Quirks & Quarkswith Bob McDonald
Latest
Mar 2: Mobilizing scientists in the COVID 19 fight, riding the COVID wave and more...
NASA's space salad and Escobar's hippos are restoring an ecosystem
Analysis
Our golden connection to a cosmic explosion
Bob McDonald's science blog: A neutron star merger 100 million years ago may be the source of Earth’s gold
Scientists are mobilizing from the ground up and the top down in our fight against COVID-19
Canada’s Chief Science Advisor says our bottleneck in our testing is due to not enough personnel and test ingredients, but that help is on the way.
COVID 19 — Can we control the pandemic and move from 'flattening the curve' to 'riding the wave'
Epidemiologists look at how we might control the coronavirus over the long haul
Salads in space: NASA has learned to grow lettuce on the space station
Lettuce grown on the International Space Station is just as nutritious as the stuff grown on Earth.
How Pablo Escobar's escaped hippos are helping to restore an ancient ecosystem
Hippos are an example of how so-called invasive species shape their habitats in a similar way to long-extinct megafauna.
Mar 21: COVID 19 vulnerability, COVID- and climate and more
Firing a cannonball at an asteroid and a fossil ‘wonderchicken’
Analysis
As entertainment shuts down, take in the spectacle nature has to offer
Bob McDonald's science blog: Immersing yourself in nature can have positive effects on your physical and mental health.
How aging increases vulnerability to COVID-19 and how pollution can make it worse
Your body's ability to fight off viruses naturally declines as you get older, becoming more weak and less targeted, and pollution exposure makes it even worse.
COVID-19 has led to huge emissions reductions — can we learn from this?
A global pandemic is not how we'd choose to reduce emissions, but scientists are studying how COVID-19 is affecting climate change, and how climate change could affect COVID-19.
Japanese space scientists shot an asteroid to learn about its past
The tiny, rocky asteroid Ryugu, in orbit between Earth and Mars, gives up some of its secrets.
'Wonderchicken' walked among the dinosaurs just before the mass extinction
Thought to be the oldest modern bird fossil, the 66.7 million-year-old "Wonderchicken" may help scientists understand more about the rise of birds and why they survived the mass extinction.
Mar 14: Coronavirus epidemiology, Greenland glaciers melt and more...
Squatting a better way to be sedentary, SmartICE supports northern life
Analysis
Seismic technology to probe the Earth adapted to probe the brain
Bob McDonald's science blog: Scientists have developed a portable brain scanner that could open up new research opportunities.
COVID-19: Why reacting early and aggressively is the key to avoiding crisis
'If we allow this to get bad, it gets bad fast, and it gets horrible fast. And that's why we have to be proactive.'
How the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting from the bottom up
The shape of the sea floor is flushing warm water underneath the glacier, so it is melting from above and below.
Squat, don't sit: The way we are sedentary could make a big difference to our health
Scientists studied hunter-gatherers to measure the posture muscle activity to get a glimpse into our evolutionary past
SmartICE: Supporting Inuit knowledge of the landscape with technology
Technology for sensing ice thickness helps with judgements about whether hunting or travel is safe
Mar 7: New technology gives amputees a hand, a big dam proposal, your dog's heat sensitive nose and more…
Was the Earth once a waterworld, the fight to be the first female astronaut and composting garbage
Analysis
Early toolkits and toolmakers more diverse than previously thought
Bob McDonald's science blog: New finds of the remains of Homo erectus and their stone tools reveals a culture that developed new ideas, but didn't abandon old ones
'It's like you have a hand again': A major breakthrough in robotic limb technology
Researchers devised a novel way of grafting tiny bits of muscle to amputated nerves so as to provide a way to control a robotic limb.
Is damming the entire North Sea a realistic way to defend against sea level rise?
It might be possible to build two giant dams to isolate much of Europe from the rising Atlantic, and it might be the only defence if we don't act fast to control climate change
Your dog's cold wet nose may help it 'see' in infrared
New research looking into how predators can detect their prey when sight, hearing or smell are hindered
Ancient ocean crust suggests Earth was once almost entirely covered in water
Evidence from multi-billion-year-old rocks suggest land was scarce when Earth was young
The tale of the two female pilots who could have been the first women in space
A new book tells the tale of two brilliant women flyers who campaigned for a chance at spaceflight
