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PODCAST

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

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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00:14:38

Overheated Bonus Podcast -- a hostful...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/09/09

A behind-the-scenes chat about the making of the CBC Radio collaboration called "Overheated." White Coat, Black Art, What on Earth, and Quirks and Quarks are exploring how heat is affecting our health, our communities and our ecosystems. This originally broadcast on The Current.

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00:54:09

Overheated - a Quirks & Quarks special about urban heat

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/09/06

Quirks & Quarks launches our new season with a special on urban heat. It's part of a collaboration with White Coat, Black Art and What on Earth called "Overheated."Host Bob McDonald and Producer Amanda Buckiewicz tell the story of how a city’s design can influence the way we experience and cope with heat. Bob will cycle through the streets of Montreal with a Concordia researcher on specially-equipped bikes - these are equipped with sensors that measure how temperatures change across

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00:00:23

Quirks & Quarks is on hiatus for the summer. New...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/06/28

Check out our podcast feed for shows you might have missed, or visit us online at cbc.ca/quirks to see our on-demand audio archive.

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00:54:09

Listener Question show

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/06/21

Christ Kennedy from Moncton, New Brunswick asks: If someone had the means to, how close could we bring the Moon to the Earth while still keeping it in orbit around us? And fast would a month fly by?Answer from Brett Gladman, a professor of astronomy at the University of British Columbia,Matoli Degroot from Manitoba asks: Do animal species in the wild get bigger over time, since the bigger males would end up mating more than the smaller ones?Answer from Danielle Fraser, head of paleobiology at the

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01:18:07

The age of monotremes, Third thumb, bird dream...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/06/14

What would you do with a third thumb? Research suggests our brain can quickly adaptBirds can dream - and even have nightmares - and now scientists are tuning inA comprehensive new collection of medical information shows the health risks of space travelA study in mice sheds new light on how exercise can reverse aging in the brainRare fossils from the ‘age of monotremes’ found in AustraliaHow the brain can instantly tell the difference between speech and musicPODCAST EXTRASOrganic farms next to

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00:54:09

The pursuit of gravity, and more…

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/06/07

The sun’s ramping up its activity and now we have a better idea of what’s driving itThis spring we’ve seen some spectacular displays of northern lights and we’re expecting to see more as we approach the peak of the sun’s natural cycle, the solar maximum. Every 11 years the sun cycles from having few sunspots on its surface to having many. Now according to a new study in the journal Nature, scientists have figured out what may be driving this process. Geoff Vasil, an associate professor of

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00:54:09

Killer whales are ramming boats for fun, and more...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/05/31

Killer whales are likely ramming boats because they’re bored and having funSeveral years ago a small population of killer whales living off the coast of Spain began attacking boats, particularly sailboats, damaging some severely and even sinking a handful. While social media speculation has suggested whale rage as a cause, an international team of killer whale experts recently published a report suggesting the behaviour is not aggression, but is instead an example of these giant social creatures

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00:54:09

The risks and benefits of pandemic virus research and...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/05/24

This little piggy escaped and wreaked havoc on crops and the environmentWild pigs that have escaped or been released from farms have established self-sustaining populations in the prairies and central Canada and are wreaking havoc on farms and wilderness landscapes alike. A new study, led by Ryan Brook at the University of Saskatchewan, has tracked pigs to try to understand where, and how far, this porcine invasion can go. The research was published in the journal Biological Invasions.Satellites and

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00:54:09

Sounds and smells of nature, and more...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/05/17

The recent solar storm scrambled undersea sensorsThe solar storm that lit up the evening sky with aurora recently was also detected by Canada’s Ocean Network system of undersea oceanographic observatories off both coasts of the country and up in the Arctic. The compass instruments that normally provide the direction of ocean currents fluctuated by as much as 30 degrees at the height of the solar storm and were picked up as deep as 2.7 kilometers. Kate Moran, the CEO and President of Ocean Networks

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00:54:09

Why the famous Higgs particle plays the field and more…

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/05/10

Sabre tooth cats had baby-tooth backupThe fearsome canines of saber-toothed cats were terrific weapons for stabbing unfortunate prey, but their impressive length also made them vulnerable to breakage. A new study by University of California, Berkeley associate professor Jack Tseng suggests adolescent California saber-toothed cat kept their baby teeth to buttress the adult sabers, and reinforce them while cats learned to hunt. This research was published in The Anatomical Record.Global warming could

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00:59:19

Quirks & Quarks goes to the dogs -- a dog science...

Quirks and Quarks ·

2024/05/04

We baby talk with both dogs and kids, but our faces say something differentDogs can use their powerful noses to sniff out PTSDA quarter of all Labradors are hard-wired to be hungrier and burn less energyYour pet dog may know more words than you give them credit forSize, face shape and other factors matter when it comes to a dog’s lifespan, study showsIt’s possible – and worthwhile – to teach an old dog new tricksWhat a genome reveals about an extinct species of dogs - and the Indigenous people who

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96 results

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