetle epidemic in BC that has devastated some 10 million hectares of forest trees is an example of scientists recognizing we have a problem with insects that have overcome the conifer’s chemistry.”

June 2008

battle of the bark

June 2008

Bohlmann says. “Together, they rapidly interrupt the tree’s water and nutrient transport systems, overcome the tree’s defenses and destroy the tree’s actively growing stem cell tissues.” The alarming speed at which these insects have decimated one of the province’s most-valuable resources has heightened the need to develop science-based solutions to curtail the devastating effects of these voracious pests. Currently, the pine beetle has crossed the Rockies and settled into Alberta, drawing concern from scientists that it will eventually penetrate the Canadian Shield. Because pesticides are costly and can greatly harm ecosystems and waiting for several cold winters is unreliable, a proactive and environmentally friendly solution is key. Bohlmann is hesitant to predict whether a major breakthrough, capable of stopping the pine beetle dead in its tracks, is imminent. In BC, the pine beetle epidemic has grown to a level that is too large to single-handedly overcome. Nevertheless, he is optimistic about

“ It’s a very neat symbiosis: They both need the tree but neither the fungus nor the pine beetle can consume the tree alone.” how the integrated genomics research program funded by Genome BC and Genome Alberta can potentially become of enormous economic, social and environmental value for the long-term sustainability of Canada’s forests. “Similar to the biomedical field, it will take a long period of active research to come up with successful treatment but part of what I can promise is to work towards better diagnostic and prognostic tools that will enable us to better predict insect pest outbreaks,” he says. “Dealing with this pine beetle epidemic will better prepare us for future infestations. As the pine beetle moves east, it is naïve to assume all we need to be concerned with right now is the dead trees left from this epidemic. There are a lot of spruce trees and Douglas firs out there and they’re all equal host trees for other bark beetle species.”

Photo > Alamy/Jack Thomas

For Bohlmann, the encroaching pine beetle epidemic has been more than a worrisome headline in local newspapers: It has been one of the driving forces behind his research. He is currently a project leader for the Genome Canada/Genome BC-sponsored Treenomix project, a forestry genomics research program that aims to identify a conifer’s chemistry, the biochemical machinery responsible for making this chemistry and deciphering the genes that are encoding this biochemical process. While research so far has successfully uncovered many of the conifer tree’s molecular secrets, Bohlmann notes that our current inability to respond to the pine beetle epidemic has largely been influenced by the limited understanding of the genomic processes that underlie the relationship between these insects, their associated fungal pathogens and the conifer. It is this relationship that Bohlmann hopes to make the most impact on through an integrated collaboration with microbiologists and entomologists: “Since we have developed an understanding of the conifer’s biochemical processes to some degree, we’re now looking at the insect and what kinds of mechanisms does it have to overcome the tree’s highly sophisticated defenses.” According to Bohlmann, the pine beetle has learned a few tricks from its ancestors who have been waging war against a conifer’s chemistry for millions of years. One of these tricks has involved detoxifying an already weakened conifer’s chemistry by chemically altering it, then releasing it as an active pheromone communication system where the pine beetle uses a chemical signal indicating its host tree is vulnerable enough for more pine beetles to lay the eggs necessary to undermine the life-sustaining elements of its bark. Bohlmann explains: “There are always a few pioneers that make the first lodge on the tree and if they overcome the initial phase of the tree’s defenses, they start producing chemicals that are very similar to the host’s terpenoids. These chemicals then call in hundreds or thousands of pine beetles at the same time. But that’s part of the natural dynamic so it’s nothing to get panicked about. We have a problem when the pine beetles come to an epidemic stage where they can’t be controlled.” Also during the process of attack, the pine beetle inoculates the tree and brings it under attack with a fungus to further weaken its natural-defense system. A symptom of this process involves a bluish-gray stain, known as “denim pine,” that indicates the fungus is active in interrupting the conifer’s vital water and nutrient transport systems. “It’s a very neat symbiosis: They both need the tree but neither the fungus nor the pine beetle can consume the tree alone,”

Dr. Jörg Bohlmann works at UBC’s Michael Smith Laboratories and receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Genome BC, Genome Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP). A ponderosa pine’s defense mechanism against infection by a mountain pine beetle

June 2008

Photo > Alamy/Jack Thomas

June 2008

The Jeff Carroll already knows what his future looks like at the hands of Huntington’s disease.

Photo > Alastair Bird

But his race for a cure is reshaping his destiny – while offering hope for others afflicted with the disorder

When Jeff Carroll, a graduate student at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT), learned he carried the mutation for a degenerative genetic disorder that would eventually rob him of his personhood by the age of 50, his drive to wipe out all traces of this devastating disease for good only intensified. “For me, it was confirmation of what I already felt was true because of my family history. Obviously, I would rather have received different news but it didn’t change my life because I already had enough of a taste for the research and science that I felt I could make a contribution, regardless of the results,” says Carroll. Carroll isn’t waiting around to accept the grim fate that awaits him. At CMMT, he is

aggressively conducting potentially life-saving research in a race against time to alter his fate as a result of Huntington’s disease (HD), a neurological disorder that slowly and progressively renders its victims unable to move, talk or think. In fact, Carroll has first-hand knowledge of what to expect: He witnessed HD transform his mother from a vibrant parent of six into an incontinent shell of her former self, prone to violent, involuntary spasms. Unfortunately, stories like these are not rare: The Huntington’s Society of Canada estimates that over 3,000 Canadians currently have the disease and another 20,000 are at risk. Those at risk have only to look into their genetic make-up to determine whether they carry the mutant gene, as children from a

parent with HD have a 50-50 chance of developing the disease. The mutant gene originates on the fourth chromosome where the letters of the genetic alphabet C-A-G typically repeat as many as 35 times in a row. Those with 36 repeats or more will develop HD. The greater the number of repeats, the earlier in life the disease will manifest. Identifying the gene sequencing involved in HD has helped scientists develop predictive testing for HD, which was offered for the first time at UBC in 1986. Today, predictive tests at CMMT can confirm, with 100 per cent certainty, if an individual has inherited the HD mutation. But despite this progress and more than 100 years since its official

June 2008

The Jeff Carroll already knows what his future looks like at the hands of Huntington’s disease.

Photo > Alastair Bird

But his race for a cure is reshaping his destiny – while offering hope for others afflicted with the disorder

June 2008

“ I’d like to see HD become an academic exercise where people will study it to learn about molecular biology and neuron function and not because we’re trying to save lives.”

is that if we develop inhibitors to the enzyme that cleaves it, you may be able to provide a treatment for HD.” The discovery is the first time that scientists prevented the development of HD in a mouse that expressed the human HD mutation. As a consequence, the CMMT team is actively involved in developing a drug that will effectively prevent caspase-6’s cleavage or significantly impair its frequency to do so. Carroll, himself, is testing a compound that so far, has resulted in reducing caspase-6’s effects by half in mice over a four-week course of treatment, with results remaining constant even after ceasing to administer the compound after the four-week period. Results like these have given the CMMT team much to be optimistic about and Hayden believes the research developed in mice models will translate to novel approaches to treatment in approximately five years. He foresees that more than one drug will be involved, producing a multidimensional treatment approach much like with cancer therapy. “There’s a sense of urgency around us. What we learn from HD is likely to have a direct relevance to other diseases of a similar nature like Alzheimer’s,” Hayden says.

“We believe that what we’re learning here will have a broad relevance. This is not esoteric research.” For Carroll, the day when HD treatment is readily available could not come any sooner. While pre-implantation genetic diagnosis that combines genetic screening with in-vitro fertilization has allowed him to ensure his children will never share his fate, Carroll’s research at CMMT is now being propelled by the prospect of a future where he, and others destined to HD, will evade the oppressive grip of this degenerative disease: “I’d like to see HD become an academic exercise where people will study it to learn about molecular biology and neuron function and not because we’re trying to save lives.” Jeff Carroll and Dr. Michael Hayden’s work at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Huntington Society of Canada, Hereditary Disease Foundation, Huntington’s Disease Society of America, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the High Q Foundation, Merck Frosst, and the Child and Family Research Institute of BC.

Photo > Phototake

scientific documentation by US physician and namesake George Huntington, there is still no treatment and no cure. Recent advancements at CMMT, partnered with UBC and the Child and Family Research Institute (CFRI), however, are swiftly turning the tide on HD research. CMMT Director Dr. Michael Hayden, who founded the first HD clinic in Canada that provides multidisciplinary support and care for patients, has been tracking HD for over 30 years but only recently uncovered the compelling evidence needed to offer a glimmer of hope in the fight against the disease. The landmark finding materialized when Hayden and his team began to piece together an understanding of what happens to cells when a destructive enzyme cleaves the mutant huntingtin protein that is responsible for HD. Through cleavage, the enzyme known as caspase-6 unleashes a toxic fragment that invades the nucleus of a healthy cell and causes it to die through over-excitement. But by inhibiting the cleavage in mice, the team made a remarkable discovery: “We found that if we prevent the protein from being cleaved at one site, you can prevent the illness,” Hayden explains. “The beauty for us

Two neuronal nuclei from the corpus striatum of the brain, one expressing the mutant form of the huntingtin protein found in Huntington’s disease

June 2008

“ I’d like to see HD become an academic exercise where people will study it to learn about molecular biology and neuron function and not because we’re trying to save lives.”

Photo > Phototake

Two neuronal nuclei from the corpus striatum of the brain, one expressing the mutant form of the huntingtin protein found in Huntington’s disease

June 2008

From engaging the natural world to making sense of everyday confusion, Sharon Thesen is exploring how poetry constructs the world through language

Sharon Thesen’s newest book The Good Bacteria may sound like a treatise on how to boost the human immune system but as the UBC Okanagan Associate Professor of Creative Writing is quick to point out, it actually has nothing to do with microbial organisms at all. “In my latest book, I’m not looking through a microscope at bacteria but I am looking through my own particular microscope at the way the world is constructed through language and the creative imagination.” Thesen’s exploration into seeing the world through the lens of language resulted in this multi-faceted collection of poetry that spans a variety of subject matter from the Okanagan wildfires of 2003 to a look at the bourgeois middle-class in Kelowna through mythic imagery to an elegy for a friend that died. Published in 2006, The Good Bacteria has since garnered three noteworthy accolades of excellence in poetry including the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize (Shortlisted 2007), the Pat Lowther Memorial Award (Shortlisted 2007) and the prestigious Governor General’s Award: Poetry (Shortlisted 2006), her third acknowledgement of its kind. Part of Thesen’s considerable success with poetry has been, as one critic described it, her ability to “catch beauty at the periphery of things.” Although Thesen welcomes this description as a fair observation of her work, she sees her words as actionable rather than simply observational: “I see my poems as an attempt to restore sanity and wildness through language.” Thesen’s latest attempts in this endeavour include a new manuscript of poems, a memoir built around books that she has read in the past 30 years and an as-yet unconfirmed project that will be set on the Queen Charlotte Islands during the 20s and 30s. Another new project is sharpening Thesen’s editing skills as she takes on the role of co-editor of LAKE: A Journal of Arts and Environment. A product of UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, this new arts and literary journal is intended to directly speak to art that engages the natural world. The inaugural issue, which launched in January 2008, features artwork by Okanagan artist Kristy Malakoff, poetry by Baziju and Clea Roberts, an article by Don MacKay and creative non-fiction by UBC Okanagan Creative Writing student, Hugh Anderson. According to Thesen, the aim of the journal is to become a forum for artists exploring environmentally sensitive art through a wide range of genres from music to dance to poetry. Because the

Okanagan is already home to many outstanding artists and writers and is a region that has experienced strong ecological pressure, Thesen sees it as the perfect place to produce such a journal. “LAKE is about looking at environmental art that exposes the complexity of our relationship to the natural world, which is an urgent topic these days,” says Thesen. “It’s not so much our project to publish visual and literary art that engages with the natural world as it is to publish work about our complex and troubled relationship with nature.” Although funding has yet to be secured for LAKE, Thesen is optimistic about the journal’s future. She looks to a possible collaboration with the Okanagan Sustainability Institute that may provide umbrella funding. After three issues are published, LAKE will also be eligible for Canada Council of the Arts funding, which Thesen notes as a big step towards ensuring the journal’s continued existence.

“ I am looking through my own particular microscope at the way the world is constructed through language and the creative imagination.” Thesen sees her work with LAKE and her books of poetry as a major contribution to her larger goal of exposing the importance of poetry to a wide audience. Having been in the poetry field for more than 30 years, she has witnessed dramatic changes firsthand, such as publishers printing fewer and fewer poetry books, which has made it incredibly difficult for young poets to get published. Despite these setbacks, Thesen continues to stress the value of poetry to a society that often overlooks it: “I’m not deluded at all about the absence of public interest in poetry but I think that at the same time, the more poetry that’s around, the more interest it generates and the more it becomes a normal part of everyday life. Any linguistically based art, by definition, contributes to knowledge. Poetry gives us such a new and radically fresh way of seeing and understanding things. Without it, we often become too involved in the world of commerce and management and its impoverished language systems.”

June 2008

From engaging the natural world to making sense of everyday confusion, Sharon Thesen is exploring how poetry constructs the world through language

June 2008

n a post-Enron world, the public’s appetite for sustainable and ethical business practices has put many organizations under intense scrutiny to practice the ethics that they preach. While some companies have made marginal strides in the right direction, others have fallen victim to their own hype by failing to live up to their own stated intentions. With Vancouver’s reputation for sustainability stretching far beyond its west coast roots, Dr. James Tansey, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Social Enterprise (CSSE) at UBC Vancouver, is looking to secure UBC as a source for leadership and consultation on corporate social responsibility.

In the company of giants

Frontier: Why did you establish the CSSE? JT: If you’re based in Vancouver, everyone talks about sustainability

and the issues around it. Vancouver has the strongest associations in North America of any city in this concept. Initially, we were approached by a benefactor who said he’d really like to build something around sustainability and social enterprise in this region so CSSE is filling a gap that everyone expected should be filled by now.

F: What do you hope to achieve with CSSE? JT: We’re looking at four programming areas. The first is human

capital development where we’re placing MBA students into businesses and not-for-profits and managing their skills to improve performance in social enterprise. The second is taking on specific projects on a yearly basis and driving development in those areas. For example, we’re currently looking at carbon markets development and we recently ran a workshop on food security and aquaculture. The third is developing research excellence, particularly in corporate social responsibility. We have approached a number of organizations and offered our services in an effort to help these organizations become leaders in their field. The fourth is the development of teaching for undergrads, grads and executive training.

F: Which organizations have you approached so far? JT: Currently, we’re talking with one of the biggest mining

companies about what they can do to more effectively manage their corporate responsibilities. We’re also talking to an automotive association and are planning a sustainability strategy for them. Both of those companies come from sectors where there is little expectation for them to change so a lot of this desire to change is being driven by the values of the company and in particular, by junior staff who are pushing change through the board level.

F: Many people see sustainable business practices as an oxymoron.

Why do you think this is the case? JT: Over the last 10 years there has been a shift in how people see sustainability. What we’ve realized is that businesses and markets have an incredible role to play in shifting consumer habits and driving behavioural change in managing environmental issues.

For example, coffee is the second-largest traded commodity in the world so if large organizations like Starbucks are serious about creating fair-trade coffee then that changes the practices on a fundamental level. F: How would you rate sustainable social development in Canada today? JT: At the federal level, it is still lacking, partly because federal

governments have much less power than national governments in other countries. But in BC, the changes on the provincial level, particularly with the carbon tax, are making it the leading jurisdiction in North America and one of the leading in the world. Vancouver has a reputation in urban areas for very intelligent land-use planning which has a huge impact on sustainability reform. Our resource management still has some way to go. I don’t think we’re handling forestry as well as some other countries but I think that will change over time.

F: Why should the public care about sustainable social development? JT: I can give you the clichéd answer about looking after the next

generation but I believe that what people do has an immediate payoff in terms of their quality of life. If you look at BC as a province, we have tremendous opportunity for economic growth by orientating ourselves away from the traditional resource-extraction mentality and focusing on the softer skills of human-sustainability markets. Vancouver is very well placed to build an economy around that. If consumers recognize the value of this for themselves then they’ll see the value of this for other consumers in North America.

F: Your work spans multiple disciplines. Why do you think it’s important to

take an interdisciplinary approach in your research?

JT: The only work that I’ve ever done is interdisciplinary and my

research tends to be problem-oriented. Problems in society don’t fall into neat domains so if we want to be problem-oriented in our research then we need to be interdisciplinary. Having said that, we’re enormously dependent on disciplines as repositories for information so we’re not replacing disciplines, we’re trying to find points of integration between them.

F: What sparked your interest in this field and keeps you motivated? JT: I grew up watching nature programs like David Attenborough’s

Life on Earth and it probably left the biggest impression on me. I connected with the value of nature and that, as an industrial society, we’re becoming more detached from nature and somehow losing something along the way.

Dr. James Tansey is an assistant professor at the Sauder School of Business in the organizational behaviour and human resources division. He is head of the Centre for Sustainable Social Enterprise (CSSE) and has received funding from Genome Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) in addition to a private benefaction.

June 2008

In the company of giants

Frontier: Why did you establish the CSSE? JT: If you’re based in Vancouver, everyone talks about sustainability

F: What do you hope to achieve with CSSE? JT: We’re looking at four programming areas. The first is human

F: Which organizations have you approached so far? JT: Currently, we’re talking with one of the biggest mining

F: Many people see sustainable business practices as an oxymoron.

F: Why should the public care about sustainable social development? JT: I can give you the clichéd answer about looking after the next

F: Your work spans multiple disciplines. Why do you think it’s important to

take an interdisciplinary approach in your research?

JT: The only work that I’ve ever done is interdisciplinary and my

F: What sparked your interest in this field and keeps you motivated? JT: I grew up watching nature programs like David Attenborough’s

June 2008

Joseph Henrich is uncovering why the nature-nurture debate no longer applies and how defining human behaviour is not as straightforward as previously assumed

Greater than the sum of its parts

ow fair and cooperative are people with strangers? How much of a personal payoff is an individual willing to sacrifice in a social interaction to guarantee fair, cooperative behaviour among others? According to Dr. Joseph Henrich, Associate Professor of Psychology and Economics at UBC Vancouver, the answer strongly depends on the cultural background of the individuals in question. A scenario known as the ultimatum game is giving evolutionary researchers like Henrich clues on how culture and institutions influence human behaviour. In the game, two players are given the opportunity to divide a sum of money between them. The first player must make a one-time proposal on how much each should receive; the second player then has the choice of either accepting or rejecting this offer. If accepted, the money is split according to the original offer but if rejected, neither player receives anything. Because this is a one-shot, anonymous interaction, reciprocity doesn’t influence the offer. When played in industrialized societies, results indicate that the first player almost universally has to offer close to half the amount in order to secure the deal. But working deep in the Peruvian Amazon with the Machiguenga people, Henrich first demonstrated that the behaviour exhibited by people from industrialized societies isn’t innate, and in fact, the behaviour of both cultures deviates from the canonical predictions of traditional game theory. “The Machiguenga would never reject any offer except zero and their mean offer was 26 per cent, which is half of the westerners’ mean,” Henrich says. “What these cross-cultural experiments show us is that people in industrialized societies have social behaviour that you don’t find anywhere else.” Henrich would know: Besides studying the behaviour of communities from Fiji to Peru to rural Chile using a combination of ethnographic and experimental tools, he has spearheaded two large-scale comparative projects in which a variety of experiments like the ultimatum game were deployed in 15 small-scale societies. His analysis of human cooperation and fairness in these diverse

June 2008

Joseph Henrich is uncovering why the nature-nurture debate no longer applies and how defining human behaviour is not as straightforward as previously assumed

Greater than the sum of its parts

June 2008

Photo > Joseph Henrich

newswire

UBC five at the forefront “ One of the problems with how people look at cultural evolution is that our intuitions have been schooled by too much thinking about genes.” human communities is giving insight into how people acquire beliefs and values from other members of their social groups, the results of which are slowly dismantling preconceived notions about either the primarily genetic or primarily cultural foundations of human behaviour. “Humans are unique in that, unlike other primates, we cooperate in large groups. But not every society cooperates this way so it’s ripe for cultural evolutionary analysis,” says Henrich. “A lot of how we think are products of a particular cultural evolutionary trajectory and can get confused with human nature. That’s not to say you can’t sensibly say something is due to human nature but if you don’t do the proper cross-cultural research, you can be fooled.” In his quest to dissolve the nature-versus-nurture dichotomy, Henrich has centered his research on evolutionary approaches to human behaviour, which uses evolutionary models to understand how cultures and societies have developed over time. While many evolutionary researchers are split between acknowledging either the “hard-wired” behavioural responses transmitted through the genes or the traits shaped by environmental factors as determinants of human behaviour, Henrich’s research is pioneering a co-evolutionary view that suggests behavioural adaptations in human evolution arise from both psychological mechanisms and cultural influence. This evolutionary approach to culture, however, has not come without its criticism, specifically through the question: If culture does not replicate like genes, can it still evolve? Some anthropologists have argued that since cultural ideas rarely, if ever, are transmitted intact, cultural ideas cannot evolve in a Darwinian sense. For Henrich, the solution to this theoretical challenge was simple: “One of the problems with how people look at cultural evolution is that our intuitions have been schooled by too much

June 2008

thinking about genes but there is no requirement that things replicate to have evolution. Richard Dawkins claimed this, but that turns out to be dead wrong and our models show that. It’s easy to falsify because you just build a model with no replicators and show how adaptive evolution can still occur.” Equipped with this arsenal of theoretical and methodological tools, Henrich has begun the daunting task of overhauling the nature-nurture dichotomy in favour of an integrated approach to human behavioural evolution that reflects upon social and cultural influences as well as psychological and genetic influences. Ultimately, Henrich hopes to use his research to completely restructure the way academia approaches the human sciences: “From early on in graduate school, I started ignoring disciplinary boundaries and I would study whatever was necessary for the problem. Unfortunately with the human sciences today, everything is hived off into specific disciplines like psychology, anthropology or economics and they don’t talk to each other or read each other’s journals. Economics and psychology have completely different models of behaviour so part of what we’re trying to construct is something that speaks to both which can then provide a unifying framework for approaching human behaviour that takes seriously that we’re products of evolution and that cultural evolution is a crucial part of our phenotype.” Dr. Joseph Henrich is the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition and Evolution (Tier 1). In 2004, he received a Presidential Early Career Award, the highest award bestowed by the United States to scientists early in their careers. He has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the Hampton Fund and the MacArthur Foundation.

UBC’s research community recently received a significant boost in financial support for five research hubs that will join the Centre for Brain Health as newly appointed national Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). Out of the 11 CECRs that were granted funding by the Government of Canada, five have UBC affiliations. These centres, noted below, will share approximately $75 million to bring major discoveries from the lab to the marketplace within the next five years. The Prostate Centre’s Translational Research Initiative for Accelerated Discovery and Development (PC-TRIADD) Located at Vancouver General Hospital, PC-TRIADD facilitates the seamless management of translational prostate cancer research from discovery to preclinical development to clinical research. (Profiled in frontier Issue 3)

Prevention of Epidemic Organ Failure (PROOF) PROOF targets successful prevention and earlydetection strategies, as opposed to drug-only strategies, in an effort to improve patient outcomes for those faced with vital organ failure.

Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD) Combining a research arm with a commercialization arm, CDRD provides critical infrastructure to effectively realize the potential of academic medical discoveries and generate the necessary investment to become new medicines. (Profiled in frontier Issue 3)

Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise (PREVENT) PREVENT is a national initiative designed to accelerate vaccine development for infectious diseases of significant public health concern. Although headquartered at the University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, the centre is partnered with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control at UBC.

Advanced Applied Physics Solutions, Inc. (AAPS) AAPS aims to improve quality of life through the development of technologies arising from subatomic physics research. These technologies will offer a range of applications such as medical isotope production.

Economics in esteem

From matter to the mind

Two UBC economics professors were recognized with separate Bank of Canada awards: the Research Fellowship 2008 and the Governor’s Award. Known for his expertise in open-economy modeling and international economics, Michael Devereux received Bank of Canada’s Research Fellowship 2008 with Shouyong Shi of the University of Toronto. The award is designed to encourage and develop expertise in Canada in the areas of macroeconomics, monetary economics, international finance and the economics of financial markets and institutions. As recipient of Bank of Canada’s first Governor’s Award, Henry Siu’s research focuses on the analysis of business cycles, the conduct of monetary policy and fiscal policy in the face of economic shocks. The Governor’s Award was launched in September 2007 to recognize the exceptional academics of a researcher in the early stages of his/her career.

UBC’s Brain Research Centre has received $25 million from the Province of BC to establish a new facility focused on translational brain research. Named the Centre for Brain Health, it will provide clinical care to patients while conducting advanced research into neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and psychological problems like depression and addiction. The Centre for Brain Health is a partnership between the Brain Research Centre, the Division of Neurology and the Department of Psychiatry and aims to give those suffering from brain diseases access to the most advanced treatments available. It is expected to open its doors in the next few years.

June 2008

Photo > Joseph Henrich

newswire

June 2008

Economics in esteem

From matter to the mind

June 2008

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