Past Episodes: December 2011 Archives

Saturday December 31, 2011

Question Show Encore

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

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Quirks Holiday Question Show

For your New Year's Eve pleasure, we re-present one of our favorite's.  A Quirks & Quarks Question show recorded live in Vancouver in June of 2003.  Happy New Year!

• Snake Bite - If someone is bitten by a poisonous snake, should their rescuer suck the bite and spit out the venom?  Answer from Gillian Willis, a pharmacist with expertise in toxicology at The B.C. Drug and Poison Information Centre.

• Moon's Face - Is the Earth's moon unique in our solar system, in the fact that we only see one side of the moon?  Answer from Dr. Brett Gladman, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UBC.

• Tickle Yourself! - Why is it that when you tickle yourself, it is not ticklish, but when someone else tickles you, it tickles, even though you know they are about to tickle you?  Answer from Dr. Christine MacKenzie, Professor of Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University.
  
  
• Stopping Swallows - When swallows fly at great speed into a small hole in a nesting box, how do they manage to stop within the next five inches, without slamming into the back wall of the box?  Answer from Dr. Robert Blake, Professor of Zoology, specializing in animal biomechanics, at UBC.
  
  
• Hot Flashes - Does a menopausal woman experiencing a hot flash register an increased body core temperature, or is it just her perception of temperature that increases? And if it is an actual increase, would that be enough to set off a heat scanner at an airport?  Answer from Dr. Christine Hitchcock, Research Associate, at the UBC Centre for Menstrual Cycles and Ovulation Research.
  
  
• Homing Salmon - How do spawning salmon find their way back to their home stream?  Answer from Dr. Tony Farrell, Professor of Biological Sciences, SFU.
  
  
• Tapping Oil - When oil is tapped from the ground, it comes out under tremendous pressure. So when the "pool of oil" is depleted, and the oil is no longer exerting pressure, what "holds the earth up"? Does the crust subside?  Answer from Dr. Elizabeth Hearn, Assistant Professor of Earth & Ocean Sciences, UBC.
  
  
• Floating People - Why can some people float better than others?  Answer from Dr. Alan Martin, Professor Emeritus in Human Kinetics at UBC.
  
  
• Cat and Cancer - Do cats develop cancer, or increase their chances of doing so, when they lie in the sun? Answer from Dr. Michael Charach, Veterinary Dermatologist in Vancouver.
  

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Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein, Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0

Saturday December 24, 2011

A Quirks & Quarks Special
2050 - What if We Get it Right?

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

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On this special edition of Quirks & Quarks, we imagine the future the way we hope it will be.  The world is facing some serious environmental challenges in the next half century.  Among the greatest are climate change, and the destructive impact we're having on the planet's natural ecosystems.  Add to that, of course, the increasing human population and the land and resources we'll require to house and feed all those billions.  All of this suggests that, in the next few decades, we likely need to consider a different path than we've been following for the last few decades - or else.

The World of the Future - New York World's fair from 1964, copyright PLCjr

But doomsday scenarios are all too easy to imagine, and we'd like to bring back a little optimism about the world of tomorrow.  So we found five scientists willing to look to the future, and answer the question, "What if we get it right?"  They'll be imagining the year 2050 - within the lifetimes of many of us - and projecting a realistic, but optimistic best-case scenario for humanity.  We'll be considering where our energy will come from, what our cities will be like, how we'll feed the world's billions, and how we can preserve what's left of our planet's natural ecosystems.  This, we can hope, will be the real "World of Tomorrow."
 
Our guests for this trip to the future are:
 
Dr. Mark Jaccard, a professor of Sustainable Energy and Climate at Simon Fraser University, discussing the path to carbon-free energy and reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr. David Tilman, Regents Professor of Ecology at the University of Minnesota, discussing the future of agriculture, and how to feed the world's growing population sustainably.

Dr. Stephen Sheppard, a professor of Forestry and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia, discussing "human environments" and how we might adjust our urban and rural life in a shift to sustainable living and to cope with the risks of climate change.

Dr. Sally Aitken, a professor of Forest Sciences at the University of British Columbia, discussing terrestrial environments, and how we may need to manage natural ecosystems to help nature adapt to changing conditions.

Dr. Peter Sale, Assistant Director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health at United Nations University, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor, discussing the future of the world's oceans, and how we can continue to exploit them sustainably, while preserving ocean ecosystems.

Related Links

• Dr. Mark Jaccard
• Dr. Jaccard's author's page at M&S publishers
• Dr. David Tilman
• Dr. Tilman's recent paper on future agriculture in PNAS
• Dr. Stephen Sheppard
• Dr. Sheppard at the UBC Collaborative for Advanced Landscape Planning
• Dr. Sheppard's new book, Visualizing Climate Change
  
• Dr. Sally Aitken
• Dr. Peter Sale
• Dr. Sale's book, Our Dying Planet
• Quirks & Quarks last look at 2050 - Our Future in a Changing Climate
   
  

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Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein, Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0

Saturday December 17, 2011

* Polar Bears * The Dolphin in the Mirror * The Infinity Puzzle *

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

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Polar Bears

Surely there is no greater symbol of the Canadian Arctic than the polar bear.  Its sheer size, its power, and its majestic bearing are emblems of the vastness, remoteness and ruggedness of Canada's north.  But the polar bear is in trouble - serious trouble. And some scientists think its very survival may be at risk.  One of those scientists is Dr. Ian Stirling. He's spent the past 40 years studying how polar bears hunt, travel, eat, den, and live. And in his new book - Polar Bears: The Natural History of a Threatened Species - he looks at the iconic animal's habits, hunting and habitat, and ponders its uncertain future.  Ian Stirling is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta, and one of the world's leading polar bear experts. 
     

Related Links

• Polar Bears - publisher's page
• Dr. Ian Stirling

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

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Dolphin in the Mirror

Humans and dolphins have shared a special relationship for thousands of years.  It is a bond based in part on our fascination with their intelligence, communication skill and friendliness.  For Dr. Diana Reiss, that fascination has become a life's work and passion.  She is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Hunter College at the City University of New York, and the author of the new book, The Dolphin In The Mirror:  Exploring Dolphin Minds and Saving Dolphin Lives.  Experiments demonstrating the many facets of dolphin intelligence are documented.  This includes her landmark study proving that dolphins - just like apes and chimpanzees - exhibit self-awareness; they are able to recognize themselves in a mirror.  Dr. Reiss says that such a level of cognition makes the dolphin worthy of our protection and care.       
     

Related Links

• The Dolphin in the Mirror
• Dr. Diana Reiss
• Video of dolphin keyboard, bubble ring and mirror experiments 
• New York Times article about Dr. Reiss' "Mirror Test" in 2001
• Mirror sequence from The Marx Brother's 'Duck Soup' 
• New York Times interview with Dr.  Reiss

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

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The Infinity Puzzle

According to Oxford University physics professor Frank Close, infinity is the bane of the physicist.  Whenever infinity comes up in an attempt to calculate what the universe is doing with its tiniest particles, it means that the math and the theory are no longer working - that they no longer really know what's going on.  So, the history of particle physics in the last half century has been an attempt to build theories that can exclude infinity.  In his new book, The Infinity Puzzle: How The Hunt To Understand The Universe Led To Extraordinary Science, High Politics, And The Large Hadron Collider, Professor Close traces that history.  He also discusses one of the final pieces in the "infinity puzzle," which is the search to confirm the existence of the Higgs Boson, which continues today.
      

Related Links

• The Infinity Puzzle
• Professor Frank Close
• Video of Prof. Close discussing The Infinity Puzzle
• Book Review at the Not Even Wrong blog
  

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

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Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein, Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0

• May 2012
  • Sat., 19 – *The Beginnings of Art History * Life in the Garbage Patch * Prehistoric Pliosaur Pain * The Bowerbird's Fruitful Foreplay * Exploiting Guppy Love * Octopus on Ice *
  • Sat., 12 – * Smallest Giant * Maya Wall Calendar * Water Striders old Genes * The Nut-Cracker Chimps * White Dwarfs Snack on Planets * Geckos get in a Tailspin *
  • Sat., 5 – * Fisherman's Friend * Black Hole's Stellar Snack * Evolution goes Blonde * Beetle Undertakers * Fossil Fish Surprise * Compu-Neurons *
• April 2012
  • Sat., 28 – * Orangutan Architecture * International Polar Year Revisited * Neighborhood Watch * Rise of the Jellies * Evolving Robots *
  • Sat., 21 – * Across Atlantic Ice * A Theory on Thin Ice * A History in Poop * The Emperor's new Numbers * An Encyclopedia of Cancer *
  • Sat., 14 – * Hot Coral * Bats Fight European Invader * Renaissance Thrips * Satellites See Ancient Sites * Connectome *
  • Sat., 7 – * First Fire * Sailing on your Stomach * Jellyfish Breakfast, Lunch and Supper * Quantum Biology * Fact or Fiction - Teeth and Radio *
• March 2012
  • Sat., 31 – * Facing the Truth * Revealing Raindrops * Evolution Doping * Madagascar's Founding Mothers * Hyper Planets * Fact or Fiction - Robins and Worms *
  • Sat., 24 – * Homo Mysterious * The Space Chronicles * Mercurial Mercury * It's a Bird, it's a Plane, it's ... Plankton??? * Fact or Fiction - Falling Penny *
  • Sat., 17 – * Diminutive Dinosaurs * Astronaut Eyes * Bees' Bugs * Here's Looking at you, Squid * Typhoid Froggy * Fact or Fiction - Brain Size *
  • Sat., 10 – * Jurassic Super Fleas * Dark Matter Bulges * A Skilled Saw-fish * Frost Flowers Pump Pollution * Early Worm Gets the Bird * Two Birds, One Stone *
  • Sat., 3 – * Giant Penguin * MRSA - The Pigs Give Back * The Oldest Forest * Marathon Migration * Herzberg Gold for Climate Researcher * Fact or Fiction - Baby Birds *
• February 2012
  • Sat., 25 – * DNA Drone Delivers Drugs * Gelada Monkey Miscarriage * The Moon Rises - From the Dead * Exercise and the Aging Brain * Fact or Fiction - Baby Birds *
  • Sat., 18 – * Under Antarctica's Ice * Anti-biotic Booze * No Kidding Around *Light Echoes * Guitar Zero *
  • Sat., 11 – * Forensic Vulturology * The Tarsier Hears * Black Hole Burps * Not-So-Dead Vents * How to Think Like a Neandertal *
  • Sat., 4 – * Snakes in the 'Glades * Launching the Little Ice Age * Super-sizing Mammals * Arrival of the Arctic Killers * Levitating Flies * The Long and Fast of It *
• January 2012
  • Sat., 28 – * A Dinosaur Nursery * Arctic Astronomy * A Moth of a Different Colour * Brown Fat * Miller's Grizzled Langur, I Presume * Your Brain on Meditation *
  • Sat., 21 – * Making Life Multicellular * The Cambrian Tulip Patch * Telltale Telomeres * When Savvy Snakes Squeeze * A Universe from Nothing *
  • Sat., 14 – * Prospecting for Planets * Outsourcing Spider Silk * Mapping Dark Matter * Sourcing Stonehenge * Global Warming's Low-hanging Fruit *
  • Sat., 7 – * Supersoldier Ants * Quasicrystals from Space * A Dog in Wolf's Clothing * Alarm follicles * The Sacred Headwaters *
• December 2011
  • Sat., 31 – Question Show Encore
  • Sat., 24 – A Quirks & Quarks Special 2050 - What if We Get it Right?
  • Sat., 17 – * Polar Bears * The Dolphin in the Mirror * The Infinity Puzzle *
  • Sat., 10 – * Not-So-Dirty Rat * Oldest Bedding Stopped the Biting * Yeti Crab * Scared Chickless * Soy Source * Underwater Silk *
  • Sat., 3 – * Baby Schadenfreude * Robots Going Soft * Male Fig Wasps Free the Females * A Bat's Skull Determines Its Diet * Cosmic Ray Gun * CSI Paleolithic *
• November 2011
  • Sat., 26 – * The Rocky Road to Durban * For Dolphins, Pregnancy is a Drag * Jawbones and Diet * The Amazing Spider Mite * Science Fact or Science Fiction - Red wine headaches *
  • Sat., 19 – * Mars Provokes Curiosity * Plotting Plant Pathogens * Pinning Down the Permian Extinction * Downs: The History of a Disability * Science Fact or Science Fiction - Radiation *
  • Sat., 12 – * Locked In, But Not Out * The Raw and The Cooked * The Pitter-Patter of Predatory Feet * Primordial Gas * Knocking on Heaven's Door *
  • Sat., 5 – * Dueling with a Duet * Teeth Tell Trip Tale * Scared to Death by Stress * The God Species * Listener Feedback - The 7 Billion * Science Fact or Science Fiction - Hummingbirds *
• October 2011
  • Sat., 29 – Heart of a Snake – Mastadon Massacre – The Fingerprint of Poverty – 7 Billion and Counting –
  • Sat., 22 – Dinosaur Speed Demon – Dawn at Vesta – Chivalrous Crickets – Hybrid Humans – Science Fact or Science Fiction: Fluorescent Lights –
  • Sat., 15 – Prehistoric Paint-box – Blackbirds & Traffic Noise – A New Spin with Nanotubes – Seeking CO2 Seeps – Lip Service –
  • Sat., 8 – Dark Energy takes the Prize – Katydids make Sexy Snacks – Fingerprints in Water – A Dangerous Glow – Slippery When Wet (or anytime) – Science Fact, or Science Fiction: Microwave Ovens –
  • Sat., 1 – Mind Movies – Arctic Squirrels on Steroids – Bug Bites Frog – Egg Freezing: Cheating the Clock – Science Fact, or Science Fiction: Childbirth & the Moon –
• September 2011
  • Sat., 24 – Genes of a Killer – Aboriginal Genome - Out of Africa – Choosy Chickens – Mad Like Tesla – Science Fact, or Science Fiction: Calico Cats –
  • Sat., 17 – Find Feathered Fiends – Fanged Frogs – Star not Light, Star not Bright – Sex on Six Legs – Science Fact, or Science Fiction: Cracking Knuckles and Arthritis –
  • Sat., 10 – Give a Hand for Evolution – GRAIL's Gravity Goggles – Song Sparrow Sparring – Hoarding Electrons to Power the Future – Science Fact, or Science Fiction: Dogs and Grass –
• July 2011
  • Sat., 2 – Summer Schedule 2011
• June 2011
  • Sat., 25 – Oilsands in Wolf's Clothing – Message from Messenger – Whitefly becomes Superfly – The Microbiome - The World Within Us –
  • Sat., 18 – Black Hole Eats a Star – Male Cleaner Fish Play Dirty – King Tut's Tomb – Early Mammals Smell Well – Demon Fish –
  • Sat., 11 – Tagish Lake Meteorite – Flakes in Lakes – Mummified Beetles and Stingless Bees – Do You See What I See? – Jellyfish Junk Food – Clam Clones Sample other Species –
  • Sat., 4 – Wild Goose Chase – Quantum Peek-a-boo – Cannibal Sea Urchins – Losing Nemo – Observations of the Quantum Man –
• May 2011
  • Sat., 28 – Quirks & Quarks Question Roadshow from Concordia University in Montreal
  • Sat., 21 – Whales with Regional Accents – Oxygen for Early Life – Tarantulas' Webbed Feet – Universal Accelerator – Parks Canada at 100 –
  • Sat., 14 – A Flexible Phone Plan – Juvenile Delinquintasaurus – The Bacteria of my Enemy is my Friend – Right-handed Teeth – Sex, Drugs and Sea Slime –
  • Sat., 7 – Killing Kite Corrals – Super-Strange Super-Earth – Giant Ants of the Eocene – Manufacturing with Microbes – Science Fact, or Science Fiction: Crickets & Temperature –
• April 2011
  • Sat., 30 – Whales and Krill – The Birds & the Bees – Monkeys Chew It Over – How Fire Ants Fare in Water – Engineering Organs –
  • Sat., 23 – World's Oldest Toothache – Dwindling Archipelago – Arctic Coasts in Retreat – Fishing Orangutans – Powering The Dream –
  • Sat., 16 – Dinos in the Dark – Avian Olfactory Evolution – Recreating the Bamboo Age – Wasps Airlift Ants – The Anthropology of In-Laws –
  • Sat., 9 – Pine Beetle Knows Jack – Green Eggs and Salamanders – Flying Fossil – Manakins Migrate or Mate – Yuri's Flight –
  • Sat., 2 – Exercise your Aging Brain – Super Salmon – Mummified Forest – Saturn's Rippled Rings – Science Fact or Fiction - Snowflake Clones –
• March 2011
  • Sat., 26 – A Nuclear Tourist in Chernobyl – Frugivorous Fish in the Forests – The Earliest North Americans? – Mysterious Mercury Meets Messenger – Climate Change in the Deep Future –
  • Sat., 19 – The Japan Syndrome – Orchids Wear the Scent of Death – Missing Every Beat – Ozone Woes – Moths Go with the Flow –
  • Sat., 12 – Lending a Helping Trunk – Invasion of the Zombie Ants – The Man with the Third Arm – Algae Architects – Echo, (echo... echo...) – The Memory Molecule –
  • Sat., 5 – * Tickle Me, Astro * Pining for Lodgepoles? * The Skinny on Hagfish * Cooking up a New kind of Rocket * Turtles' Magnetic GPS * Neutron Star's Liquid Centre *
• February 2011
  • Sat., 26 – The Benefit of a Bilingual Brain – Hibernating Bears – World's Oldest Water – Strange New Worlds – Lambs and Longevity –
  • Sat., 19 – Getting a Toe-hold on Early Prosthetics – Artificial Intelligence wins Gold – Leaf-cutters, When they Can't Cut It – Spit Out Your Genes –
  • Sat., 12 – Playing Footsie with Lucy – Give a Fox a Bone – A Killer Diet – Kissing a Comet – Explaining the Seahorse – Dark Matter Detection? –
  • Sat., 5 – Orca's Oral Obstacle – Bomb-Sniffing Plants – Pneumonia's New Genome – A Late Dinosaur – Fraser's Penguins –
• January 2011
  • Sat., 29 – The Earliest Galaxy – The Red Fox's Magnetic Attraction – Man Bites Dog – Spring-loaded Seeds – Craving Constants –
  • Sat., 22 – Pterosaur Lays an Egg – Deer oh Deer – New Wines in Old Genes – Busting Galactic Dust – The Science of Kissing –
  • Sat., 15 – Hot Rocks Planet – Climate 3000 – Musical Brains – The Price Tag for Penguins – IceCube Neutrino Observatory – Fact or Fiction - Tea and Tooth Stains –
  • Sat., 8 – Re-setting the Periodic Table – Mammoth Moms – Finding a Fourth Planet – Whistling Caterpillars – Voyager and the Third Age of Discovery –
  • Sat., 1 – Holiday Question Show Encore
• December 2010
  • Sat., 18 – Picking on Poor Puny Pluto – Parasites Found – Long for This World – Bonus Books –
  • Sat., 11 – Falling Flowers and Rising Rats – Wildfires Burn Deep – Snakes on a #&%*$$!! Rope! – Rainforests and the Rise of Reptiles – Light Flight –
  • Sat., 4 – Arsenic and Alien Life – Snakes With no #&%*$$!! Plane! – Sharks' Speedy Skin – Bendy-straw Barnacle Penis – Coloured Glass – Fact or Fiction: Coffee and Asthma –
• November 2010
  • Sat., 27 – Invisibility Cloak – A Milliamp Makes You Math Minded – Spiders Eat Less but Live Longer – Marathon Mileage – Leatherback Buoyancy – Fact or Fiction: Frozen Tears –
  • Sat., 20 – Pterosaur Ptake-off – Apprehending Anti-atoms – Feline Physics of Cat Lapping – Can't CO2 the Trees for the Forest – Drunken Bats – Fact or Fiction: Great Wall from Space –
  • Sat., 13 – Quirks & Quarks 35th Anniversary Special
  • Sat., 6 – Human Guinea Pigs – Drongo Mimics – Immune Collateral Damage – Getting a Grip with Coffee Grounds – Fact or Fiction: Candy & Cavities –
• October 2010
  • Sat., 30 – The Breaking Ball Illusion – The Man Who Mistook Every Face – Wet Dogs Rule – Feeling Faster, not Better – Moths Mimic Bats – Untangling the Heliosphere –
  • Sat., 23 – LCROSS's Smashing Success – Whale Poo Feeds the Ocean – Pigeon Gambling – Neptune Under the Sea – Albertosaurus Centenary –
  • Sat., 16 – Dino's First Steps – Iron in the Ocean – Are Monarch Butterflies on Drugs? – Neptune Not Guilty – Choke: Brain Fail –
  • Sat., 9 – Physics Nobel is a Little Flat – Silencing the Tennis Racket – Groundwater Not Doing Well – Women Shine in Bright Groups – Census of Marine Life – Fact or Fiction - Redheads –
  • Sat., 2 – How the Penguin got its Tux – The World in 2050 – Whale Shark Littering – Social Parasites – Bat Brains Travel Light –
• September 2010
  • Sat., 25 – The Smell of Bed Bug Sex – CSI Pueblo – Caterpillar's Fatal Attraction to Tobacco – Alligators on Ellesmere – The Last Tortoise –
  • Sat., 18 – Orangutan Mime – Paving Paradise – Marathon Monarch Migration – Empires of Food – Fact or Fiction: Blue Eyes –
  • Sat., 11 – A Gulf in our Understanding – A Fish in Purgatory – Muscling Up for Mars – Fading Phytoplankton –
• June 2010
  • Sat., 26 – Australopithecine "Big Man" Pigeons Make a Deal, Confused Parasitic Ducks, Bringing up Baby, Keeping the Bees. Web Extras: Fact or Fiction Mosquitos and Dark Clothes, Heat Tolerant Corals, Devonian Fish.
  • Sat., 19 – Aquaculture: The Future of Farming the Water, Fish for Brains, Oldest Fig Wasp and more
  • Sat., 12 – Snails on Meth, Oldest Shoe, Sharks Smell in Stereo, Foster Comets, Manufacturing Depression
  • Sat., 5 – Dinosaurs with all the Frills, A Mammoth Amount of Methane, Squirrel Adoption, Herzberg Medal - Dr. Gilles Brassard, The Upside of Irrationality
• May 2010
  • Sat., 29 – Octopi started as Duo-pi, What's the Matter with the Universe, What's Shakin' Kermit, Termites Rule, The Eerie Silence
  • Sat., 22 – Synthetic Cell, Greenland Rising, Adapted for Altitude, Monkeys Munch on a Locust Lunch, Do Fish Feel Pain?
  • Sat., 15 – Losing Lizards, Archaeopteryx X-Ray, Chronic Wasting Disease, There's no There, There, Adventures Among Ants
  • Sat., 8 – Neanderthals in the Family, Elephants Learn to Bee-ware, Copying for Success, Aphids' Stolen Finery, The Pill Turns 50
  • Sat., 1 – Chimps in Mourning, Icy Asteroids, Mirror Movement, Floods Follow Ice, The Bird Detective
• April 2010
  • Sat., 24 – Pitch Lake, Cutting a Guy Some Slack, Dinosaur Diversity Disappointment, Winging in the Rain, Hungry for Life
  • Sat., 17 – Silent means Deadly, Caterpillars Walk the Talk, Mysterious Eclipse, Devon Ice Cap Loses its Cool, The Anthropocene - the Epoch of Humans, Science Fact or Fiction: Grey Hair
  • Sat., 10 – Make Pee, Not War, Wat was Up With Angkor, Venusian Vulcanism, Bright Ideas - 50 Years of Lasers
  • Sat., 3 – The Quirks & Quarks Question Roadshow
• March 2010
  • Sat., 27 – Homo Who-izzit? Picky Pipefish Papas, Dung Beetles Test of Strength, Who'll Fly Humans to Space?
  • Sat., 20 – Second Opinion in Second Life, Clockless Caribou, Train the Brain, Dining on Dwarves
  • Sat., 13 – Dinosaur's Oldest Relative, Motivation by Anticipation, Grasping the Gribble's Gobble, Cold War Invasions, A Brilliant Darkness
  • Sat., 6 – Dinosaur Snake Snacks, Slime Mould Dining Decisions, How the Polar Bear Got its Coat, Run, Jumbo, Run, Typhoid Tricks, Dust in the Wind
• February 2010
  • Sat., 27 – Seeing Red, Here Comes The Spiderman, Filter Feeding Fossils, Right Whale - Wrong Conclusion, Murderer Turned Midwife, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Cats Falling
  • Sat., 20 – The Toilet Training of a Shrew, The Smell of Virtue, Light My Fire, Pollution in Solution, Binary Quasar, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Arctic vs. Antarctic
  • Sat., 13 – Dr. Thirsk's Weightless Workout, Staring into the Sun, Ancient Human Genome, Teasing Babies, A Snake's Sixth Sense, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Arthritis & Rain.
  • Sat., 6 – The Neuroscience of a Gunfight, Raising the Speed Limit, Taming Turkeys, Freeze Dried Beetle, Quantum Pond Scum, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Swallowing Gum
• January 2010
  • Sat., 30 – Colouring in the Dinosaurs, Dino Death Pits, Twin Moons Separated at Birth, Homing in on Echolocation, Plants and Pollinators, Baboon Infanticide
  • Sat., 23 – Solar Powered Sea Slugs, Mad Cows & Cannibals, Vanishing Tall-grass, Taking Directions from Slime Mould, Too Sexy Fruit Flies, Fact or Fiction - Alcohol & Warmth
  • Sat., 16 – Shaving a Fly with a Laser, Echoes of an Extinction, Alligator Lungs, Venomous Dino, Permission for Planets, Sleep Learning
  • Sat., 9 – The Humans Who Went Extinct, Caught in a Fish Web, The 10% Solar System Solution, Old Coots and Young Chicks, Science Fact or Fiction - Appendix
  • Sat., 2 – The Top 10 Unanswered Questions in the Universe
• December 2009
  • Sat., 26 – Holiday Question Show
  • Sat., 19 – Holiday Book Show: Polar Obsession, Poseidon's Steed, Dark Side of the Moon
  • Sat., 12 – Scientists See a Sea Cow, Asleep at the Seal, Orangutans - Who's your Daddy?, Perfect Rigor, Science Fact or Fiction - Parsley & Bad Breath
  • Sat., 5 – The Rising Seas, Hammerhead Vision, Birdfeeder Speciation, Science Fact or Fiction - Squinting
• November 2009
  • Sat., 28 – Arctic Slush, The Poop on Mammoths, Pipefish Dads, Taking Leave of the MAPLE reactors
  • Sat., 21 – Countdown to Copenhagen, A Crocodile World, Accent on Crying, Vampire Spiders, Name your Poison
  • Sat., 14 – CSI: Mesopotamia, Dinos Run Hot not Cold, Nazca Demise, Singing Wings, Natural Nukes, Fact or Fiction: Sleep Debt
  • Sat., 7 – Disappearing Snows of Kilimanjaro, Albatross & Plastic, Redback Spider Sex, New Neutron Star, A Present from Space, Fact or Fiction: Cracking Knuckles
• October 2009
  • Sat., 31 – Cancer as a Chronic Disease, Unicorn Fly, Two-alarm Squirrels, Blast from the Past
  • Sat., 24 – Laptop of the Greeks, Babies & Talk, Human Footprints in the Mud, Macaque Moms Go Goo-Goo, Ribbon 'Round the Solar System, Science Fact or Fiction: Reading in the Dark
  • Sat., 17 – Holey Jawbone, Tyrannosaur!, Toads Dress for Mating Success, Vegetarian Spider, Connected, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Hair Growth after Death
  • Sat., 10 – Nobels 2009, Saturn's New Ring, Termite Termination, Sheep - Shy and Showy, Between XX and XY
  • Sat., 3 – Welcome to the Family, Ardi, To the Moon, LCROSS, There's no Pain in Team, Killer Whale Go Hungry, Coyote in Wolf's Clothing
• September 2009
  • Sat., 26 – Yawn Tennis, Midnight Snacking, Gobbling Galaxies, Light for Flight, Wednesday is Indigo Blue
  • Sat., 19 – Tiny T.Rex, Curing Colour-blind Monkeys, Walking on our Own Two Feet, Space-Based Solar Power
  • Sat., 12 – Oceans of Trouble
• June 2009
  • Sat., 27 – Watching Giants, The Big Thaw, How to Build a Dinosaur
  • Sat., 20 – This is Your Brain on Dough, Movin' on Up, Cambrian Killer, Rose-Coloured Glasses
  • Sat., 13 – The Question Show
  • Sat., 6 – How the Komodo Dragon Slays its Prey, Eyes in the Front of its Back, The Poop on Penguins, Julie Payette Heads to Space, Raining Meteorites, Fact or Fiction - Old Age and Sleep
• May 2009
  • Sat., 30 – The Skinny on Skin. Spoiled Songbirds' Slacker Sons, Solar Snacking, Seeing the Centre of the Substorm, Ghost Mountains, Fact or Fiction - Tattoos & Skin Cancer
  • Sat., 23 – To Bug a Mockingbird, Acid Volcanoes flex Mussels, Basking Shark's Disappearing Act, Ancient Mercury Mines, How the Bees' Knees Get a Grip, This is Your Brain on Fat
  • Sat., 16 – The Right Stuff, eh?, Herschel's Night Vision Goggles, This is Your Brain in Neutral, Duck Billed Protein, Heatstroke, Fact or Fiction: Lightning
  • Sat., 9 – Hubble in Trouble, Shrimp in Hot Water, Mothers and Others
  • Sat., 2 – Polly Wants to Polka, Short Toes for the Long Run, Radio-Tagged Ants, Galactic Train Wreck, Fever and Autism, Fact or Fiction - Women and Pain
• April 2009
  • Sat., 25 – A History of Violence, Perambulating Pinniped, Gasping Gators, Blood Falls
  • Sat., 18 – Getting Serious About Play, Amazon Ants, Manipulating Malaria, Erasing Fear, Limerick Contest Winners
  • Sat., 11 – Crab Pain, Taming the Wild Rice, Homeless Fish, Science of Religion
  • Sat., 4 – Embracing the Wide Sky, Seltzer Sequestration, Nanomuscles, Job Swap Ants, Woolly Caterpillar Self-Medicates
• March 2009
  • Sat., 28 – Nine-and-a-half Technologies that Could Change the World
  • Sat., 21 – Bats Land Head-Under-Heel, Left-Handed Acid from Space, Matriarchy Mystery, GOCE - Feeling Gravity's Pull, Wait a Second - What's an Attosecond?, Fact or Fiction: Alcohol and Altitude
  • Sat., 14 – Einstein's Telescope, Planning for Pitching, Clovis Camel, Late Fatherhood - Risky Business? Sulfuric Sinkholes
  • Sat., 7 – Horsey-aeology, Binary Black Holes, Tracking Red Tides, Fish Re-evolution, Walk Like a Man, Fact or Fiction - "So..."
• February 2009
  • Sat., 28 – Secrets in Scavenger Scat, Leaping Lizards, The Evolution of Moral Disgust, Alien Life on Earth, Kepler Mission
  • Sat., 21 – Animals Make us Human, Spitting Cobras, Losers with Winners' Brains, Triceratops Tango, Arctic Turtle
  • Sat., 14 – Your Brain on Love, Flighty Songbirds, Tiotanoboa - The Greatest Snake, Colouring your Cognition
  • Sat., 7 – Happy Birthday Mr. Darwin
• January 2009
  • Sat., 31 – No-Sweat Workout, Evolving Ant Avoidance, Swarming and Serotonin, Face to Face, Vampire Stars, Frog Leg Feeding Frenzy
  • Sat., 24 – Fruitless Fall, Speedy Sperm, Mammoth Impact, Old Dead Trees, Fact or Fiction: Kids & Sugar
  • Sat., 17 – Physics for Future Presidents, Four-Eyed Fish, The Mystery of the Meandering Martian Rocks, Runaway Stars, Unnatural Selection
  • Sat., 10 – Alex & Me, Revealing Racism, Galactic Centre Stars, What Does the Milky Weigh?, Stem Cells and Cancer
  • Sat., 3 – Polar Bears Get Crackin', Hot Squirrels, Buzzed Bees, Elephant Enclaves, Sucking CO2
• December 2008
  • Sat., 27 – Holiday Question Show
  • Sat., 20 – Holiday Book Show: Imagining Head-Smashed In, Becoming Batman, Caribou in the North
  • Sat., 13 – Red Men, Green Women, Spider Size Doesn't Matter, Captive Elephants, Mandible Mayhem, Disturbed Birds, Sipping Snakes
  • Sat., 6 – Ten Ways the World Could End, Worm Hibernation, Robo-lizard, Fungus-faced Bats
• November 2008
  • Sat., 29 – Shedding Light on Spinal Cord Injuries, Whales Lunge for Lunch, Cannibal Tadpoles, Sniffing Sex
  • Sat., 22 – It's Alive!, Bisexual Beetles, Mammoth Redux, Inefficient Ants
  • Sat., 15 – Smelling Cancer, Killer Whale Sonar, Zebra Finch IQ, Planet Trifecta, Dark Banquet
  • Sat., 8 – Phoenix's Finale, Magnetic Planetesimals, Diesel Fungus, Eagles and Otters, Sea Lion Diving, Fact or Fiction - Dogs and Chocolate
  • Sat., 1 – Vertical Farming, Dinosaur Dance Floor, Voice of Ovulation, Herding Sabre-tooth Cats, Ecosystem of One
• October 2008
  • Sat., 25 – In Search of Time, X-Ray Tape, The Obese Brain, These Cones are Hot, Stressed Mama Birds
  • Sat., 18 – That Long Distance Feeling, Worm Grunting, Bionic Monkeys, Suicide Ants, Neanderthal Surf & Turf, How the Turtle got its Shell.
  • Sat., 11 – That Nobel Glow, Biology of Ideology, Wasp Faces - Friend or Foe, Hubble and Trouble
  • Sat., 4 – Pond Scum Power, There Goes the Neighbourhood, Bow Bug Shoots Itself, HIV History
• September 2008
  • Sat., 27 – The Ape's Appetite, Election Green Guide: Carbon Quiz, Carbon Pricing
  • Sat., 27 – The Quirks & Quarks Carbon Quiz - Answers
  • Sat., 27 – The Quirks & Quarks Carbon Quiz
  • Sat., 20 – Picture Perfect Planet, Broken Bats, Fungi Fling their Offspring, H. pylori - Friend or Foe, Mean and Lowly Things
  • Sat., 13 – Keeping Our Cool, Walking Wetas, Father's Nose Best, Scuba Bugs, Impact in Peru
  • Sat., 6 – The Large Hadron Collider, The Rufous-and-White Wren, Aggresive Faces, The Old Grey Matter
• June 2008
  • Sat., 21 – Hope for a Change
  • Sat., 14 – The Question Show from Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • Sat., 7 – The Vitamin D Miracle Cure, Wolverine Frog, The First Mom, Clothes Make the Bird
• May 2008
  • Sat., 24 – Birth of a Supernova, Frogamander - A Missing Link, Digging Deep for Life, Crafty Chameleon Camouflage, Crustacean Kids, Parasitic Parents, Monkey Junk Food
  • Sat., 17 – Phoenix Rises (and Lands), Dieting Fish, Cold Dry Bugs, Mantis Shrimp's Super Sight, The Big Rip
  • Sat., 10 – The Love Flower, Food for Thought, Rats in the Clouds, Eating Monte Verde Greens, The Ferocious Summer
  • Sat., 3 – T. rex: Nothing to Sniff at, Babbling Baby Birds, Spin Science, A Dummy's Guide to Intelligence
• April 2008
  • Sat., 26 – Pulling the plug on a Carbon Sink, Diet and Baby Gender, The Disappearing Bumblebee, The Hot Topic, Argus: Spy in the Sky
  • Sat., 19 – Kluge: the haphazard construction of the human mind, Neander-talk, The Tale of the Tower Lions, Draining the Lake, Breaking the Ice
  • Sat., 12 – Male Monkeys Prefer Boys' Toys, The Earliest Sex, Listening in on Mouse Orgasms, Fresh Fish, What Bugged the Dinosaurs?
  • Sat., 5 – The Straight Poop on the Americas, Head-butting Dinos, Cowbird's Bad Influence, Oldest Gold in the Americas, Aztec Arithmetic, Dolphin Bling
• March 2008
  • Sat., 29 – GeoEngineering & Climate Change, Gambling Apes, Your Brain on Jazz, Giant Gamma Ray Burst, The A-Maize-ing Trace
  • Sat., 22 – Physics of the Impossible, Arthur C. Clarke, Anna's Hummingbird's Tail Chirp, Alligator Air Bags, Six String Science, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Cat Jumping
  • Sat., 15 – Anything Out There?, The Pharaoh's Asses, Monkey Talk, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Morning Sickness, Listener Feedback: Shock Therapy
  • Sat., 8 – Shock Therapy, White Shark Cafe, Battling Loons, Wolves and Coyotes, Make your own Event Horizon
  • Sat., 1 – Dextre - Giving the Canadarm a Hand, Birth of a Magnetar?, Earth is Doomed - Again, Follicular Forensics, The Great Warming
• February 2008
  • Sat., 23 – Your Inner Fish, Mars' Salty Past, Gecko Tape, Mimic No More, Feathered Fashions
  • Sat., 16 – Multi-tasking, Fossil Bat, Hunting Spiders, Nitrogen Dead Zones, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Apple Seeds
  • Sat., 9 – Energy Brace, Bionic Lens, The Barnacle's Penis, Baboon Family Values, Extinction Crater, Solar Gas
  • Sat., 2 – Shields Up!, Kangaroo Burps, Bee Dancing, Geothermal - The Energy Underground
• January 2008
  • Sat., 26 – Stardust Update, Smith Cloud Collision, Jurassic Teen Moms, Antarctic Volcano, Ants Look Berry Nice, Hot Insect Sex
  • Sat., 19 – Solving Syphilis, Squirrels Eating Snake Skin, Seal Sounds, Mistakes Were Made, Fact or Fiction: Too Cold to Snow
  • Sat., 12 – Near Miss at Mars, Mapping Dark Matter, Skating through Time, Crater Lake, Rocketeers
  • Sat., 5 – The Physics of Information: What the Universe Doesn't Want You to Know
• December 2007
  • Sat., 29 – The Quirks & Quarks Holiday Question Show
  • Sat., 22 – Baboon Metaphysics, THEMIS Update, Amorous Antelope Antics, Seeing Extrasolar Planets, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Swimming after eating
  • Sat., 15 – The Holiday Book Show: Measuring Mother Earth, The Last Wild Wolves, Good Germs, Bad Germs
  • Sat., 8 – Dinosaur Road Kill, Humpback Whale Dictionary, Dolphins Carry their Young, Kicking Out Dead Stars, Shining Light on a Super Supernova, Keeping Aphids on the Farm
  • Sat., 1 – Earth's Evil Twin, Paris Hilton and Pain, Squirrel Personalities, Hydrogen and Bacteria, Monkeys on Strike, Listener Letters
• November 2007
  • Sat., 24 – Canada in 2050 - Our Future in a Changing Climate
  • Sat., 17 – Good Calories, Bad Calories, Birds that Timeshare, Beer from Chocolate, Fainting Astronauts, Science Fact or Fiction: Sex During Pregnancy
  • Sat., 10 – Before the Big Bang, Messing up Migration, Soft Body Fossils, Chemical Class for Fish Schools
  • Sat., 3 – Nervous Arm, Vibrating Mice, Ventriloquism and the Brain, Fossil Body Prints, The Primate's Closest Cousin, Auklets and Aphrodisiacs
• October 2007
  • Sat., 27 – Stepping on the CO2 Pedal, Turning Turtles, Earliest Reptile Evidence, Monkeys talk baby talk, Paper Batteries, Fact or Fiction: touching baby chicks
  • Sat., 20 – The Unnatural History of the Sea, Toothy Duck-billed Dino, What Mummies Ate, Raining Methane on Titan, The Last Word on the Appendix
  • Sat., 13 – Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, Saber-tooth Pussycat, Lucy Locomotion, Prehistoric Plant Procreation, Losing our Permafrost I - Melville Island, Losing our Permafrost II - Problems of Peat
  • Sat., 6 – What Makes Humans Unique?, Washing with Urine, Crocodiles Go Home, The Case of the Marbled Murrelet,
• September 2007
  • Sat., 29 – Launch of the Dawn Mission, Bugs in Space, Sputnik's 50th, Hot Air, Fueling Our Future
  • Sat., 22 – Going Green, One Home at a Time, Water From Weevils, Face Evolution, Rocket Arm
  • Sat., 15 – Astronaut Dave Williams, Mars or Bust, Its Bite is Worse than its Bite, From Montreal to Kyoto
  • Sat., 8 – The World Without Us, Summer Science I: I'd Like To Be, Under the Sea, Summer Science II: Dem Ponds, Dem Ponds, Dem Dry Ponds, Summer Science III: Climate Change and Arctic Hunting, Voyager's 30th Anniversary
• June 2007
  • Sat., 23 – Where's My Jetpack?, Storm World, Evolution for Everyone, The Phoenix Rises
  • Sat., 16 – Blinded by Science, Big Ole Black Hole, The Mystery of the Dead Dinosaur, Plants are Happy Families, Question of the Week: Rising Bread
  • Sat., 9 – The Question Show from St. John's, Newfoundland
  • Sat., 2 – Walking in the Trees, 3.35 Billion Year Old Fossils, Furry Fingerprints, Solving Superconductors, Genes and Language, Question of the Week: Curry
• May 2007
  • Sat., 26 – Riddled with Life, Jawbone of a T-Rex, Babies watch Language, Army Ants Lie Down on the Job, Spying on Whales
  • Sat., 19 – Neuroscience and the Law, Limb Loss in Lizards, Ice Age Impact, Frog Poison
  • Sat., 12 – Super-sized Supernova, Bee Beetles, Canada's Gravity Gap, Aping Conversation, Spider Venom Side Effect, Question of the Week: Electrical Plugs
  • Sat., 5 – Too Far From Home, Arctic Ice Packs It In, Climate Change and the Tree line, Genitalia Most Fowl, Cosmic Killer
• April 2007
  • Sat., 28 – The Great Canuck/Aussie Adventure, Part 2, Albertan Horned Dinosaur, The Status of the Polar Bear, Disappearing Canadian Glaciers, The Arctic as Mars, Newfoundland Fossils
  • Sat., 21 – The Great Canuck/Aussie Adventure, Farming Kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils Face Cancer, Marsupial Lions, The Wollemi Pine, Killer Jellyfish
  • Sat., 14 – Model Pterosaur, Mice and Albatross, Are Aliens Shooting At Us?, Silence of the Songbirds, Saving Seahorses, Question of the Week: Car Fuel Efficiency
  • Sat., 7 – IPCC Report, Climate and Corals, The Lone Shark, Rat Scans, The Chickens Fight Back, Question of the Week: Bird Bones
• March 2007
  • Sat., 31 – Power, Sweet Power, Kuiper Collision, Twins, Like Me, Hunting the Wind, Eco E. coli, Question of the Week: Animal Body Temperatures
  • Sat., 24 – Rock Snot Algae, Burrowing Dinosaurs, Modified Malaria Mosquitoes, Monkey Hugs, The Herzberg Award, Dr. Dick Bond
  • Sat., 10 – Peruvian Solar Observatory, Scrub-Jay Planning, Of Lice and Men, AEGIS Survey, Cowbird Mafia, Question of the Week: Why Light Bulbs Burn Out
  • Sat., 3 – Walking on the Moon, Again, Caterpillar Clicking, Sounding the Southern Seafloor, Tracking Transgenic Salmon, Question of the Week: Blood Types in Animals
• February 2007
  • Sat., 24 – Censor This: Censorship in Science, Giant Clams, Ancient Agriculture, Dusty Planet, Columbus' Silver
  • Sat., 17 – Bugs and the Bulge, Cloacal Cooling, Plight of the Peregrines, Moth Manoeuvres, Freezing Liquid
  • Sat., 10 – Watching the Northern Lights, Stopping Light, Molecular Condom, Sandblasting Moon, Hidden Secrets on the Y Chromosome, Question of the Week: Baby Teeth and Wisdom Teeth
  • Sat., 3 – Climate Change Panel, Cannibal Fish, Prehensile in Prehistory, Locked-In Syndrome: Are You in There?
• January 2007
  • Sat., 27 – A Rare Rodent, Concrete Pyramids, The Mysteries of Seahorse Sexual Activity, Eggs Before the Chickens, Bubbling Methane in the Beaufort, Question of the Week: Spinning Atmosphere
  • Sat., 20 – Planetary Predictions, Fearless Iguanas, Barnyard Pharmaceuticals, Homing in on Higgs, Katydid's Hit the High Note, Question of the Week: Runner's Stitch
  • Sat., 13 – Cutting Edge Fetal Surgery, Did Viking Miss Life on Mars?, Termite Head-Bangers, Gassy Windbags, Question of the Week: Cold Water and Mint
  • Sat., 6 – Ailing Ayles Ice Shelf, Titan: Land O' Lakes, Evolution: What Will Become of Us?, Question of the Week: Menstruation in Mammals
• December 2006
  • Sat., 30 – The Quirks & Quarks Holiday Question Show
  • Sat., 23 – Komodo Virgin Birth, Tonguefish at the Vents, When Cats get Dementia, Squirrels vs. Trees, The Science of Santa Claus, Question of the Week: Static Clothes in the Dryer
  • Sat., 16 – Stardust under the Microscope, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, Postcards from Mars, Out of Thin Air, More Holiday Science Books from the Past Year
  • Sat., 9 – How a Bat Holds its Licker, Forest Fires and Mercury, Magic and the Mind, Brotherly Love among Crayfish, This is Your Brain on Music, Water On Mars: Bob's Essay
  • Sat., 2 – The Taste of Words, This Fish was Biting, The Moon has Gas, Changing Climate and the Grey Jay, Question of the Week: Leaves Turning Colour
• November 2006
  • Sat., 25 – Solar Sunscreen, Fruit Fly Fight Club, In Praise of Older Chimps, Backing up the Planet
  • Sat., 18 – Neanderthal DNA, Cutting the Cake, Ugly Finches, Dinosaurs and Emus, Fresh SNO, Question of the Week: Drinking Urine
  • Sat., 11 – The Tale is in the Teeth, Early Earth Air, Girls and Math, Hibernating Bats, Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code
  • Sat., 4 – The End of Fish?, Rethinking Dinosaur Flight, Toadfish Pee, Bird Doping, The King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, Question of the Week: Pluto and Neptune's Orbits
• October 2006
  • Sat., 28 – Invisibility Cloaking Device, Deep Underground Microbes, Planet Runs Hot and Cold, Quirks in the Arctic: Part Two, Question of the Week: Species Extinction
  • Sat., 21 – Question Show: Super(string) Bowl Edition
  • Sat., 14 – Quirks in the Arctic, Part 1, The Archon X-Prize in Genomics, Robotic Rat Whiskers, Rethinking Autism: Your Feedback
  • Sat., 7 – Nobel Prize for Physics, Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, A Whale of an Imitation, Rethinking Autism
• September 2006
  • Sat., 30 – Elusive Woodpecker, Quiet Crickets, Prairie Dog Predation, Inside the mind of a Psychopath
  • Sat., 23 – Blister Beetle Deception, Non-Standard Supernova, The Real Empty Nesters, Oldest Writing in the West, The Trouble with Physics
  • Sat., 16 – Arctic Dino-hunting, Fastest Jaw in the South, Biomass
  • Sat., 9 – Martian Gas Jets, International AIDS Conference, Women and AIDS