City councillor and former TDSB trustee James Pasternak recently welcomed students from Northview Heights Secondary School to City Hall. Under the leadership of teacher Sacha Noukhovitch, the students produce The Canadian Young Scientist Journal. This peer-reviewed science publication offers opportunities to high school and university undergraduate students to express views on a broad range of topics and introduces them to the national scientific community.
After delivering a copy of the most recent issue of the journal to all city councillors and the mayor, Pasternak paid tribute to the students and teacher in council for their work in creating what he called an important publication. "When I leaf through the pages of this journal and the names of these young authors and thinkers leap off the page, I wonder which writers will one day bring to us great breakthroughs in medicine and health that we do not know about today," he said.
In addressing fellow councillors, Pasternak noted that the students' work also gives foundation to democratic ideals. "These freedom thinkers remind us of the legacy of the gifts of Galileo and Copernicus, in which challenging conventional wisdom can ensure that when we speak we do so without recrimination."
The Canadian Young Scientist Journal is published two times a year and is distributed to secondary schools across the country and to subscribers/members, including public libraries, universities, research centers, medical and engineering professionals and parents. The latest issue includes articles about nutrition and stress, carbon nanotubes toxicity to Daphna, and enhanced salt tolerance in LEA genes.