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Analysis
Hawaiian volcano eruption is explosive evidence of plate tectonic theory
Bob McDonald's blog: Hawaii's volcanic eruptions are gradually shifting southeast as the Earth's Pacific plate moves over a hot spot in the mantle.
Nov 26: Turtles under ice, fungal electronics, airplane radiation and more…
Black wolf viral resistance, hailstorm chasers and where the water’s going.
Analysis
The Artemis mission to the moon is being guided by Kepler, Newton and Einstein
Bob McDonald's blog: Mathematical laws of motion and gravity that go back hundreds of years underpin our ability to guide spacecraft to distant destinations.
A record-setting hailstorm in Alberta was a bonanza for scientific hail chasers
The hail chasers are studying storms closely as climate models suggest there will be fewer hailstorms overall but with larger hailstones when those storms occur
Nov 19: Octopus chucking, Mayan ruins mercury contamination, neighborhood black hole and more…
Climate makes shrimp snap, discovering T. Rex, and how loons see through the murk
Analysis
Study takes one small step towards human hibernation for long space flights
Bob McDonald's blog: A new study has given researchers one more reason to think about putting long-duration astronauts in cold storage. It may help protect them against dangerous cosmic radiation.
Q&A
The tall tale of the discovery of the T. rex
In his latest book, David K. Randall takes us back 120 years to the Gilded Age 'bone wars,' when there was a race between American museums to find and display the most impressive dinosaur bones and fossils that they could.
Nov 12: Rocket debris falling to Earth, non-compostable plastic, animal vocalization and more…
Illegal fishers use ‘stealth mode’ and Earth’s population hits 8 billion
Nov 5: Socializing between chimps and gorillas, deer and daylight savings, giant asteroid and more…
Aye-aye nose picking, Herzberg Gold medal and revisiting comet Shoemaker-Levy
Q&A
Canada's most prestigious science award goes to research on habitat fragmentation
Carleton University biologist Lenore Fahrig won for her work studying how plants and animals fare when their habitat is broken up into small patches. Surprisingly, she found that preserving many small patches of habitat can work as well or better than trying to preserve a few large chunks.
Analysis
Strong evidence that an ancient ocean once covered Mars
Bob McDonald's blog: It has long been suspected that liquid water once flowed on Mars. Now the latest research shows that billions of years ago, Mars had a deep ocean covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.
Q&A
Canada's most prestigious science award goes to research on habitat fragmentation
Carleton University biologist Lenore Fahrig won for her work studying how plants and animals fare when their habitat is broken up into small patches. Surprisingly, she found that preserving many small patches of habitat can work as well or better than trying to preserve a few large chunks.
Bob McDonald looks back at 30 years of hosting Quirks & Quarks
On Oct. 24, 1992 a new voice took the helm at CBC's already venerable science program. Now, three decades and some 7,000 interviews later, Bob McDonald is ready to look back — while still looking forward.
Bob McDonald's top conversations with the world's smartest people
From Carl Sagan to Jane Goodall, take a listen to some of Bob's highlights from the past 30 years as host of Quirks & Quarks.
Oct 22: Brain cells play pong, genes for surviving the Black Death, a penguins extra egg and more…
Black hole burps and a natural history of spirits
Q&A
In time for a Halloween tipple? A new book about the science of spirits
Alcohol is intertwined with many aspects of human history and culture — and has been for thousands of years. A new book explores spirits like whisky, vodka, and rum in the context of evolution, ecology, history, primatology, chemistry and molecular biology.
Oct 15: Did life on Mars exterminate itself? Stone-age super-glue, African origins for dinosaurs and more...
Wolves’ attachment to humans, Nobel for Neanderthals and downloading the mind
Analysis
A titanic collision could have formed the moon within hours, new simulation shows
Bob McDonald's blog: Researchers at NASA and in the UK developed the highest resolution simulation of the collision between a hypothetical rogue planet dubbed Theia and a primitive Earth that is the best explanation they have for how the Moon was formed.
Oct 8: Nobel for quantum entanglement, mystery of the missing bear toes, the dinosaurs' last tsunami and more…
The genetics of the Anglo-Saxon takeover of England and activists work to 'Support our Science’
Analysis
Computer simulation recreates the giant tsunami that washed over the dying dinosaurs
Bob McDonald's blog: Researchers have created a computer simulation of the tsunami caused by a giant asteroid impact in the Gulf of Mexico and found it would have created a 1.5 km tall wall of water that decreased in size as it swept around the world.
Oct 1: Redirecting an asteroid, rainforest politics, wildlife and COVID and more…
Megalodon was a monster, Indigenous perspectives on Astronomy
Q&A
Mi'kmaw astronomer says we should acknowledge we live under Indigenous skies
Mi'kmaw astonomer Dr. Hilding Neilson thinks we should go beyond land acknowledgements and think about sky acknowledgments as well, since we live under Indigenous skies. An astrophysicist at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Neilson has been working to integrate Indigenous knowledge and methodologies into Astronomy.
Sep 24: The Milky Way tells its story, raccoon criminal masterminds, back to the water and more...
A medieval hate crime and a city's summer smells.
Analysis
James Webb Space Telescope offers spectacular new picture of Neptune's rings — but Voyager got there first
Bob McDonald's blog: Neptune's faint, dark rings are almost impossible to see using Earth-based telescopes. The best view we've had of them was from the 1989 Voyager 2 flyby. Now the James Webb telescope has produced a beautiful new image.
Q&A
A new book lets the Milky Way speak for itself — and it's kind of a jerk
A new book, "The Milky Way: An Autobiography of our Galaxy," by astrophysicist Moiya McTier, imagines our galaxy using its own voice to spill the beans on topics like how it came to be, what it really thinks of us humans, its complicated relationships with other galaxies — and how it will likely meet its demise.
