Quirks and Quarks

4.7 (301)
EARTH SCIENCES
UPDATED WEEKLY

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

4 DAYS AGO

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
OCT 16

Quirks & Quarks presents Galactic Trailblazers: Renegade Women

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 store for Space Race 2.0. original air date: Monday, October 14, 2024

49 min
OCT 11

A Nobel for microRNA and more

A Nobel prize for understanding how genes are turned on and off The 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 microbial world in your bathroom Researchers have found a new biodiversity hotspot. Environmental microbiologist Erica Hartmann and her team sampled showerheads and toothbrushes in ordinary bathrooms, and found a host of bacteria and hundreds of previously unknown viruses. But don’t panic: much of this new life are bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — which are harmless to humans and could be potential weapons against the bacteria that can cause human disease. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes. How we might zap an asteroid on a collision course with Earth A new experiment using the world’s most powerful radiation source has shown the way to deflecting asteroids with X-rays. The X-rays were used to vaporize some of the surface of a model asteroid, creating a rocket-like effect. Dr Nathan Moore, a physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, says it's a proof of principle for the concept of deflecting a real asteroid using X-rays generated by a powerful nuclear explosion. The study was published in the journal Nature Physics. Exploring the origins of Australia's iconic, if controversial, wild dog The Australian Dingo has a fierce reputation as a predator, leading to European settlers attempting to exterminate it in the 19th century. But the dingo’s origin story has not been well understood. For years, it was assumed the dingo originated from India, given its similarities to the Indian pariah dog, or from New Guinea. Dr. Loukas Koungolos, a research associate at the University of Sydney, led the study looking at dingo fossils and found out where it likely came from, and how the domestic dogs of ancient people became a wild predator down under. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Can we treat autoimmune disease by manipulating the immune system? Autoimmune diseases like Lupus can be a result of critical immune cells attacking our own bodies. New advances are pointing to ways we might be able to reverse this. Researchers have repurposed a relatively new cancer treatment, called CAR-T therapy that can reprogram immune cells to attack cancer cells, to reset the immune system in patients with lupus to neutralize its autoimmune attack. Dr. Georg Schett and his colleagues, from the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen in Germany, were the first to use this immunotherapy to successfully treat lupus patients. That research appeared in the journal Nature Medicine with a follow-up in The New England Journal of Medicine. Other researchers are focussing on understanding — and possibly reversing — what triggers the immune cells to go awry in the first place. Dr. Jaehyuk Choi, from Northwestern University, said they found a molecule that lupus patients are deficient in. In cell culture they demonstrated that correcting this deficiency can reprogram certain immune T-cells to stop directing the attack on the body which they hope could potentially reverse the effects of lupus. His research was published in Nature.

54 min
OCT 4

The FBI's chief explosives scientist deconstructs bomb forensic investigations and more...

Hurricane Helene’s killed hundreds, but the true death toll could end up in the thousands Hurricanes 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 feed into the excess deaths, including how rebuilding costs could impact funds for future medical care, damage to local health systems and exposure to pollution during the storm. Their study is in the journal Nature. A new NASA mission will search for signs of life on a Jovian ice moon Next week NASA hopes to launch a major mission to one of Jupiter’s most fascinating moons. The Europa Clipper will visit the ice moon Europa, whose icy shell is thought to cover an ocean that could contain twice the water that's in all of Earth’s oceans. The fascination with Europa is based on the idea that water is an essential ingredient for life. As a result, Europa could be one of the most promising places in our solar system for life to exist. We talk about the upcoming mission with Cynthia Phillips, the Project Staff Scientist and Planetary Geologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Tarantulas’ creepy hair is likely a defence against predatory army ants You would think that a venomous spider the size of your fist wouldn’t have too many natural enemies. But Dr. Alireza Zamani from the University of Turku, Finland says it's the arachnid's fuzz, rather than its bite, which discourages predatory army ants. A new study in the Journal of Natural History suggests the tarantula’s barbed hairs keep the ants from being able to attack the spiders, and also protects their eggs, which the arachnids coat in a generous helping of hair. Whales use underwater bubble blowing in sophisticated ways to trap prey Scientists have long known that humpback whales use bubbles to corral and concentrate krill and small fish to feed on. But new underwater cameras and airborne drones have provided an unprecedented view of how this is done, revealing how the whales use complex patterns of bubbles in different ways depending on the prey. Andy Szabo, a Canadian whale biologist and executive director of the Alaska Whale Foundation, said the humpbacks’ bubble-nets result in a sevenfold increase in the amount of krill they gulp up per lunge. The study was published in Royal Society Open Science. The Bomb Doctor: after the explosion this investigator seeks out evidence in the rubble Explosive attacks often leave behind tragedy, carnage and chaos. But in the rubble is evidence that could provide vital clues for bomb forensic investigators. Kirk Yeager, the FBI’s chief explosives scientist, describes his work at crime scenes as “walking into hell blindfolded.” In his new book, called The Bomb Doctor: A Scientist's Story of Bombers, Beakers, and Bloodhounds, he explains how he and his colleagues tease out evidence from the scorched and smouldering aftermath of an attack.

54 min
SEP 27

Plastic: We need to understand the problem and the solutions, and more

A Central American lizard creates a bubble of air underwater to breathe Semi-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 bubble. A really weird fish walks on its fingers and tastes with them too The sea robin is a strange fish with wing-like fins and finger-like bony structures that it uses to prop itself up as it roams the ocean floor. New research from a team of scientists from Harvard and Stanford Universities, including Nick Bellono, looked at how these bizarre creatures use their legs to hone in on their prey. It turns out these funny finny fingers can also taste food in the sediment of the sea bottom. The research was published in the journal Current Biology. We can make our food production systems more stable by reintroducing nature A new study by a team of researchers at the University of Guelph suggests that removing large animals and destroying natural habitat is making our agricultural systems and fisheries more unstable and vulnerable to boom and bust cycles. But the study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, also suggests that restoring nature can help stabilize our food production to better feed the world’s billions. Giant clams live off sunlight and could inspire solar power systems Working in the protected reefs of Palau, Dr. Alison Sweeney, associate professor of physics and of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, was intrigued by the iridescence of the giant clams. Her team discovered that the giant clams tissues are optimized to channel sunlight to photosynthetic algae that live inside them. They work like solar panels, but far more efficiently than manufactured versions, providing inspiration for bio-inspired energy technology. The study was published in the journal PRX Energy. Plastic: Understanding the problem, and the struggle for a solution Plastic is a miracle material, and one of the most useful innovations of the modern age. But its ubiquity and the durability that makes it so useful mean it’s also becoming one of our biggest waste problems. Twenty years after he discovered microplastics on beaches around the UK, marine biologist Richard Thompson has just released a new study looking at what we’ve learned about these pervasive plastics, and urges scientists to turn their research focus towards solving the problem. We also speak with RJ Conk from the University of Berkeley about his work on vaporizing plastics down to their chemical building blocks, which could finally make real recycling a reality.

54 min
SEP 20

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

Earthquakes create a spark in quartz that can form massive gold nuggets Scientists 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 precipitate into a solid that can grow into the largest nuggets ever found. Ice Age Teens went through puberty just like today’s kids A new analysis of the bones of teenagers from 25,000 years ago shows they experienced puberty in much the same way as teens today. An international team of researchers including Paleolithic archaeologist April Nowell analyzed the bones of 13 teens found across Europe, and by looking at particular markers in the bones, they were able to see which stage of puberty the teens were in when they died. The researchers could not only infer things like whether their voices were breaking, but by doing muscle analysis, they found that the teens were healthy and active, and likely involved in hunting and fishing. The research was published in the Journal of Human Evolution. Grey sharks are abandoning warming coral reefs in the Indian Ocean The grey shark in the Indian Ocean uses beautiful coral reefs as a home base, returning each day after a night of fishing. But lately the sharks have been staying away for longer periods of time, up to 16 months. Dr. Michael Willamson, a research scientist at the Zoological Society of London, found that climate change is stressing the reefs. The sharks seek out cooler but potentially more dangerous waters. Venturing away from the protected reef area leaves them more vulnerable to illegal shark fishing. The paper was published in the journal Communications Biology A cosmic collision 9 billion years ago could be the origin of he supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy Using data from The Event Horizon Telescope, Dr. Yihan Wang worked with Dr. Bing Zhang at the Nevada Institute of Astrophysics to study the origins of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. From the EHT image of the Sagittarius A* Dr. Wang and his team made an accretion model and saw that it spins very fast and that the spinning is misaligned. They believe it may have been made by merging with another supermassive black hole. about 9 billion years ago. Their paper was published in Nature Astronomy. Astronaut Roberta Bondar gives a bird’s eye view of migration 32 years after she flew on the space shuttle, Roberta Bondar is still showing us what the Earth looks like from space — and from closer to the ground. Dr. Bondar trained as a wildlife photographer after her astronaut career. For a new project collected photos from space, from airplanes and helicopters, and from the ground, to bring a new perspective on the migration of two important bird species, the threatened lesser Flamingo and the endangered Whooping Crane. The book is called Space for Birds: Patterns and Parallels of Beauty and Flight.

54 min

See All (19)

4.7

out of 5

301 Ratings

The GOLD STANDARD for Science Communicators

12/09/2023

YGlen

No one does it better than Bob McDonald!
Q&Q

01/29/2023

GB Wyo

My phone kept sending a rating before I got to the 5th star! Q&Q is definitely 5 STAR. All interviewers should be required to study Bob Mc.
Really interesting

07/03/2022

Doctor Rene DO

Just discovered this program. It holds my attention with a wide variety of subjects. Is a welcome relief from the less pleasant aspects of life. I’m sorry that I discovered it right before their summer break!
I’m 7 years old and I love it

11/22/2020

7asafdrgfd

I like to listen too it wen I go to sleep