Quirks and Quarks

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

5 DAYS AGO

Hacking photosynthesis — how we'll improve on Mother Nature

Early people in North America had mammoth appetites The 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 meat, with elk and bison/camel showing up as well. By specializing in hunting megafauna, this would have helped the Clovis people rapidly spread throughout North America. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. Now we know the specific molecule that makes the Corpse flower smell like death Corpse flowers are major botanical attractions because of their unique shape, their rare flowering and their incredible stench. Now researchers have identified the molecule that is the secret behind the stink. Alveena Zulfiqar, a research associate at the University of Minnesota, was a key part of the team led by G. Eric Schaller, a professor of biology at Dartmouth College. They published their research in the journal PNAS Nexus. The dinosaurs that became birds had distinctive drumsticks The lineage of dinosaurs that ultimately evolved into birds didn’t just have unique adaptations for wings and feathers. They also evolved unique drumsticks, specifically fibula bones that are detached at the ankle, which gave their knee joints unusual mobility, allowing them to twist by more than 100 degrees. Biomechanist Armita Manafzadeh, from Yale University, says it’s certainly possible that this change in their mobility might have been key to their survival. Their research was published in Nature. A plant can spit out its seeds fast enough to take out an eye In the blink of an eye the squirting cucumber can eject its seeds faster than a greyhound can run, up to twelve meters from the plant. High speed video has enabled researchers to capture the process, which the plant manages without muscles or tendons. Derek Moulton, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Oxford, was part of the team that published their research in the journal PNAS. Hacking photosynthesis: How we can improve the chemistry that’s the foundation of life The plants that make up the base of the Earth’s food chain, use the sun’s energy — along with carbon dioxide and water — to build their tissues. But the chemical process they use, photosynthesis, is extremely inefficient. To feed our growing population, scientists are working on ways to improve this very foundational chemical reaction by increasing its efficiency. One team developed a computer simulation of the entire photosynthetic process to systematically search for and test ways to enhance the process. Plant biologist Steve Long, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says if they combined all the individual gains they’ve discovered, he estimates they could improve efficiency by up to double. One of their latest studies is currently in the preprint bioRxiv. Another approach scientists are investigating involves replacing photosynthesis with more efficient chemical reaction to produce acetate as fuel for the plants’ growth. This reaction could be powered by solar energy or any other form of electricity. Robert Jinkerson, a chemical engineer from the University of California in Riverside, said they’re still developing this technology for plants, but they’ve shown that in single-celled photosynthetic algae that they can improve photosynthetic efficiency by at least four-fold. Their research is published in Joule.

54 min
NOV 29

Exploring the limits of human longevity, and more

What the dinosaurs left behind tells the story of their rise to dominance Bones 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 research is published in the journal Nature. A new kind of ‘walking’ shorts could help with mobility Scientists have incorporated artificial tendons and electric motors into shorts to provide support and assistance to the hip flexor muscles that are critical for walking. In both young and old people the shorts improved performance and so could make a difference for those whose mobility has been compromised. Enrica Tricomi, a visiting researcher at the Technical University of Munich, co-developed this prototype. The study was published in the journal Nature. Shining a bright light on a new way to discourage shark attacks Sharks attacks on humans are often a result of mistaken identity, when they mistake a swimming human or a surfboard for a seal or sea lion. Researchers have found that a bright patterns of LED lights can break up the visual pattern of a swimmer so that they look less like a shark’s usual prey. Dr. Lucille Chapuis was part of the team that tested various patterns of lights in Seal Island, South Africa. Their research was published in Current Biology. Different species of humans walked side-by-side in Africa millions of years ago Preserved footprints near a lakeshore in Kenya show that two species of early humans, Homo erectus and Paranthropus boisei, shared the same watering hole 1.5 million years ago. This is the first direct evidence of two species of hominids sharing the same space at the same time. Dr. Kevin Hatala, professor of Biology at Chatham University, and his team’s findings are in the journal Science. We no longer know how to make humans live longer – only better Human lifespan lengthened amazingly in the 20th century, thanks to reductions in infant mortality, improvements in public health, and successes against infectious disease. But according to a new study by S. Jay Olshansky, those gains have started to flatline in recent years. By looking at the countries with the longest lifespans, Olshansky and his colleagues found that we have traded childhood diseases for age-related diseases like cancers and Alzheimer's, and so we shouldn’t expect to make many more gains in human lifespan using our current methods. Instead, he says, we should focus on improving the quality of the extra years we’ve gained so far. His work was published in the journal Nature Aging. We also speak with William Mair, a Professor of Molecular Metabolism at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is part of a new field of study called Geroscience, which looks at slowing down the process of aging as a whole. In his lab he has been able to extend the lifespan of simpler creatures like nematode worms and mice, and says while we have no proof we can extend a human’s maximum lifespan at this time, that doesn’t mean it won’t be possible in the future.

54 min
NOV 22

A brain ‘car wash’ could prevent neurological diseases and more…

Octopus camouflage is incredibly hard work Octopuses 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 better when it comes to dog brains Dog bodies and brain sizes vary enormously, but a new study comparing dogs’ cognitive abilities and personalities with brain size reveals some surprises. The research, led by evolutionary biologist Ana Balcarcel, found that the biggest brains relative to their body sizes belong to the small, anxious, excitable companion dogs, while the trainable, obedient working breeds are not gifted when it comes to volume of brain tissue. The work was published in the journal Biology Letters. This universe is too sparse, this one’s too dense, and this one? Well, it’ll do Our universe might seem like it’s perfectly tuned for life, but when it comes to the role dark energy plays in the emergence of life, it turns out that our universe might not be so special after all. A new study that simulated the development of hypothetical universes with different amounts of dark energy suggests the optimal amount of dark energy to enable the evolution of life is only one-tenth of the density in our universe. Daniele Sorini, a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University and his team published their work in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Why a smack on the lips might have come from a snack on a tick Lip mashing is an oddity in the animal kingdom. Other than humans, few species have adopted the custom of pressing lips together as a signal of affection. A new theory for why humans kiss suggests it emerged from primate grooming practices, and the lip-lock has its roots in us slurping up parasites we’ve combed from a companion's fur. Dr. Adriano Lameira, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Warwick published his new hypothesis in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology. Taking out our brains’ trash may be key to maintaining a healthy brain Some scientists think it's possible that a host of neurological disorders, from Alzheimer's to Parkinson’s, could be connected to problems with the way the brain rids itself of metabolic waste. A couple of recent studies in Nature are helping this longstanding puzzle about how this waste removal system works and what we might be able to do about it when it doesn’t. A study published in Nature describes how synchronized electrical waves help flush the waste out when we sleep. Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroimmunologist from Washington University in St. Louis, said our neurons that are driving this waste removal system through what’s known as the glymphatic system. A separate study of how gamma frequency stimulation, at 40 cycles per second, can kickstart gamma waves that are compromised in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. Li-Huei Tsai, a neuroscientist from MIT, said they found this stimulation flushes out beta-amyloid peptides in the brains of mice that would otherwise build up and form plaques which are the hallmark of diseased Alzheimer’s brains.

54 min
NOV 15

An environmental historian looks at our symbiosis with trees and more…

Canadian bird flu case raises potential pandemic concerns A 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 potential for influenza viruses to mix now that we’re heading into flu season and wild birds are migrating. Sighted and blind people can learn to echolocate equally well Echolocation — using sound reflections to sense surroundings — is best known among animals like bats and dolphins. But many blind people have also learned to echolocate, and a new study has shown that sighted people can learn to do it just as effectively as those without sight. Dr. Lore Thaler, a professor in psychology and director of the human echolocation lab at Durham University in England, and her team published their findings in the journal Cerebral Cortex. An elephant’s shower shows sophisticated tool use An elephant at the Berlin Zoo has learned to manipulate hoses to wash herself, and is fascinating researchers, including Humboldt University PhD student Lena Kaufmann, who is investigating tool use in non-human animals. In a recent study, published in the journal Current Biology, Kaufmann and colleagues gave Mary the elephant different hoses to test her abilities, and she quickly either adapted to use the hoses to meet her end goal, or got frustrated when the hoses didn’t work and bit the hose in anger. What’s also interesting is a companion pachyderm that has apparently learned to sabotage these showers by kinking the hose. Pesticides used on farms attract bumblebee queens, not to their benefit Researchers were surprised and disturbed to discover that in tests, young queen bumblebees hibernated in pesticide-contaminated soils. During her PhD studies at the University of Guelph, Dr. Sabrina Rondeau found that bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) queens seemed to prefer soil samples containing pesticides, even when presented with a pesticide free soil option. They’re not clear on why the bees would prefer soils with pesticides, but are concerned with the impact this might have on their reproduction and survival. The study is published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. A writer speaks for the trees, and says we have much in common with them There are about three trillion trees on our planet — about four hundred for each of us. And we literally couldn’t live without them. They take in millions of tons of carbon dioxide each year, and provide us with oxygen. Saving our forests is a big step toward saving our planet from the challenges from climate change. Dr. Daniel Lewis, an environmental historian at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California writes about just twelve of the the most exotic, important and interesting species we share the Earth with in his book The Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of our Future.

54 min
NOV 8

New fishing technology could save endangered Right whales and more…

Blood drinking bats can suck energy out of their protein-rich meals Vampire 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 acids in their blood meals into usable energy. The research was published in the journal Biology Letters. Canada’s most prestigious science prize goes to garbage science Dr. Kerry Rowe of Queen’s University’s Civil Engineering Department has been awarded this year’s Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering for his critical work in designing landfills that have to contain our waste and pollutants for generations. UK sugar rationing in the 1950s led to lower risks of illness late in life Sugar was rationed in the UK from 1940 to 1953 due to the war and postwar austerity, and so was consumed at about the level nutritionists now recommend. Dr. Claire Boone from McGill University was part of a new study published in the journal Science which found that the limited sugar intake by people in the UK during pregnancy and the first couple of years of life resulted in significant decreases in diabetes and hypertension. Reinventing the wheel to understand how the wheel was first invented The invention of the wheel is a milestone in human technological evolution, but it’s not clear how it happened. A new study combines design science and computational mechanics to virtually re-invent the wheel and understand the developments that could have led to the creation of the first wheel-and-axle system. The research, led by Kai James from Georgia Institute of Technology, adds support to the theory that the wheel was likely first invented by Neolithic copper miners in around 3900 BC. The research was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Can high tech fishing gear limit losses of endangered whales? The endangered North Atlantic Right Whale has had a long and rocky road to recovery after the depredations of commercial whaling. One of the major threats to the species today is fishing line entanglements. In a documentary, producer Sonya Buyting explores how researchers, like Sean Brillant from the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and fishers, like Greg Beckerton in New Brunswick, are trialing high-tech ropeless fishing gear to save the whales while still preserving the fishers’ livelihoods.

54 min
NOV 1

The science of art appreciation, and more

There’s no time like this time for Standard Time In 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 circadian rhythms, as is having darkness in the evening time. Von Schantz recently co-authored a letter with the British Sleep Society, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, calling for the UK government to end to the practice. Sorry beavers and Polar bears – the unique Canadian animals are not what you think Biologists have investigated which animals, by range and evolutionary history, are most unique in Canada as part of an attempt to get a more accurate picture of Canadian biodiversity. The research, led by Arne Mooers from Simon Fraser University, highlights animals such as the mudpuppy, the osprey, the virginia opossum, and the two-tailed frog. At the top of the list is the spiny softshell turtle, which branched away from its family tree 180 million years ago. The research was published in the journal The Canadian Field-Naturalist. A corpse in a well makes a macabre myth real A story recorded in a 12th century Norse saga of a violent attack on a castle has been validated with the discovery and identification of human remains. The story goes that the invaders dropped a dead man into the castle well in order to poison its water supply before departing. That man’s remains have now been found. Dr. Anna Petersén, an archeologist at the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research, worked with a team to identify and date the remains of this 800 year old skeleton. Their study, published in the journal iScience, revealed he was between 30 - 40 years old, and had blonde hair and blue eyes. A wide range of animals take a tipple Indulgence in alcohol is seen as a largely human vice, but biologists have collected evidence that a much wider range of animals from insects to apes will seek out ethanol, often in fermented fruit, and will, on occasion, overindulge. Dr. Matthew Carrigan, an associate professor of biology at the College of Central Florida says that some birds that fly into windows have been found to have high levels of ethanol, and intoxicated fruit flies will make poor mating choices. The study was published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Tapping into science for a greater appreciation of artistic masterpieces Recent studies of two of the world’s most famous paintings by Dutch artists have provided surprising insights into the depths of their art. A new analysis of the entire sky in Vincent van Gogh’s painting, The Starry Night, which includes 14 swirling eddies shows how the artist intuitively understood the nature of turbulence, an incredibly complex phenomenon of fluid dynamics. Francois Schmitt, an oceanographer and research director at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and his team published their research in the journal Physics of Fluids. To figure out what it was about Johannes Vermeer’s painting, Girl with the Pearl Earring, that viewers find so captivating, the Mauritshuis museum where the artwork hangs in The Hague commissioned a neuroscientific study. Andries van der Leij, the research director of Neurensics — a consumer neuroscience company — and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, said they found that people’s eyes were automatically drawn to the girl’s eyes, mouth and pearl earring in a way that drew them in for an emotional experience.

54 min
OCT 25

The amazing, brilliant, fascinating world of spiders and more

A Zombie star’s outburst could soon be appearing in the night sky In 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 in a thermonuclear explosion on its surface. When that happens, they expect we’ll be able to see it above the western horizon when it temporarily becomes as bright as any star in the Big Dipper. A tiny dinosaur used wings to run fast, and possibly to fly 106 million years ago, in what is now South Korea, a bird-like dinosaur with wings ran across a muddy flat and left behind tiny footprints. By reconstructing its stride from these prints, paleontologists have found that it ran faster than could be explained if it weren’t using its wings to push it along. Dr. Hans Larsson of McGill university says this discovery gives new insight into the evolution of flight in dinosaurs. This study was published in the journal PNAS. A climate-change disaster scenario could be closer than we think This week, a group of 44 researchers from 15 countries presented an open letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers, to shed light on the potential collapse of a key ocean current system. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or AMOC, is a network of currents that brings warm water from equatorial regions North, and recirculates cool water South, and recent studies indicate it is slowing down because of climate change. A new study, from a team at the University of Oregon led by Christo Buizert, analyzed ice cores to look at what exactly happened when the AMOC had collapsed last, during the last ice age. Their results suggest that an ice sheet would have spread as far down as the South of France, or New York City, which would devastate ecosystems and plunge Europe into a deep freeze while disrupting rainfall distribution across Asia. The research was published in the journal PNAS. Cloudy with a chance of great whites A group of researchers in California is using drone footage along with artificial intelligence to develop a shark forecasting system. The team, led by Douglas McCauley from the University of California Santa Barbara, have been flying drones over the waters of Padaro beach in California to get daily shark counts, and compare that to oceanological details to determine what conditions make the water more or less “sharky.” While they spotted up to 15 sharks a day near unsuspecting surfers, this beach has very few interactions between humans and sharks in any given year. The results of the drone study have been published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. This biologist wants to change your mind about scary spiders Spiders. For some they’re just a bit creepy. For others they’re nightmare fuel. But for a select few, they’re one of the most fascinating and intriguing creatures on our planet. Behavioural Ecologist James O’Hanlon is one of those people and he thinks we should trade in our arachnophobia for arachnophilia. He pleads his case in a new book, Eight-Legged Wonders The Surprising Lives of Spiders.

54 min
OCT 18

Can we dump antacids in the ocean to soak up carbon dioxide? And more.

Canaries in the coal mine — a report on Canada’s bird life is an environmental report card Using 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 is that where we’ve made efforts at conservation, such as with birds of prey and waterfowl, it’s working. Ants farm fungus, and have been doing it since the dinosaurs died Many species of ant grow fungus for food in their colonies, feeding it on plant matter and carefully cultivating it to protect it from disease. And a new study, led by Smithsonian researcher Ted Schulz, has determined that this has been going on for at least 66 million years, and probably evolved as a strategy to survive the environmental catastrophe that followed the asteroid impact that annihilated the dinosaurs. The research was published in the journal Science. A Canadian group is exploring how to filter and destroy forever chemicals in our water PFAS, a group of 15,000 synthetic chemicals that are also known as forever chemicals, are a tricky problem because they’ve spread everywhere and are hard to destroy. But a group from the University of British Columbia, led by chemical engineer Johan Foster, has found a way to efficiently capture the chemicals from water and break them down into harmless components. The research was published in the journal Nature Communications Engineering. It’s two, two, two animals in one. Comb jellies can join their bodies together Scientists studying a jellyfish-like animal called a ctenophore, or comb jelly, were shocked to discover that, when injured, two individual animals could fuse together. University of Colorado biologist Mariana Rodriguez-Santiago and her team found that the animals melded their nervous systems, and even their guts, while retaining individual features. The research was published in the journal Current Biology. Using the sea to soak up our excess carbon dioxide We’ve released 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. We may slow our emissions, but the CO2 we’ve already released will warm our planet for thousands of years. Which is why scientists are now trying to understand how we might safely attempt to remove it on a vast scale. Journalist Moira Donovan explores research into marine carbon dioxide removal, and how scientists are trying to understand if we can fix a problem they’d hoped we’d never face. Moira speaks with: Will Burt – Chief Ocean Scientist Planetary Technologies Katja Fennel – Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax Kai Schulz – Biological Oceanographer, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Southern Cross University, Australia Ruth Musgrave – Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, Halifax

54 min

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2023-12-26

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