By Chris Stewart and Roman Koniuk

It's the "home-stretch". Reading/Skiing week has come and gone, the summer can't be too far away. That Mountain Equipment Co-op catalogue with the teal fleece outerwear and kevlar canoes has just been delivered to the front door. A camping trip would be nice...

One of the greatest pleasures of a canoe trip in northern Ontario is to quietly steal away from the evening campfire and set oneself adrift, lie in the bottom of a canoe and gaze up into the pristine night sky. If the moon is below the horizon, you see the arc of our own Milky Way galaxy. The sheer number of stars can be overwhelming.

There are perhaps one hundred billion stars in a typical galaxy. And there are one hundred billion or so galaxies. So, if you do the math, you get a lot of stars! To imagine this number, think of all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth. Well, it's more than that.

Yes, that's a lot of stuff, but to astronomers and cosmologists, it's not enough. There are many indications suggesting we can only see a fraction, perhaps just 10 per cent, of the matter in the universe. The rest is invisible, hidden, ephemeral. There's convincing evidence it's there, but it's dark. For this reason, it has been called "shadow", "dark" or "missing" matter.

Where do you get evidence for something you can't see? Well, you look for its effect on the stuff you can see. Though it may seem pretty quiet in the night sky, every single star, every galaxy and nebula, is moving. A single physical law, the Law of Gravity, which says that every bit of matter attracts every other bit of matter, governs their motion. The way stars and galaxies move depends on the gravitational forces from other stars, galaxies and any other matter that may be lying about.

You probably have a mental image of our Milky Way galaxy, a bit like a great stellar swirl, a pinwheel of light. Astronomers have measured the speed of the stars in galaxies, and to their surprise, they find they're going too fast. Adding up all the mass in all the stars in our galaxy can not create enough gravitational force to explain the high speed of those stars.

On a larger scale, our galaxy itself is also moving. Galaxies are not spread uniformly throughout the universe, they tend to clump together in bigger groups called clusters. Our galaxy is just one of many in our local cluster, known as The Local Super Cluster. In the 1980s, astronomers were amazed to discover that between these clusters are enormous bubble-like areas of nothingness, great voids where no galaxies exist at all. The galaxies within a cluster are all orbiting each other, and if their speed is measured, once again they seem to be going way too fast for the amount of matter nearby.

Interesting.

Now, fifteen billion years after the Big Bang - the cosmic fireball that brought our universe into being - the universe is still expanding, and all the galaxies are rushing away from each other. The force of gravity slows this expansion down, giving rise to three possible fates for the universe. First, if there was an enormous amount of matter in the universe, everything would recollapse in on itself, The Big Bang followed by The Big Crunch. At the other extreme, too little matter would allow the universe to continue expanding quickly, forever. The result would be a dilute, rather uninteresting universe. On the surface, with the amount of luminous matter (stuff we can see) in the cosmos, and so the amount of gravity it would produce, we'd expect the latter scenario. However, upon measuring the expansion rate of the universe, we find ourselves in the third possibility. We are precariously perched between cataclysmic recollapse and a runaway expansion towards a cold, desolate cosmic darkness. Once again, we find even at this largest of scales, evidence for missing matter.

So what is it, this mysterious hidden stuff? It could be that the universe is filled with "failed" stars, that just weren't massive enough to light up. Or, neutrino mass could be the answer. Neutrinos are ghostly particles that are constantly streaming out of the sun, and are copiously produced by nuclear reactors. The universe is filled with neutrinos left over from the Big Bang, and if neutrinos have mass - an open possibility - then all that extra matter could solve the problem.

The smart money is on the quite exotic option of "shadow matter". Galaxies could be shadowed by a strange form of matter that is only perceptible to us through gravity. It would tend to clump where our galaxies tend to clump, because of the gravitational attraction with ordinary matter. Such strange ideas have been suggested by modern theories of particle physics. Which leads to the rather haunting possibility that the eventual fate of the universe is controlled by the stuff of ghosts.

Chris Stewart is a PhD student, and Roman Koniuk is Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University.

Re: February 9 article on Millenial Wisdom at York University

In this article, Thomson Highway made some very disparaging comments about Christianity.

First of all, calling my faith "Christian Mythology" was unnecessary and damaging. Also referring to the Bible as the ultimate woman-hating book has only shown his lack of knowledge of the New Testament.

The Bible says that Jesus came that we might have life and that we might have it more aundantly. It also says that men are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.

I am sorry that Mr. Highway had a bad experience with a priest who did not understand the love of God. But to blame Christianity or the Bible would be comparable to saying that if an Indian beats his wife, then that must mean that all the Indian community believes that wife-beating is acceptable.

Sincerely,
Donna Hunt
York University

By Cathy Carlyle

Director of the Toronto branch of CERIS Morton Beiser (left), with Paul Anisef, associate director of CERIS representing York and York professor of sociology (centre). On the right is Michael Lanphier, professor of sociology at York

When 60,000 refugees arrived in Canada from southeast Asia 20 years ago, the majority of Canadians greeted them with a wave of support. In fact, Canada assumed a position of world leadership in refugee affairs at the time, said Morton Beiser director of the Toronto branch of CERIS (Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement).

"However, a Gallup poll taken five years ago shows that 43 per cent of Canadians believe the acceptance of the so-named 'boat people' cost the country too much. There is an atmosphere of suspicion about refugees arriving here. Yet I think we probably got a dividend for our compassion," he said in a talk sponsored by York's joint CERIS centre.

The refugees to Canada in 1979 and 1981 were from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, escaping from devastating wars and tyrannical regimes. They were held for an average of a year in camps before their arrival, often in appalling circumstances. "At the end, though, we have many happy productive families, though I wouldn't want to forget the casualties, some of which might have been preventable with better policies in place. How did we get from such terrible conditions to a generally happy outcome?" he asked.

When Beiser was a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia, he began collecting case histories of the boat people and compiling statistics that measured how they fared for a 10-year period after they set foot in Canada. He designed and conducted a study of 1,348 refugees, approximately a one-in-three sample of the southeast Asian boat people who settled in the Vancouver area. The study was funded mainly by the National Health Research Directorate Program of Health Canada and, initially, by Multiculturalism Canada.

"We stratified the samples to include as many Chinese as non-Chinese," said Beiser. "Based on critical-mass theory, which states that a like-ethnic community of significant size is beneficial for mental health, we predicted that the Chinese would have a mental health advantage over the non-Chinese. We noted that in 1981 there was a large, well-established Chinese community in Vancouver, but no pre-existing Vietnamese, Cambodian or Laotian community." They took many factors into consideration, including the unemployment rate of both groups at the outset and later, how well they spoke English, their education level, their gender and so on.

The findings surprised the researchers. In 1981, after the refugees had been in Canada for about a year, the data showed that non-Chinese had a three to four times greater risk of being depressed than the Chinese. However, in follow-up studies in 1983 and 1991 this initial mental health advantage had disappeared.

"On the other hand, by 1991 there were some signs of possible non-Chinese advantages, specifically that the non-Chinese were more likely to have learned English," said Beiser. "When we asked people to identify their friendship networks, non-Chinese were more likely than Chinese to identify native-born Canadians as friends. Though I don't know why this was, I can speculate that, while the like-ethnic community can help protect people early on and therefore confer an advantage, it may, over time, turn into a cocoon and isolate people from the larger society.

"We studied other factors, too," he said. "We believed that the stress of settling is a potent risk factor for people's mental health. What we found was that the depression rate in 1981 was 6.5 per cent for Chinese and non-Chinese refugees, which is no higher than the population at large in Vancouver. By 1991 the rates had declined to two or three per cent, suggesting that most people experienced improved mental health.

"However the rates did not reach zero. There were mental health casualties and the data suggests that many of these casulaties might have been avoided by means of better resettlement policies and practices." His study also found that refugees who remained unemployed, or those who had found jobs and later lost them, suffered from a higher degree of depression.

The results of the research that spanned a decade uprooted other significant findings. Beiser said that, although male and female refugees were offered English as a Second Language (ESL) classes when they arrived, the men were more likely able to take the classes than the women, "partly because government policy focused on offering classes to people deemed most likely to enter the labour force - men - and partly because the programs didn't take the special needs of women into account. Often, the women needed child care so they could attend."

He said that the data showed an irony: "At the end of 10 years, the men who got ESL didn't show much advantage in fluency over men who didn't get ESL; however, the women who received ESL classes showed much greater gains in fluency than women who didn't. Why? I think it was because men tended to be out in the community more and picked up English there. For women, the classes were a much more important influence on their eventual command of the language."

He said the boat people story shows that people's compassion paid a dividend: by the end of 10 years, the refugees were even more likely than the average Canadian to be working and paying taxes, and were using fewer social services. "Instead of being a drain, they were net contributors to Canadian society."

Beiser added, "I believe that, regardless of whether or not refugees eventually pay their way in Canada, we will go on admitting them. This is because we have created an image of ourselves as a caring and compassionate society. In keeping with that, we have signed international treaties which commit us to the protection of people fleeing persecution. To abandon this principle would impoverish us morally and spiritually."

Morton Beiser is also the David Crombie professor of cultural pluralism and health with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. His book Strangers at the Gate, which contains statistics and individual stories about the boat people's first decade in Canada, was published last year by the University of Toronto Press.

What is CERIS?

The Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement (CERIS) aims to facilitate the integration of immigrants into the Greater Toronto Area and the rest of Canadian society in three ways: by influencing government policy and practice through research; by providing training for students and community-based researchers; and by disseminating relevant research information and promoting comparative research at the national and international levels.

CERIS is a consortium of universities in the Toronto area, including York, immigrant service agencies, other community groups and planning councils. Aware that nearly 190,000 immigrants arrive in Canada each year, 70,000 of whom settle in the Greater Toronto Area, CERIS began gathering information about how individuals adapt to life here and examining the impact of immigration on society.

* Dedicated to the encouragement of research which is relevant to the social concerns of Ontario residents, as well as Canadians in general, the LaMarsh Centre for Research and Violence Resolution was established at York University in 1980. The centre was named after the late Judy LaMarsh who was a politician, lawyer and author. See the centre's informative Web site at www.yorku.ca/research/lamarsh/

* In February of 1963 the York Choir, under the direction of Dr. William McCauley, won first prize at the Kiwanis Music Festival.

* In 1969-1970 Ralph G. Lamoureux, a fourth-year student, was York's first Rhodes Scholar; in 1998-1999 York's fifth recipient of the Rhodes Scholarship was fourth-year student Irvin Studin. The Rhodes Scholarship, established in 1904, is awarded to only 11 students across Canada each year.

* York University is the first university to ever be honoured with a national corporate award from The Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons for its contributions to furthering the cause of full participation for people with physical disabilities. In 1999 the award was presented for York's commitment to creating an inclusive environment for the University community - students, staff and faculty.

Feb. 25, 2000:

One significant component of York University's requirements received a boost with the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities announcement of its funding allocations for the SuperBuild program in the Greater Toronto Area.

The ministry awarded a total of $77.48 million to York University to help build two new buildings: The Schulich School of Business building and The Technology Enhanced Learning building (the latter a cooperative venture between York University and Seneca College) and a retrofit of the existing business school facility to accommodate high demand undergraduate programs. This funding will cover approximately 55 per cent of the cost for the Schulich building and 68 per cent of the cost of the Technology Enhanced Learning building. The balance of the funds will come from private and non-Ontario government sources.

In the Government's Central Ontario SuperBuild announcement, a new project for Georgian College in Barrie was indicated "with the support of York University". This project builds on our existing collaborative nursing program, and will foster our work towards new programs in education, the arts, and administrative studies. Any new programs will require the approval of the Senate of York University. The Georgian College project is being financed entirely by SuperBuild funding and local municipalities and does not represent a financial or enrolment contribution from York University.

York is pleased that the Government of Ontario has recognized and supported some of the University's initiatives to meet the far-reaching demands of the next 10 years, but York is in the process of an in-depth review of the relationship of this particular funding to the University's academic plans, and the impact it will have on York's operating and capital budgets. The final decision about proceeding with these projects lies with the Board of Governors.

Questions about the SuperBuild program should be directed to the Office of the President.

For more information on the SuperBuild announcement:
www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/nr/00,02/superb.html.