Quirks & Quarkswith Bob McDonald
Latest
June 15 — Should we have humans in space? A Quirks & Quarks public debate
Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield, cosmologist Renée Hložek, planetary scientist Marianne Mader and space flight historian Amy Shira Teitel weigh in on whether we should leave space to the robots.
May 18, 2019 — Our plastics problem, mystery of the missing brain cells, overeating processed food and more...
Smartphones detect ear infections, moonquakes, and why geese honk while migrating
We need plastics — how do we avoid choking the planet with them?
Technologies for biodegradable and more easily recyclable plastics could help solve our plastic problem
Learning from tragedy — a baby lacking critical brain cells and a medical detective story
'I don't think we should forget how much can be learned just from a single patient with a rare disease'
Processed food is full of bad stuff, but the real problem is you eat too much of it
A new study found that people ate significantly more calories on an ultra-processed diet compared to a nutritionally equivalent unprocessed food diet.
'Siri, does my baby have an ear infection?' An app does medical diagnosis
A new smartphone app can detect the presence of fluid in the middle ear, a sign of infection
Moonquakes show the moon is still geologically 'alive'
The moon might still be shrinking and so its skin is wrinkling
Why do Canada geese honk while migrating?
Geese honk when they fly as a way of keeping the flock together by communicating position shifts within their V-formation
June 1 — The benefits of video games, composting corpses, brewing ancient beer and more…
Right whales in the wrong place and supernovas and bipedalism
Video games aren't corrupting young minds — they may be building them
New science suggests that video games are rarely addictive, and they can help with social and intellectual development — and possibly even mental health.
Don't bury or cremate — soon you may compost your corpse
'This soil can then be used to grow new life. Eventually you could be a lemon tree'
Drink like an Egyptian: 5000-year-old yeast is resurrected to brew ancient beer
Researchers brewed five kinds of beer, and report the Philistine brew was best
Right whales were in the wrong place because of the wrong climate
Warming water in their traditional habitat led to a collapse in their favourite prey
Did our ancestors evolve to walk upright because of exploding stars?
Cosmic rays from supernovae might have destroyed forests and forced us up onto two legs
Jan. 5, 2019 — The Quirks & Quarks Listener Question show
Does climate change cause earthquakes? Why is it blurry underwater? Do animals do math? And more
Mar. 9, 2019 — Science of awe, blue whales and sonar, chromosomes and sleep and more…
Ancient aquaculture on the west coast and dogs and human sperm quality
Exploring the powerful emotion of awe — how it can be awe-some and aw-ful
Awe has a transformative effect on people's brains and subsequent behaviour
Military sonar puts blue whales off their feed
Deep diving whales abandon their foraging
Your brain may need sleep to repair DNA 'potholes'
The brain catches up on a backlog of neural chromosome repairs when asleep.
Man and man's best friend have both been experiencing declines in sperm quality
Researchers in the U.K. have found a link between the fertility declines in domestic male dogs and similar problems that have been widely reported in human males.
Clam gardens have been cultivated by Indigenous people for millennia
Archaeologists have dated the oldest clam gardens to 3,500 years ago.
Mar 23 - Shopping for souvenirs on an asteroid, new Cambrian explosion fossils, the gut-brain axis and more...
Why we can say ‘f’ words, green icebergs from Antarctica and the length of a dream
A Japanese spacecraft visits an asteroid - and will bring back a souvenir
Samples from the asteroid Ryugu may help scientists learn more about the ingredients for life available in the early solar system
'Weird wonders' in China — new half-billion year-old fossils from the dawn of animal life
More than 2,000 pristine fossils have been found and half are animals completely new to science.
Your gut bacteria are actively involved in your emotions, how you think, and even behave
'There is no limit really on what aspects of emotion could be modulated by the microbiome'
June 15 — Should we have humans in space? A Quirks & Quarks public debate
Retired astronaut Chris Hadfield, cosmologist Renée Hložek, planetary scientist Marianne Mader and space flight historian Amy Shira Teitel weigh in on whether we should leave space to the robots.
June 1 — The benefits of video games, composting corpses, brewing ancient beer and more…
Right whales in the wrong place and supernovas and bipedalism
Video games aren't corrupting young minds — they may be building them
New science suggests that video games are rarely addictive, and they can help with social and intellectual development — and possibly even mental health.
Don't bury or cremate — soon you may compost your corpse
'This soil can then be used to grow new life. Eventually you could be a lemon tree'
Drink like an Egyptian: 5000-year-old yeast is resurrected to brew ancient beer
Researchers brewed five kinds of beer, and report the Philistine brew was best
Right whales were in the wrong place because of the wrong climate
Warming water in their traditional habitat led to a collapse in their favourite prey
Did our ancestors evolve to walk upright because of exploding stars?
Cosmic rays from supernovae might have destroyed forests and forced us up onto two legs
May 18, 2019 — Our plastics problem, mystery of the missing brain cells, overeating processed food and more...
Smartphones detect ear infections, moonquakes, and why geese honk while migrating
We need plastics — how do we avoid choking the planet with them?
Technologies for biodegradable and more easily recyclable plastics could help solve our plastic problem
Learning from tragedy — a baby lacking critical brain cells and a medical detective story
'I don't think we should forget how much can be learned just from a single patient with a rare disease'
Processed food is full of bad stuff, but the real problem is you eat too much of it
A new study found that people ate significantly more calories on an ultra-processed diet compared to a nutritionally equivalent unprocessed food diet.
'Siri, does my baby have an ear infection?' An app does medical diagnosis
A new smartphone app can detect the presence of fluid in the middle ear, a sign of infection
Moonquakes show the moon is still geologically 'alive'
The moon might still be shrinking and so its skin is wrinkling
Why do Canada geese honk while migrating?
Geese honk when they fly as a way of keeping the flock together by communicating position shifts within their V-formation
