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Director, Origins Institute
Message from the Director
Since its founding in 2004, the Origins Institute has adopted a transdisciplinary approach to exploring fundamental questions about the universe. Research is conducted by faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students from academic units in multiple faculties at McMaster University, in collaborations with other institutions across Canada and around the world.
News & Stories

Researchers discover how a single gene allowed the plague to adapt and kill millions
Scientists have documented the way a single gene in the bacterium that causes bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis, allowed it to survive hundreds of years by . . .

Analysis: Is there life out there? The existence of other technological species is highly likely
Maikel Rheinstadter is a professor of Biophysics. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. We live in . . .

‘Individual genes don’t tell the whole story — how they interact is the key’
When the Human Genome Project reached its ambitious goal of mapping the entire human genome, it seemed the world was entering an era of personalized . . .