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Giant Penguin
 Courtesy Chris Gaskin, Geology Museum, University of Otago, New Zealand |
Since the 1940's, fossil evidence of a previously unknown species of penguin has been turning up in New Zealand. Then in the late 1970's, a significant find was made that enabled scientists to recently piece together what they refer to as a giant penguin. Dr. Dan Ksepka, a research associate in the Department of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, says this larger penguin - called Kairuku - lived during the Oligocene period, 25 million years ago, when much of New Zealand was underwater. Compared to penguins today, Kairuku was more slender, had longer flippers and a longer pointed beak, suitable for catching larger prey. It is estimated to be about 1.3 metres tall; taller than today's largest, the Emperor penguin. It is thought penguins were much more diverse during this period and that Kairuku is one of five extinct species from New Zealand alone.
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MRSA - The Pigs Give Back
Many scientists have warned that the casual use of antibiotics in livestock would lead to the evolution of an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that could be a threat to humans. In fact, this has already been seen in a couple of cases, including a strain of drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, known as MRSA, that has emerged in pig farms, and has infected farmers and others. But new work shows that in more ways than one, we have only ourselves to blame for this. According to a study by
Dr. Tara Smith from the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa, and her colleagues, this new strain of MRSA from pigs actually originally came from humans. Genetic work has shown that the bacteria were originally communicated from people to pigs, where it evolved antibiotic resistance, and this new form has now been transmitted back into the human population.
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The Oldest Forest
The world's oldest fossilized forest - more than 380 million years old - has been uncovered in a site near the Catskill Mountains of New York. Fossil tree trunks were originally found at this site in the 20's but it was subsequently buried in the construction of a dam. New work on the dam has uncovered the forest again, and Dr. William Stein, a Professor of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University in New York, and his group, found not just trees, but the preserved forest floor, including soil and root systems. This gives them much more information about the complete ecosystem that would have existed. Since plants had only colonized land some tens of millions of years before, this is likely very close to the dawn of the evolution of forests.
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Marathon Migration
The Northern Wheatear is a small (25g) songbird that lives in two main groups; one in the eastern Canadian Arctic, Greenland and Eurasia; the other in Alaska. Although its winter migration destination was suspected, it was only proven recently. Using tiny geo-locaters strapped to the birds like back-packs,
Dr. Ryan Norris, an Assistant Professor from the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph, was able to track what turns out to be an astonishing route. The birds in the eastern Arctic group migrate across the Atlantic, then south to the west side of sub-Sahara Africa. An incredible 3,500kms! The group from Alaska migrate through Asia to the east side of sub-Sahara Africa - 14,500kms! Both migrations involve amazing distances per day for many months, making the Wheatear's migration route the longest for a bird of its size.
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Herzberg Gold for Climate Researcher
 Dr Richard Peltier |
Dr. Richard Peltier, University Professor of Physics at the University of Toronto and founding director of U of T's Centre for Global Change Science, is this year's winner of Canada's highest prize for science, the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. Dr. Peltier is a pioneer of "Earth Systems Science", the multi-disciplinary field that attempts to explain the whole functioning of the dynamic earth by looking at the complex interaction between things generally studied separately in geophysics, oceanography, atmospheric science, and more. In recent years, Dr. Peltier has been active in developing and validating the climate models that are being used to predict how our climate will respond to our increasing emissions of greenhouse gases.
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Science Fact or Science Fiction: North Star
From time to time, we'll present a commonly held idea or popular saying - and ask a Canadian scientist to set us straight on whether we should believe it or not.
Today's popular belief is: "Polaris - or the North Star - is the brightest star visible in the Northern Hemisphere" To shed a little light on this matter, we contacted
Dr. Francine Marleau, a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. She says it is science fiction.
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Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein, Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0
Saturdays at noon, Mondays at 11:00 p.m., Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. (in some markets only)
Copyright Guido Gerding
Northern Wheatear - copyright Ómar Runólfsson 
Dr Richard Peltier
We're coming to Halifax in early June for our annual Quirks Question Roadshow, and we want to see you there. Stay tuned to this space for details.
Saturdays at noon, Mondays at 11:00 p.m., Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. and Fridays at 5:00 a.m. (ET)
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