Quirks & Quarks Question Roadshow from Concordia University in Montreal

Once again we present our famous, fabulous and frabjous Question Show.  This episode was recorded live at the DB Clarke Theatre at Concordia University in Montreal

Listen to the whole show (pop up player) or use this link to download an mp3.

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Part One

photo © Concordia University

• Why do Canada Geese honk as they fly overhead?  Answer from Dr. David Bird, Professor of Wildlife Biology and the Director of the Avian Science and Conservation Centre at McGill University's Macdonald campus.
  
  
• If the speed of light is constant and the Big Bang happened 13.7 billion years ago, how is it that we can see 13.7 billion light years on either side of the universe?  Answer from Dr. Tracy Webb, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at McGill University.
  
  
• Considering that the last Ice Age ended just over ten thousand years ago and Canada was scraped clean by an ice sheet,  then where did all the freshwater fish come from? Also, since not all lakes are connected, how is it possible that they all contain similar species of fish?  Answer from Dr. Dylan Fraser, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Concordia University.
  
  
• We all agree on what red looks like, or green, or blue; but I still don't know if what I see is the same colour that someone else sees. How do we know objectively that what we each see is the same?  Answer from Dr. Kathy Mullen, Professor in the McGill Department of Ophthalmology's Vision Research Unit.
  
  
• If black holes attract and absorb matter, does their mass increase with time? And if most galaxies have black holes at their centre, is it possible for a black hole to eventually gobble up all of a galaxy's contents?  Answer from Dr. Gil Holder, Canada Research Chair in Cosmological Astrophysics,  and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at McGill.
  
  

Listen to Part One (pop up player) or use this link to download an mp3.

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Part Two

Dr Madoka Gray-Mitsumune, photo © Concordia University

• Does unripe fruit have as many vitamins and nutrients as ripe fruit?  Answer from Dr. Madoka Gray-Mitsumune, Lecturer in the Department of Biology at Concordia University.
  
  
• I am a dark-skinned person who has been living in Canada for almost 25 years. I have noticed that during the winter, the colour of my skin gets lighter. How many generations would it take to permanently change the colour of skin in a new environment?  Answer from Dr. Andre Costopoulos, Associate Professor of Anthropology at McGill University.
  


• Once the Monarch Butterflies manage to make it all the way from Canada down to Mexico, why don't they just stay there?  Answer from Dr. Laura Timms, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lyman Entomological Museum on McGill's Macdonald campus.
  
  

Bob with Dr. David Walsh, photo © Concordia University

• Are viruses as old as life? Or since they need life to replicate, did viruses evolve from a living cell at some point?  Answer from Dr. David Walsh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Concordia University.
  
  
• Are identical twins actually identical?  Answer from Dr. Isabelle De Bie, a Medical Geneticist at the Montreal Children's Hospital and McGill University Health Centre
  

Web/Podcast extra:

• What part of a scented flower gives off the smell?  Answer from Dr. Simon Joly,  a Botanist at the Montreal Botanical Garden and Adjunct Professor with the Université de Montréal.
  

Listen to Part Two (pop up player) or use this link to download an mp3.