Quirks & Quarkswith Bob McDonald
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Jan 18: Ancient gum preserves genome, a living robot, wolf puppies play fetch and more…
Rattlesnake skin holds raindrops for drinking, science of imagination and quiet snow
Bob McDonald's blog
Fly me to the moon for an out-of-this-world date
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa is running a competition to find a potential life partner to join him on his trip to the moon.
Ancient chewing gum reveals reveals identity of chewer and what she ate
5,700 year-old gum preserved the genome of a dark-haired, blue-eyed woman who'd eaten duck for dinner.
Scientists create a robot made entirely of living cells
Robots made of frog skin and heart cells can crawl, move stuff and heal themselves.
Wolf, fetch! How scientists discovered a 'domesticated' trait in wolves
The simple act of retrieving a ball could be why we domesticated dogs perhaps around 15,000 years ago
Rattlesnakes have skin that's sticky for raindrops so they can sip from their scales
Nano structures on their scales help the snakes capture scarce water in their desert homes
Exploring the science of imagination, so we can build a creative computer
‘Your mind’s greatest power’ gives rise to great works of art and innovation in science and engineering: imagination
Why does a snowfall damp sound so well?
Snow has excellent acoustic damping properties because it is so porous.
Jan 11 — Fires in Australia, cuttlefish watch 3D movies, coal pollution harms crops, and more…
Fossils show ancient parenting, first evidence of cooked vegetables, and why so much poop?
Bob McDonald's blog
New telescope to be named after pioneering female dark matter astronomer
Vera Rubin will be honoured for her work in observing the anomalous motion of stars.
'A billion animals gone' — understanding the effects of Australia's fires on wildlife and people
With forests burning up and toxic smoke filling the air, scientists are looking at the long term effects of these record-setting bushfires.
Pass the popcorn — scientists are playing 3D movies to cuttlefish
Scientists are using an underwater movie theatre and tiny 3D glasses to study how cuttlefish catch their prey.
The cost of coal - pollution takes lives, but also costs food
New study finds that 570 million bushels of grain and 26,000 lives were saved by shutting down coal plants in the U.S.
Cape Breton fossils are the oldest evidence of parental behaviour
A 300 million year old animal was preserved huddled around a juvenile in a den in a hollow tree
Burned roots are the first evidence of humans cooking vegetables and sharing food
170,000 year-old remains from South Africa provide evidence for harvesting and food sharing
Why do we seem to generate so much poop?
The average human poop is mostly generated from water, while very little comes from undigested food waste.
Jan 3, 2020 — The Quirks & Quarks listener question show
Is water at the foot of Niagara Falls warmer than at the top? Are bioplastics better for the environment? Why are dinosaurs so big? And more
Bob McDonald's blog
Time for liftoff — robots and humans scheduled to blast off from Earth in 2020
A fleet of robotic explorers heading to Mars launch this year — perhaps one day humans will follow
Dec 28: Quirks & Quarks year in review
We look at some of the most significant science stories we covered (and one we didn’t) in 2019
Another tragic and destructive year for wildfires — is this the new normal?
We look back at 2019 — the year in fire
Year of reckoning for nutritional science — red meat studies point the way forward
Nutritional recommendations are often based on poor quality studies which prove inconclusive on close scrutiny.
Arctic ice losses were at near record levels — with particular concerns about Greenland melt
The year in ice — 2019 continued a dismal trend of polar ice loss
Measles sabotages the immune system — so it's much more dangerous than we'd realized
Measles infections can wipe our bodies' hard-earned store of antibodies against other illnesses, making us more vulnerable in the future
Dec 21: The Quirks & Quarks holiday book show
Three science books looking at forensic ecology, the many worlds of quantum mechanics and culinary extinction
Bob McDonald's blog
Supersonic passenger planes could become a reality as new tech quiets the sonic boom
NASA engineers are attempting to get around the problem of sonic booms with a newer, more efficient design
