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Quirks and Quarks

CBC Radio"s Quirks and Quarks covers the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom... and everything in between.

science earth sciences

All Episodes

00:54:09

Climate scientists as physicians of the planet, and more

Quirks and Quarks ·

2025/01/17

Ancient human ancestors didn’t eat meat, and so couldn’t build big brainsOne of the main reasons scientists think we became so smart is because at some point in our evolutionary past, our ancestors started eating energy-dense meat to fuel the growth of large brains. However it hasn’t been clear when this started. Using a new technology, scientists were able to analyze the tooth enamel of seven 3.5 million year old Australopithecines to directly measure their meat consumption. Tina Lüdecke, from the

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00:54:09

How crocheted hats help scientists learn about cats,...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2025/01/10

Was Rome’s fall due to heavy metal poisoning making Romans dumber?Ice cores that preserve traces of atmospheric pollutants through history have revealed that industrial activity by Romans – particularly the use and production of lead – meant the air the Romans breathed was heavily contaminated. The levels were high enough to cause neurological problems, including a drop in cognitive function across the population. Joe McConnell and his team at the Desert Research Institute published their findings

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00:54:09

Our Listener Question Show

Quirks and Quarks ·

2025/01/03

Genevieve Willis from London, Ontario asks: Is there any evidence to suggest that “getting cold” by, say, dressing inadequately in cold weather, or sitting in a cold draft, actually increases our susceptibility to illness?For the frigid answer, we spoke with Michael Kennedy who is an associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta.Jim Raso from St. Albert Alberta wrote us: My question has to do with our sense of time passing. As I have gotten older – I am 73 now – I noticed

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00:54:09

Silly seals sabotage serious science and more…

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/12/27

Some optimistic and positive science news to end the year.For rats, anticipation of a pleasurable event is a pleasure in itselfOne day early in the pandemic, behavioural neuroscientist Kelly Lambert from the University of Richmond went to check on her rats. The rats responded with excitement when they saw her, anticipating the treats they were about to receive. That inspired her to pivot her research to study the effects that anticipating pleasurable experiences could have on the brain. She’s found

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00:54:09

Our holiday science book show

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/12/20

How ancient artifacts emerge from melting iceAs Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets melt due to global warming, they are revealing rare archaeological treasures released from a frozen time capsule. These objects are often made of organic material – human and animal remains and wooden tools that only survive in ice. In her book, The Age of Melt: What glaciers, ice mummies, and ancient artifacts teach us about climate, culture, and a future without ice, Lisa Baril tells the story of the archaeologists

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00:54:09

The Human Cell Atlas: ‘Google Maps’ for our bodies,...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/12/13

A NASA probe is going to touch the Sun for ChristmasThe Parker Solar Probe is going to be making its closest approach to our Sun on Dec. 24, diving at 800,000 km/h into the corona of our star and getting within 6.5 million kilometers to the solar surface. It’s the culmination of a successful mission during which the probe has measured the solar wind and flown through solar storms. We speak with C. Alex Young, the Associate Director for Science Communication in the Heliophysics Division at NASA's

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00:54:09

Hacking photosynthesis — how we'll improve on Mother...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/12/06

Early people in North America had mammoth appetitesThe people of the Clovis culture, who lived across Ice Age North America 13,000 years ago, left behind many tools and artifacts that suggest they were skilled hunters. And now chemical analysis of the incredibly rare find of bones of a Clovis child has given us the first direct evidence of what they were eating. The research, co-led by James Chatters of McMaster University, revealed they were “super-carnivores” whose diet mostly consisted of mammoth

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00:54:09

Exploring the limits of human longevity, and more

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/11/29

What the dinosaurs left behind tells the story of their rise to dominanceBones aren’t the only thing we can use to understand the dinosaurs. A new study of a rich trove of fossilized feces and vomit is telling the story of how dinosaurs diversified and came to dominate the planet starting 230 million years ago. Paleontologist Martin Qvarnström from Uppsala University in Sweden said it appears that the secret to dinosaurs’ success is in their ability to adapt to their changing environment. Their

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00:54:09

A brain ‘car wash’ could prevent neurological...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/11/22

Octopus camouflage is incredibly hard workOctopuses have the remarkable ability to change their appearance in the blink of an eye – assuming new skin coloration and patterns for camouflage or communication. A new study in the journal PNAS has explored how much energy this takes, and it turns out transforming themselves is a workout harder than you’d ever get at the gym. Dr. Kirt Onthank is a professor of Biology at Walla Walla University and known as The Octopus Guy on social media.Bigger isn’t

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00:54:09

An environmental historian looks at our symbiosis...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/11/15

Canadian bird flu case raises potential pandemic concernsA teen in BC critically ill with H5N1 bird flu has raised concerns about a new pandemic, since it’s not clear how they acquired the virus. Researchers are closely monitoring the virus as it spreads, primarily among animals for changes that could indicate it spreading more easily in humans. Matthew Miller, the Canada Research Chair of Viral Pandemics from McMaster University, says the timing of this case is particularly concerning given the

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00:54:09

New fishing technology could save endangered Right...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/11/08

Blood drinking bats can suck energy out of their protein-rich mealsVampire bats are famous for exclusively drinking blood, but they’re also surprisingly good runners. And part of why that’s surprising is that blood contains very little carbohydrates or fat, which most other mammals rely on for fuel. So Kenneth Welch and Giulia Rossi at University of Toronto Scarborough ran bats on a specially-designed treadmill to find out more. They discovered that the bats can almost instantly convert the amino

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00:54:09

The science of art appreciation, and more

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/11/01

There’s no time like this time for Standard TimeIn most of Canada and the US, our clocks are “falling back” an hour as we switch to Standard time for the winter and as usual we’re hearing mutterings about abandoning the time change.. Chronobiologists like Malcolm von Schantz, who study our internal circadian rhythms, are saying that if we do ditch the practice, we should revert to standard time instead of having permanent daylight time, because morning light is very important to regulating our

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00:54:09

The amazing, brilliant, fascinating world of spiders...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/10/25

A Zombie star’s outburst could soon be appearing in the night skyIn 1946 a stellar explosion brightened the night sky as the result of a zombie star going nova 3,000 light-years away reached Earth. The nova soon dimmed, but scientists are expecting a repeat performance any day now. NASA astrophysicist Elizabeth Hayes, the project scientist of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, described it as a white dwarf star devouring so much of its companion star that it reaches a critical threshold resulting

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00:54:09

Can we dump antacids in the ocean to soak up carbon...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/10/18

Canaries in the coal mine — a report on Canada’s bird life is an environmental report cardUsing millions of observations, collected over 50 years, from bird watchers across the country, the conservation group Birds Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada have released a report called The State of Canada’s Birds. The big takeaways are that many bird species, such as grassland birds and arctic birds, are in trouble because of climate change, damage to habitat and other causes. The good news

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00:49:12

Quirks & Quarks presents Galactic Trailblazers:...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/10/16

A CBC Radio One Special:We are in a new space race and this one looks a lot different than the Apollo missions. More women are donning space suits, and more nations are aiming for the stars. What was it like for the women who broke the mold, and what challenges persist? Co-hosts Nicole Mortillaro and Jaela Bernstien get real with four trailblazing women: three astronauts who shattered the glass ceiling, and a space historian. We talk about sexism, awkward moments, hard-won achievements and what’s in

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00:54:09

A Nobel for microRNA and more

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/10/11

A Nobel prize for understanding how genes are turned on and offThe early-morning call from Sweden came on Monday to American molecular biologist Gary Ruvkun for his work in discovering microRNAs, which are essential for regulating genetic activity in plants and animals. Ruvkun says that research based on this work helps us understand basic biology, but has also provided significant insight into disease and might even help us understand whether there is life on other planets.Biologists discover a new

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00:54:09

The FBI's chief explosives scientist deconstructs...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/10/04

Hurricane Helene’s killed hundreds, but the true death toll could end up in the thousandsHurricanes and tropical storms in the US kill about 24 people directly, but a new study looking at “excess deaths” suggests that in the affected areas the mortality rate is elevated for about 15 years. Rachel Young, a postdoctoral researcher from UC Berkeley, analyzed the long tail of these storms from 1930-2015. She found the true death toll ranges from 7,000 to 11,000 per storm. Her team suspects many factors

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00:54:09

Plastic: We need to understand the problem and the...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/09/27

A Central American lizard creates a bubble of air underwater to breatheSemi-aquatic lizards in the western rainforests of Central America have the ability to hide from predators underwater by breathing from a bubble of air they form over their heads. In a new study in the journal Biology Letters, ecologist Lindsey Swierk from New York State University at Binghamton, found that the lizards with this bubble-breathing trick could stay underwater for 30 per cent longer than the lizards without a

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00:54:09

An astronaut takes a birds-eye view of migration and...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/09/20

Earthquakes create a spark in quartz that can form massive gold nuggetsScientists have figured out why up to 75 per cent of all the gold ever mined forms inside quartz in areas with a long history of earthquakes. Chris Voisey, a Canadian geologist at Monash University in Australia, said he was trying to solve how gold arose inside quartz. In his study in the journal Nature Geoscience, he found that earthquake stress on quartz crystals generates an electrical voltage that causes dissolved gold to

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00:54:09

Science in the Field special. Catching up on the...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/09/13

Wrestling 14-foot 'dinosaurs' to figure out why they're dyingDr. Madison Earhart, a postdoctoral fellow from the University of British Columbia,spent her summer fishing for enormous white sturgeon in the Fraser and Nechako Rivers in British Columbia. Since 2022, there have been a large number of deaths of this fish along the west coast of North America and it’s concerning when a species that’s been around for hundreds of million years suddenly starts dying off. She and her colleagues are trying to

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107 results

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