Quirks & Quarkswith Bob McDonald
Latest
Bitcoin's energy costs, beatboxers invent new sounds, wind farms change lizards and more
Chucking salmon for science, piranha barking, smells and mapping, and heat and humidity.
Bitcoin mining uses more energy than mining for real gold
Worldwide mining for Bitcoin is consuming as much energy as the country of Denmark
Beatboxers have invented whole new ways of making sounds, scientists say
In an MRI study of five beatboxers, researchers found unprecedented patterns of movement
Wind farms in India are driving a population boom of skinny, fearless lizards
Wind farms provide a cleaner energy alternative to burning fossil fuels, but new research has found that they might also make an unexpected impact on surrounding wildlife.
For 20 years, scientists have been chucking fish into the forest. Here's why
For 20 years, scientists have been tossing hundreds of thousands of dead fish into the woods to understand how salmon carcasses feed the forest
Barking piranhas and screeching catfish are the sounds of the Amazon River
In the Amazon river, a scientist is eavesdropping on Piranha calls to figure out better ways to keep tabs on the ferocious fish.
Sniffing your way around: Our brains are built to navigate by scent
Researchers have found that those who can smell well, navigate well too
Why does humidity make us feel hotter in the summer and colder in winter?
Dr. Deepak Chandon from the University of Toronto has the answer.
July 6, 2019: Climate change & beer shortages, omnivore shark, dung beetle's babysitting STI, and more
Biological explorers in the B.C. backcountry, why nothing goes dark when you blink, and the reason you don’t sneeze when asleep.
Beer shortages could be a result of climate change thanks to barley crop failures
A bottle of beer in Canada could cost twice as much in the future, according to climate change professor Dabo Guan.
A meat eater chooses a side of seagrass: This shark is an omnivore
Long thought to be exclusive meat-eaters, it turns out the bonnethead shark is an omnivore.
A dung beetle's genital worms will help care for its offspring
Nematodes, or tiny worms, that ride along on the genitals of dung beetles help raise the beetle's offspring by boosting the good microbes in the beetle's dung-ball nursery nests.
Rain, spiders and bears are all part of discovering Canada's backcountry biology
To study life on our planet, you have to know what's out there. That means going to remote places and searching for plants and animals to discover what's living there and how those things live together.
Why you don't go momentarily blind when you blink
When we blink, the brain remembers what we're looking at and fills in the gap, researchers found.
Why don't we sneeze when we're asleep?
This week's Quirks question comes from Robbie Currie of Collingwood, Ont., who asks: "Why don't we sneeze while we're asleep?"
With more species at risk than resources to save them, conservationists face hard choices
Many species are dying out, and there aren’t enough resources to save them all. How do we start a conversation about what to save, and how much we're willing to pay for it?
June 22 — Is your Wi-Fi watching you? Dog's manipulative eyebrows, Darwin's finches in danger and more…
An AI learns numbers, genetics of smell, bonobo wing-mums, sponge scientists and electric car questions
Bob McDonald's blog
The other 'first man' who was supposed to go to the moon
Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was supposed to beat the Americans to the moon
Your Wi-Fi router could be used to watch you breathe and monitor your heartbeat
Radar-like technology can see through walls to track movement
We've bred dogs to have expressive eyebrows that manipulate our emotions
Dogs have muscles that control their eyebrows that don't exist in wolves
A face-eating parasite is devastating Darwin's famous Galapagos finches
Fly larvae feed on the finch's beak, creating deformities that change their song
AI is now learning to do things it hasn't been taught
Deep learning AI network develops a sense of numbers by mimicking how humans process visual information
Do your genes smell bad? DNA shows what our noses know
Small differences in receptor genes may explain differences in our 'smellscapes'
Bonobo mothers act as wing-mums for their sons
Mothers help sons get access to females and scare off rival males
A research assistant named Spongebob? Sea sponges collect data for science
Sponges turn out to be natural filters for capturing environmental DNA samples from the ocean
