Good morning. Canadian researchers would very much like some of your toenail clippings \u2013 all in the name of science, of course. More on that below, along with China\u2019s massive lending to high-income countries and last night\u2019s Giller Prize winner. But first:<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s headlinesOpen this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Peeking in on the University of Calgary’s Metal Free Clean Laboratory.Sarah B Groot\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n ScienceBest foot forward<\/p>\n Your toenails could hold the secret to a leading cause of lung cancer \u2013 and Calgary researchers really want a cut of that action.<\/p>\n Across Canada, more than 10 million people live in houses with dangerously high levels of radon, an odourless gas that\u2019s released when uranium breaks down in rocks and soil. Radon sneaks into our homes through cracks in the foundation or cavities in the wall, and when we breathe it in, the gas quickly transforms into solid radioactive lead that settles in our lungs.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why radon is the main cause of lung cancer in people who\u2019ve never smoked, killing more than 3,000 Canadians each year. But it\u2019s been nearly impossible for scientists to measure decades-long exposure to radon \u2013 at least, as The Globe\u2019s Alanna Smith discovered<\/a>, until now.<\/p>\n Why toenails?<\/p>\n Our bodies can store the lead from radon in slow-shedding tissue like nails and hair. The trouble for environmental cancer researchers, though, is that our fingers come into direct contact with all sorts of signal-muffling noise, including food, dyes, cleaning products and household chemicals. Happily, our feet tend to be tucked away from those contaminants. And since basically everyone still has their toenails \u2013 which cannot be said of their hair \u2013 University of Calgary scientists suspected some decent data might lurk in the clippings.<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t wrong: A small 2024 pilot study showed that toenails can provide a 15-year archive of a person\u2019s exposure to radioactive lead. \u201cThis is, theoretically, going to be magic,\u201d lead researcher Aaron Goodarzi said. Their attention now turns to a much larger validation trial, funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and expected to wrap up in 2028. To get there, the researchers need samples from 10,000 participants willing to donate their nail clippings to a good cause. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n These could be your toenail clippings!Sarah B Groot\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Intrigued \u2013 and fungal-infection-free? You can still sign on to the study<\/a>, after which you\u2019ll receive a radon detector for your home, baggies to collect four months\u2019 worth of clippings, and a return envelope. Each person\u2019s trove of toenails will make its way to a $4-million University of Calgary lab, built exactly for this kind of cutting-edge research.<\/p>\n The tipping point<\/p>\n So how do scientists actually distinguish the radon from the nail? It starts in what co-principal investigator Michael Wieser calls \u201cMagneto\u2019s prison,\u201d a metal-free room (plastic shelves, special paint) that prevents toenails from being tainted by other lead. The clippings are carefully cleaned with organic solvents, then mixed into a cocktail of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide before being nuked by a fancy microwave.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat comes out is a super-small vial of yellow goo, which a technician in a plastic lab coat places into a drive-through window,\u201d Smith told me. \u201cPeople in a different room, on the other side of the window, then take the goo and put it a mass spectrometer.\u201d This instrument determines the specific composition of the lead, allowing researchers to measure an individual\u2019s long-term exposure to radon decay.<\/p>\n And that discovery could transform cancer prevention in Canada. Today, two out of every five people who develop lung cancer don\u2019t meet current screening criteria, either because they\u2019ve never smoked or because they gave up the habit too long ago. As a result, most lung cancer cases in non-smokers are caught at Stage 3 or 4, where the survival rate tops out at 16 per cent, rather than at Stage 1, where it\u2019s higher than 70 per cent. <\/p>\n Goodarzi and his team hope their data will lead to more patients being included in early cancer screening and detection. \u201cThat\u2019s the magic this promises,\u201d he told Smith. \u201cIf we can diagnose it soon enough, we just cut it out and you go on with your life.\u201d For her part, Smith has become equally bullish on the research. \u201cI\u2019m truly obsessed with it,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m grabbing every friend and family member by the shirt and yelling, \u2018Do you know what your toenails can do?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n Sometimes, science hides out in the most unpromising of places \u2013 and then marches ahead at a rapid clip.<\/p>\n The Shot\u2018We\u2019re like an octopus, a good octopus.\u2019Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Syria’s Minister for Social Affairs and Labour, Hind Kabawat, is a Canadian citizen.Hasan Belal\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Nearly one year after the fall of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s regime, Syrians with close Canadian ties are playing an outsized role in the postwar government. The Globe\u2019s Mark MacKinnon reports from Damascus on their plans to nudge the country in a more inclusive direction<\/a>.<\/p>\n The WrapWhat else we\u2019re following<\/p>\n At home: Cheaper prices at the gas pump and grocery store helped bring inflation down to 2.2 per cent<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n Abroad: Sweeping changes to Britain\u2019s asylum system would ramp up deportations<\/a>, including of people with refugee status.<\/p>\n Books: Souvankham Thammavongsa won the $100,000 Giller Prize<\/a> for the best Canadian fiction of the year with Pick a Colour.<\/p>\n Bucks: China has built a global lending portfolio worth more than US$2-trillion<\/a>, with the United States the single largest recipient.<\/p>\n Called up: Canada\u2019s top general wants a reserve force 400,000 strong<\/a> to help with natural disasters and military crises. (We\u2019re currently below 30,000 people.)<\/p>\n