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17Ideas

The lake is not the ocean

UBC researchers find how diving insect larvae survive pressure that should collapse their air sacs.

Original reporting by Alex Walls

The lake is not the ocean
IdeasThe insect story makes summer field science feel close enough to touch. A tiny animal becomes a vehicle for a larger question about adaptation and the assumptions researchers carry into a problem. The best research stories do not flatten the finding into a slogan. They show the mechanism, the surprise and the next question.Photo: Alex Walls

Where the work begins

UBC researchers find how diving insect larvae survive pressure that should collapse their air sacs.

What follows

Further reporting continues across the university network.

At a glance

  • Campus: UBC Vancouver & Okanagan (Point Grey & Kelowna)
  • Focus: Research & public discovery (Ideas)
  • Outcome: Verified reporting (September 2026 issue)
Sources 1
  1. Original reporting · news.ubc.ca

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This story is from the September 2026 issue of Alumni Digest · UBC. It's free, monthly and independent.

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Alumni Digest is independent and is not an official University of British Columbia publication. Stories summarize the public reporting linked under each piece; photographs belong to the credited sources and remain under rights review.