This And That

City's Psyche, like it's homes are undervalued - "Earlier this week, a national study determined that Edmonton house prices are eight per cent too low. This is an uncannily perfect statistic for anyone who seeks to understand the mysterious heart and mind of the Edmontonian."

"There is kind of a collective mentality. A malaise sets in, even if we have no intention of selling our house." Todd Hirsch, senior economist for ATB Financial

Edmontonians really have no idea what an incredible economic position they are in. The economic situation that Edmonton and Alberta are currently in is perhaps the healthiest economy in Canada.

After The Bubble Ghost Towns In America - "Since real-estate tanked, many new planned communities across the country are half-empty, with for-sale signs outnumbering residents by a large margin. Some of the projects abandoned by bankrupt developers are in places that were hotbeds of new housing construction: Southern California, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix."

Regions with economic fundamentals will weather the storm, but many other areas will continue to get worse. A 'general' correction of 25% is predicted and currently the USA is at about 15%, so in 'general' they can expect another across the board drop of 10% of house prices.

The Future Is Fantastic - "We strive at the university to really change lives with the kind of research we undertake -- whether it is in engineering, to find more environmentally friendly ways to extract oil, or in health-care fields, or in the social sciences,"University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera

"She (Samarasekera) is confident that Edmonton can compete for talent with great academic centres such as Oxford and Princeton."

Attracting new students for an excellent education and the opportunity to influence international research is one way the university is helping to increase in-migration to the province. When these talented young graduates realize they can earn more money than anywhere across Canada they will make the province their home.

Albertan Researchers Find Gene to Slow Aids Spread

"It could prevent the onset of AIDS because if the virus can't get out of cells, it can't infect other cells and then that's where the problem comes from AIDS. It decimates the immune system, so if you prevent the virus from leaving cells, it basically locks it into cells and it can't spread." Stephen Barr, a researcher in the medical microbiology and immunology department at the U of A and lead author of the paper published in the Public Library of Science Pathogens journal

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It's Not Only Oil That Is Fueling Alberta's Economy

Nanotechnology - the science and technology of building devices, such as electronic circuits, from single atoms and molecules is a growing area in science and technology. "Edmonton has recently staked its place as a focus of international attention in the growing field of nanotechnology, with the University of Alberta at the forefront since the new National Institute of Nanotechnology (NINT), a partnership between the National Research Council and the U of A, officially opened their new facility in June 2006."

Edmonton and the University of Alberta are making major headway and a name for themselves in this field. "Nanotechnology has a multidisciplinary effect on the fields of medicine, science and engineering. Projects currently being developed range from improving the efficiency of the oil sands industry to targeting diseases in more effective and less invasive ways for patients. All done with particles 50 000 times smaller than the width of a human hair."

Alberta's energy resources, top quality work force, desire to diversify it's economy and the provinces wealth due to the Oil Sands will all contribute to U of A's success in this burgeoning field of science.

See "Small Science May Mean Big Boom To The City OF Edmonton" from The Gateway to read the entire article