At least its not Dracula! Last Friday, in honour of the hallowed day to come, student dentists at McGill's McCall Dental Clinic in the Montreal General Hospital amused their junior patients by dressing up. Fourth year student Bikka Fung works her sorcery on Jacynthe Smith-Courtois at the orthodontic clinic. Last Wednesday morning, according to clinic director Dr. Jeffrey Myers, children had an even wilder time when students, and staff disguised themselves and decorated the entire clinic. "The cat was the most popular disguise," he said, adding that there were several hockey players, a toilet, a grape, a dragonfly and a London bobbie at the traditional dress-up. "We do this to give something back for all the times the children have had to wait." PHOTO: CLIFF SKARSTEDT

MUHC site chosen DANIEL McCABE Come 2004, the McGill University Hospital Centre will have a new home. The University has purchased the Glen Yards site in the city's west-end from Canadian Pacific Railways. The plan now is to build a campus-like hospital setting that soothes patients, rather than overwhelms them. The location provides a few challenges to be overcome, but MUHC planners are confident that the project is on the right track. Report on LSD raises hackles BRONWYN CHESTER The McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law was called in by the federal government to examine a controversial case involving the use of LSD on unconsenting women prison inmates in the 1960s. Planning for a planet in peril DANIEL McCABE McGill anthropology professor Bruce Trigger's new book tries to breathe new life into a discredited academic theory. He also puts forth his plan to save the Earth. A monstrous task SYLVAIN-JACQUES DESJARDINS English professor David Williams's interest in monsters has paid off -- he is now a finalist for a national book prize. Williams laments that they just don't make monsters the way they used to. Anderson: Feminism's future secure SYLVAIN-JACQUES DESJARDINS Feminism isn't licked just yet, says one of Canada's most influential women. Among feminism's greatest accomplishments, says Doris Anderson, is that it's made the world a better place -- for men. Following twentieth century plagues BRONWYN CHESTER History professor Myron Echenberg is following the trail of the most recent widespread outbreak of the bubonic plague, a much-feared disease which, surprisingly, is still with us today. Casting spells for scientific literacy ELLYN KERR Joe Schwarcz, an adjunct chemistry professor, says a magic show changed his life. Now he devotes himself to illustrating the everyday "magic" of organic chemistry that impacts on just about everything we do. Pilot project to make recruiting foreign faculty easier ERIC SMITH When professors are hired from abroad, their spouses are often left with few options for finding work in Quebec. That may be about to change. Why McGill needs an A+ MARTHA CRAGO The associate vice-principal (graduate studies) makes her case for changes to the University's grading system. The beauty of unpredictability SYLVAIN COMEAU It's something of a fluke that the human race exists, says Stephen Jay Gould. He finds the thought comforting. Heeding the call DANIEL McCABE Darla Sloan and Irene Smolik abandoned promising academic careers to make startling changes to their lives. Did the devil make them do it? Quite the reverse, actually.

Letters On the move Kudos At issue Now interactive! News from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research A knight at the podium: Oxford professor Sir Roger Penrose, co-author of The Large, the Small and the Human Mind with Stephen Hawking, gave two major well-attended presentations at McGill recently -- the Department of Physics's Anna I. McPherson Science Colloquium and (above) the Department of Philosophy's Maxwell Cummings Lecture. PHOTO: OWEN EGAN