Quirks and Quarks

Archaeologists excavating a 13,800-year-old site in Alaska have uncovered a treasure trove of artifacts and domestic features that shed new light on the life and culture of the people who settled into the region. Hunter-gatherers lived at this site, known as Shég’ Xdaltth’i’, near the end of the last Ice Age when the Bering Land Bridge provided a passageway between mainland Russia and Alaska.

Also today:

• Long space missions may raise astronauts’ risk of hip fractures
• Jet-lagged seabirds fly off course
• Bad dads and supermales. The life-altering effects of estrogen on fish
• Battery researcher wins Canada’s top science prize
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For more information about today’s episode, visit https://cbc.ca/quirks.

The biting dynamics of the world’s deadliest mosquitoes: meet the researcher who rolled up her sleeves and endured more than 1,000 mosquito bites, all to understand how these deadly little creatures bite and guzzle our blood.

Also today:

• Astronomers spot ghostly green star
• Stubby-legged sled dogs pull loads better
• Inside the stinky, spooky, magical world of bogs
• How a Zombie-like state lets cancer cells escape chemo

For more information about today’s episode, visit http://cbc.ca/quirks.

DNA samples from the oldest living land animal show how good genes and limited biochemical wear and tear have given a giant tortoise named Jonathan an extended lifespan. The genetic switches that control the genes for DNA repair and metabolism more closely matched his much younger relatives.

Also today:

• What fossilized vomit reveals about ancient sea monsters
• Meet the Nobel-winning physicist who hunts for ghost particles at the South Pole
• What Jonathan, the 194-year-old tortoise, can teach us about defying death
• Nuclear clocks begin ticking — and could become the world’s most precise timekeepers

For more information about today’s episode, visit https://cbc.ca/quirks.

We talk to two of this year’s newest Nobel Laureates, Dr. Karl Deisseroth and Peter Hegemann, about their discoveries in optogenetics, a technique that has transformed what we know about the brain — all thanks to a light-detecting algal protein.

Also today:

• Gut microbes can encourage fever after vaccination
• Weather forecasters are less confident in their predictions these days. Here’s why
• What raccoons and other wild brains can teach us about ourselves

Quirks & Quarks has been nominated for a Signal Award! You can vote for us here.

For more information about today’s episode, visit https://www.cbc.ca/quirks.

Black holes are voracious eaters, but they’re also quite messy, and often after devouring a star, they’ll let out a big burp, launching jets of high energy particles through space. Now, in a recent study, a team of astrophysicists has figured out the formula behind the timing of these burps.

Also today:

• Skiing, hiking and roads are taking a toll on wolverines
• The buzzy, chirpy sounds of the Jurassic forest
• A notorious invasive species has been here a lot longer than we thought. Does that matter?
• Anomalies suggest King Tut’s tomb may conceal hidden chambers

Quirks & Quarks has been nominated for a Signal Award! You can vote for us here.

For more information about today’s episode, visit http://cbc.ca/quirks.

The El Niño underway in the Pacific Ocean is a natural climate phenomenon but its warming effects are being boosted by climate change. Researchers recently used corals growing around the Galapagos Islands to create a local temperature record of the ocean going back 1,000 years.

Also today:

• Massive study redraws bat family tree and uncovers genetic oddities
• How the Surinam toad uses star-shaped fingertip lobes to ‘see’ its prey
• T. rex tooth enamel reveals these dinosaurs were warm-blooded
• Why great white sharks are converging on the East Coast

Quirks & Quarks has been nominated for a Signal Award! You can vote for us here.

For more information about today’s episode, visit cbc.ca/quirks.

It’s long been a mystery why one particular avian dinosaur was the only kind to survive mass extinction, but the recent discovery of a perfectly preserved fossilized feather, found in a cherry-sized piece of dinosaur poop, offers new clues.

Also today:

• Why citizen scientists buried thousands of undies
• How climate change tipped the scales on a catastrophic Himalayan avalanche
• Why an AI leap has left mathematicians feeling uneasy
• Why scientists put teeny-tiny micro-trackers on chimney swifts

Quirks & Quarks has been nominated for a Signal Award! You can vote for us here.

For more information about today’s episode, visit cbc.ca/quirks.

Summer is fieldwork time for many scientists. We talk to researchers who have been busy hiking on fresh lava, capturing thousands of ticks, shooing away moose from their study sites, and even spelunking for Neanderthals — all in the ever-important quest for data.

Quirks & Quarks has been taking your burning questions for 50 years. And while we thought we might have answered every question there is, our listeners proved there are always more science questions for us to tackle. Including:

• What does the black hole orbit?
• What do you sweat out in a sauna?
• Why are robins' eggs blue?
• What if we no longer had a moon?
• Did dinosaurs produce milk?
• Were there ever giant humans?

From doubting our doubts to sleuthing out scientific fraud, this week we revisit some of our favourite stories about humans.

For our 50th anniversary celebration last October, we spoke with some of Canada's top scientists about their predictions for the future. We revisit our conversations with:

• Evan Fraser, director of Arrell Food Institute and professor of geography at the University of Guelph
• Katie Mack, Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
• Luke Stark, assistant professor in the faculty of information and media studies at Western University
• Laura Tozer, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Toronto
• Ana Luisa Trejos, professor in the department electrical and computer engineering and the school of biomedical engineering and Canada Research Chair in wearable mechatronics at Western University in London, Ont.
• Yvonne Bombard, professor at the University of Toronto and scientist and Canada Research Chair in Genomics Health Services and Policy

From filming a black hole to flaming hot water ice on Neptune, we revisit some of our favourite space-related stories from the past season.

On this week’s best of Quirks & Quarks, we revisit our annual holiday listener question show, with fascinating queries like:

• Why did a Canadian astronaut's eyesight change when she went to space?
• How is the dust inside our homes changing?
• Why do some professional athletes stick out their tongues when they play?
• Why are most fruits round, but bananas and pineapple are not?
• What would have happened if the dino-killing asteroid never struck Earth?

We'll satisfy all these scientific curiosities and many more!

From the science of how we sweat to solving golf's greatest mystery, we revisit some of our favourite summery segments from the past season.

From elephant whiskers to Arctic rhinos and even science programming in prisons, we revisit some of our producers’ favourite stories from this season. Including:

• One of the world's earliest plant-eaters discovered in Nova Scotia
• Elephant trunk whiskers increase their sensitivity to better 'feel' their surroundings
• Yogurt with a creepy-crawly secret ingredient
• Rhinos roamed Arctic Canada 23 million years ago
• Bringing science education to the incarcerated

We revisit our conversations with authors of some of the year’s most fascinating science books in our annual holiday book show. Featuring:

• Questioning the purpose of whale song — for love or echolocation?
• Journeying through deep geological time to better tackle problems of the future
• Biological sex is complicated, but that's what helps animals like humans thrive

Plus, science journalist and BookLab podcast co-host Dan Falk reviews The Martians by David Baron, Dinner With King Tut by Sam Kean and The Mind Electric by Pria Anand.

From tiny T. rexes to a car-sized sea monster, we revisit some of our favourite stories about predators in their prime, like:

• Smaller tyrannosaur solves decades-long debate about the T. rex
• Among Yellowstone’s top predators, wolves beat out cougars as the top dog
• Bears with us. Tracking grizzlies in B.C.
• Cleveland’s ancient car-sized sea monster had bony fangs made out of its skull
• Wild wolves run for their lives when they hear Big Bad Humans nearby
• Why penguin-eating pumas live closer together in Patagonia

From camping out on 'bird poop island,' chasing down wild dogs in Madagascar, or even looking for bombs in a bog in Ottawa –– no one quite does summer like scientists. This week, we revisit some of the hijinks that Canadian researchers got up to last year as they left their labs to get their hands dirty in the field.

FEATURING:

• Camping out on a remote island with thousands of screaming, pooping, barfing birds
• Dodging lions and mongooses to monitor what wild dogs are eating in Mozambique
• Saving ancient silk road graffiti from dam-inundation
• Prospecting for Second World War bombs in an Ottawa bog
• Technology allows examination of Inca mummies without disturbing them
• Eavesdropping on chatty snapping turtles in Algonquin Park

Quirks & Quarks has been taking your burning science questions for half a century. And while we thought we might have answered every question there is to answer over the years, our listeners proved there are always more fascinating head-scratchers for us to tackle.

Like:

• Are comets eternal?
• In a sauna, what am I sweating out?
• Did dinosaurs produce milk?
• If heat rises, why is there snow on the top of mountains?
• What does a black hole orbit?
• What if we had no moon?
• Why are cat and dog tongues so different?
• Why are robin eggs so blue?
• Why do some animals become mega sized?
• How do animals deal with strong bright UV light?

Some of the oceans biggest, most powerful predators, like certain sharks and tuna, are “mesothermic” or warm-bodied. Running hot allows them to rapidly convert their food to energy and heat, helping them swim faster and hunt in cold waters. But that advantage may become a disadvantage in a warming climate, meaning these fish need to find new ways of cooling off, or face a new threat to their survival.

PLUS:

• Ancient Peruvians traded parrots across deserts and mountains
• From the archive: David, Jay and Bob, and Quirks & Quarks' origin story
• Sea cucumber 'zombie tissue' straddles the line between life and death
• Dream engineering may help you solve problems in your sleep