Quirks And Quarks podcast

#Climate Change #Canada #CBC #Science #Geology

22:42

We are here recording live at Medallia Experience at the Wynn in Las Vegas, and have been seeing and hearing some amazing things about how AI can enhance the customer experience as well as enable teams at organizations to create more meaningful connections with customers. Today we’re going to talk about how AI can help to create better experiences for customers before, during, and after their interactions. To help me discuss this topic, I’d like to welcome Fabrice Martin, Chief Product Officer at Medallia. RESOURCES Medallia: https://www.medallia.com Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brands Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company…

Quirks and Quarks

Series home•Feed

CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks covers the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom... and everything in between.

324 episodes

Quirks and Quarks

1,240 subscribers

updated 2 days ago

Series home•Feed

CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks covers the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom... and everything in between.

324 episodes

#Climate Change #Canada #CBC #Science #Geology

All episodes

Quirks and Quarks

1
How human noises impact animals, and more… 54:09

2 days ago54:09

54:09

A tree has evolved to attract lightning strikes — to eliminate the competition Scientists working in Panama noticed that a particular tropical tree species was frequently struck by lightning, but was infrequently killed by the strikes. Forest ecologist Evan Gora found that Dipteryx oleifera trees were often the last ones standing after a lightning strike, which can kill over 100 trees with a single bolt. His team discovered the giant trees were more electrically conductive than other species, which allows them to not only survive strikes, but also channel lightning into parasitic vines and competing trees around them. The research was published in the journal New Phytologist. Anti-anxiety drugs we pee out could be affecting wild salmon Our bodies only process some of the pharmaceuticals we take, which means when we pee, we’re releasing traces of drugs into the ecosystem. A study of the impact of trace amounts of anti-anxiety drugs on juvenile salmon suggests they might become too brave for their own survival. Jack Brand is a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and led the research published in the journal Science. Fossil discovery gives new insight into the mysterious Denisovans A jawbone pulled up by fishers off the coast of Taiwan in 2008 has proven to be a unique discovery. Analysis of preserved protein in the fossil has proved it is from a male Denisovan — a mysterious species of ancient human known from only fragmentary bones and ancient DNA. This gives new insight into how widespread this mysterious branch of humanity was. The research was led by a team including Takumi Tsutaya and Enrico Cappellini at the University of Copenhagen, and published in the journal Science. Earth’s inner core is a lot more dynamic and smushy than we previously thought Scientists used to think the inner core of our planet was a solid sphere of metal, but a new study in Nature Geoscience suggests its softer outer layers shift and deform over time. The researchers used pairs of earthquakes from the same location as X-rays to peer inside Earth to gauge what the inner core is doing; much like a stop-motion film. John Vidale, from the University of Southern California, said this insight can shed light on how a planet like ours evolves. Human noise has an impact on wildlife — here are two unique examples Traffic, aircraft, industry, construction. Our world is saturated with artificial noise. We know noise impacts us and other animals, but new research is shedding light on how past experiences factor into the ways wildlife adapt to our noise pollution. Researchers in one study in Animal Behaviour found that yellow warblers in the Galapagos Islands that live closer to traffic become aggressive when defending their territory in noisy conditions compared to birds in quieter areas. Çağlar Akçay, from Anglia Ruskin University, said the birds exposed to more traffic have learned their warning calls aren’t as effective when things get too noisy; and they resort to physical violence. Another study in Current Biology shows how spiders that are exposed to loud noises construct their webs differently in ways that could affect their ability to sense vibrations from prey or a potential mate. Brandi Pessman, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, found that spiders tune their webs in noisy environments like a volume dial: city spiders turn their web volume down whereas country spiders turn it up.…

Quirks and Quarks

1
Our bodies and brains fight weight loss, and more… 54:09

9 days ago54:09

54:09

An attractive new strategy for brain surgery A Canadian team is developing minimally-invasive micro-tools for brain surgery that can be operated by magnetic fields from outside of the skull. The tools, including scalpels and forceps, will enter the cranium through small incisions, and then be controlled by focused and precise magnetic fields. Eric Diller is associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Toronto and his research was published in the journal Science Robotics. Animal tool use is fishy In recent decades scientists have discovered animals from primates to birds and marine mammals can use tools — a capacity once thought to be exclusive to humans. Now scientists have discovered fish using hard surfaces to crack open hard-shelled prey and get at the meaty meal inside. The research, led by Juliette Tariel-Adam from Macquarie University, included recruiting divers and scientists from around the world to report any sightings of tool use, which led to 16 reports across five species of wrasses. The results were published in the journal Coral Reefs. Bad news — a long cold bath may be good for you For a hardy few, soaking in cold water has long been held out as being healthful and invigorating. Well, unfortunately, the latest research suggests that they’re right. Volunteers who soaked in cold water for an hour a day for a week showed improvements in autophagy, an important cellular clean-up function that typically declines with age. Kelli King is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa and was co-lead on this study, published in the journal Advanced Biology. How the unicorn of the sea uses its horn The Narwhal is a small whale distinguished by its long spiral horn — an elongated tooth. Researchers have long speculated about what the ostentatious bit of dentition is actually for, but the elusive narwhal has, until now, been hard to study. Now scientists, including Cortney Watt from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, have used drones to learn that the horn is used in several ways: to play, explore, and forage. The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Why your body and brain might be fighting your efforts to get and stay slimmer New research is revealing why it’s so difficult to keep weight off after you’ve lost it. One study in Nature found that genes in the fat cells of people who lost a significant amount of weight through bariatric surgery largely continued to behave as if they were still obese. Ferdinand von Meyenn, from ETH Zurich, said that despite these individuals becoming, in many respects, much more healthy, genes that became active during obesity remained active, and genes that were turned off, remained turned off, predisposing them to regain lost weight. In formerly obese mice, their fat cells remained much better at taking up sugars and fats. In addition, another study revealed that neurons in a primitive part of the brain hold onto memories of fat and sugar that can drive our cravings, according to a study on mice in Nature Metabolism. Guillaume de Lartigue, from the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the University of Pennsylvania, said specific neural circuits in the brain light up, depending on whether the gut received sugar or fat. Removing these neurons protected the mice from diet-induced weight gain, something de Lartigue is hoping to translate to humans to dial down impulsive eating behaviour.…

Quirks and Quarks

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Moving forests to save the butterflies, and more... 54:09

16 days ago54:09

54:09

One whale’s waste is an ocean organism’s treasure The nutrients in the ocean are not evenly distributed. Resources tend to be rich around coastlines and near the poles, and are often poorer in the open ocean and the tropics. A new study has explored how urine from migrating baleen whales is a significant way that nitrogen and other nutrients are circulated in the oceans. Joe Roman is a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont. He led the research, published in the journal Nature Communications. The underground economy: Fungi and plants trade have a network under our feet Scientists have used a custom robot to track the growth of a complex underground supply-chain network that forms between more than 80 per cent of the plant species on Earth and symbiotic fungus. This allowed them to trace the flow of carbon and nutrients across this network, that draws about 13 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the soil each year. Toby Kiers, from Vrije University in Amsterdam and the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks led the work, published in the journal Nature. Researchers capture wild sharks to get sperm samples for captive breeding In a world-first, a team of marine biologists and veterinarians collected semen from endangered wildsharks in an effort to maintain a population of genetically healthy sharks. Christine Dudgeon, from the University of Queensland and the Sunshine Coast and the Biopixel Oceans Foundation, used some of that sperm to artificially inseminate captive females. Watching planets form in a baby solar system 370 light years away, around a newborn star only five million years old, two planets are forming from the disk of gas and dust still orbiting around the star. Canadian researchers are using instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope to observe this process, and understand how the nascent planets are competing with the star for material as they grow. Dori Blakely, a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria, was the lead researcher on this article published in The Astronomical Journal. Butterfly populations are declining. Meet the people moving a forest to save them. A new study is bringing hard data to help us understand how butterfly numbers have declined steeply in recent years, due to the combination of habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide exposure. The research, co-led by Elise Zipkin, found that overall, across the United States, butterfly numbers are down 22 per cent over the past 20 years. The research was published in the journal Science. A different group of scientists is hoping to fix at least one of these problems for one species, by moving an entire forest in Mexico. The sacred fir trees, where monarch butterflies spend their winters, are struggling under climate change. Recently a team of researchers planted a thousand sacred fir trees at a new location at higher elevations to kickstart a new, future-proof forest for the butterflies to overwinter. After a few years, the researchers report the trees are doing well, in a recent paper published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Quirks producer Amanda Buckiewicz spoke to Cuauhtémoc Saénz Romero, a forest geneticist at the University of Michoacán in Mexico, and Greg O'Neill, a climate change adaptation scientist with the BC Provincial Government in the Ministry of Forests.…

Quirks and Quarks

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What fossil plants say about the evolution of life, and more… 54:09

23 days ago54:09

54:09

Is our universe inside a black hole? New evidence from JWST galaxy images New images from the James Webb Space Telescope of distant galaxies could support a mind-bending idea: that our universe was born in a black hole. The images show more of these galaxies spin clockwise, than counterclockwise. Lior Shamir, a computational astrophysicist from Kansas State University, says that may mean our universe inherited the spin of the black hole we’re currently living in, though he thinks its more likely that there’s something wrong with how we’re measuring objects in deep space. The study is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Modern-day Antarctic explorers go where no-one has gone before CBC Reporter Susan Ormiston spent a month on the Canadian Navy ship HMCS Margaret Brooke as it took a team of 15 scientists on a research trip to Antarctica. She brings us the story of Kevin Wilcox, a researcher using an uncrewed sonar vehicle to map the previously inaccessible near-shore waters of the icy continent. Finding out what juvenile sea turtles do during their ‘lost years’ Once baby sea turtles swim away from their natal beaches, they enter what marine biologists call their “lost years,” a time of critical growth spent wandering the open sea. A new study is filling in the picture of what they do during this time. The research, led by marine ecologist Katrina Phillips, involved playing a game of oceanic hide and seek to find and track over 100 sea turtles as they moved through the ocean. The work was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Concrete plans to transform cement production’s CO2 waste into new building materials Cement production is responsible for five to eight per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. A new study suggests that waste could be made into even more construction materials. Inspired by the way sea creatures build shells, Allesandro Rotto Loria — a civil and environmental engineer from Northwestern University — says they can use CO2 to boost the process to produce carbon-negative materials that could be used in materials like plaster, cement and as a replacement for sand in concrete. Their research is in the journal Advanced Sustainable Systems. A Dinosaur expert goes green — with a deep look at plant evolution Paleontologist Riley Black has authored several books on dinosaurs. But she realized she had been neglecting the organisms that made dinosaurs – and all other animals – possible: plants. Her new book, When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance, looks at how plant fossils are telling the billion-years old tale of the evolution of complex life on Earth, from creating the oxygen that we breathe, to coaxing us out of the water and onto land, and even forming the forests that humans evolved in, which shaped our very anatomy from long arms and grippy toes.…

Quirks and Quarks

1
The silent, long-term effects of COVID, and more... 54:09

4 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Watching polar bear mums and cubs emerge from their winter dens Polar Bear mothers spend the winter in warm and cozy dens, gestating and then birthing their cubs, and right about now the baby bears are taking their first steps out of the dens and beginning to explore the real world. Using satellite collars and remote camera technology, researchers from Polar Bears International, the Norwegian Polar Institute, and the San Diego Wildlife alliance, now have an exciting new picture of how and when they leave their winter refuges. The team included Louise Archer, Polar Bears International Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and their observations were published in The Journal of Wildlife Management. Lousy sleep? It’s quality, not quantity that may be your problem Researchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga have compared sleep in modern, industrial societies with non-industrialised societies, such as remote tribes in Tanzania and the Amazon. The team, led by anthropologist David Samson, found that people in modern societies sleep for significantly longer, but have weaker natural circadian rhythms, and so their sleep is not as functional as it should be. The researchers say that could be because people in industrial societies have lost touch with cues that regulate our circadian rhythms, like light and temperature changes. The results were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Greenhouse gases are messing up low-earth orbit for satellites While greenhouse gases are warming the Earth’s surface, they’re paradoxically cooling the upper atmosphere, causing it to contract. And this means trouble for low-earth orbit as space junk and defunct satellites are not running into the tenuous atmosphere and falling out of orbit as fast as they used to. This is making low earth orbit more crowded, and more dangerous. William Parker, a PhD candidate at MIT, led this research, which was published in the journal Nature Sustainability. A 3.5 billion year old crater in Australia is telling the story of the early Earth Researchers have discovered shattered rock in an area of rolling hills in Western Australia that they think is evidence of an enormous and ancient asteroid impact. This would be the oldest evidence of an impact crater preserved on Earth, and could tell us about how the surface of our planet was formed, and even how the conditions for life were created. Chris Kirkland, a professor of Geology at Curtain University in Perth Australia, was co-lead on this research with Dr. Tim Johnson. Their work was published in the journal Nature Communications. Beyond long COVID — how reinfections could be causing silent long term organ damage It’s now been five years since the COVID pandemic stopped the world in its tracks. The virus is still with us, and continues to make people sick. As many as 1 in 5 Canadians have experienced symptoms of long COVID, but scientists are finding that beyond that, each infection can also lead to long term silent cellular and organ damage. David Putrino, who’s been studying COVID’s long term effects at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, says even mild or asymptomatic COVID infections can lead to a wide range of silent long term heath impacts — compromising our immune, vascular, circulatory, renal, metabolic, gastrointestinal systems and even cognitive function.…

Quirks and Quarks

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The recipe for finding life on other planets, and more... 54:09

6 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Big birds with bitty brains are still kind of bright We’ve learned a lot about the remarkable intelligence of birds like crows and parrots, but not much work has been done on large flightless birds. A new study that explored the problem-solving abilities of emus, ostriches and rheas suggests that some of these birdy behemoths have impressive cognition too. In a first-of-its-kind study, a team led by University of Bristol’s Fay Clark trained the birds to use puzzles to get food, and they found that the rheas and emus were able to solve the puzzle easily, though the ostriches did not. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Cows jump over the moon — maybe humans should too Researchers have done a lot of work to try and understand how astronauts can best prepare for and compensate for the muscle and bone atrophy that they will experience after long periods in zero G. A new study, led by Marco Chiaberge at Johns Hopkins University, suggests that a workout that includes jumping might be beneficial. The researchers found that by training mice to repeatedly jump up from one level to another increased their knee cartilage thickness by 26 per cent. The research was published in the journal npj Microgravity. Mary had a little lamb – 11,000 years ago Sheep are among the animals that humans domesticated first, in the middle east during the dawn of agriculture. A new genetic study of hundreds of ancient sheep remains, which date across 12 millennia, is shedding light on the intertwined history of sheep and humans. The work, led by geneticist Dan Bradley of Trinity College Dublin, tells the story of how the sheep’s domestication not only gave us clothes but also milk and meat which fueled our spread around the world for thousands of years, and how humans molded sheep by selecting them for colour and wool. The research was published in the journal Science. A tiny great ape lived in Europe 12 million years ago The tiniest member of the great ape family — the group that today includes the chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas, and us — has been identified from fossils found in Germany. Nearly 12 million years ago, the 10-kilogram animal would have shared its environment with another, larger great ape species, something researchers didn’t think was possible. David Begun, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toronto, said its two fossilized teeth and a single knee bone indicated that Buronius manfredschmidi had its own ecological niche high up in the trees. The study was published in the journal PLOS One. The recipe for finding life on other planets In the last two decades we’ve discovered literally thousands of planets orbiting nearby stars. And our technology has advanced to the point where we’re on the cusp of being able to investigate whether there’s life on those planets. We speak to astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger, the founder of Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute, about her work trying to answer that question, and her book Alien Earths: Planet Hunting in the Cosmos.…

Quirks and Quarks

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Is it Dark Energy, or is time just different in space? And more… 54:09

7 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Scientists are recruiting elephant seals to learn more about the oceans’ twilight zone Below about 200 metres there’s still a lot going on in the ocean, but it’s tremendously hard to observe and understand even with modern technology. Scientists from the University of California, Santa Cruz have maintained a long-term monitoring study of elephant seals. The team, including PhD candidate Allison Payne, has discovered they can use the seals as scientific sentinels, to help humans better understand the conditions of the dark deep sea. The research was published in the journal Science. A cave in Poland reveals a grisly history of stone-age cannibalism A detailed study of the remains of ten individuals who lived — and died — 18,000 years ago in Poland has revealed that they were butchered and probably eaten as the final act in a prehistoric conflict. Characteristic cut marks on their skulls and bones show that they were systematically de-fleshed, before their fragmented remains were tossed aside. This research was led by Francesc Marginedas, a PhD candidate at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeo-ecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain. Their research was published in Scientific Reports. Our ears are weird. Is that just because they’re gills? Evolution tends to repurpose things, even as it massively transforms organisms outwardly. A fascinating example is the new finding that the unique cartilage in our external ears seems to have once been gill tissue from our ancient fish ancestors. Gage Crump from the University of Southern California made the discovery using a series of gene-editing experiments on zebrafish. The research was published in the journal Nature. Rabbits replenish their calcium by digesting their teeth Rabbit teeth constantly grow during the life of the rodents, which means they need calcium to regrow them. A new study suggests that one of the ways rabbits supply calcium for their teeth is by ingesting and recycling the tooth material that grinds off as they chew. Dr. Johanna Mäkitaipale is a veterinary orthopedic surgeon and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She led this research that was published in The Veterinary Journal. Is dark energy dying? A new theory suggests that the universe has different time zones For more than two decades, cosmologists have been invoking the idea of a mysterious dark energy to explain observations that appeared to show an acceleration in the expansion of the universe. But more recent observations are adding weight to a different theory that does away with the dark energy. Ryan Ridden, an astronomer from the University of Canterbury, said the “timescape theory” suggests time simply runs differently in the large empty regions of the universe. Their study is in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.…

Quirks and Quarks

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How AI is transforming science, and more... 54:09

8 weeks ago54:09

54:09

As soon as the last ice age glaciers melted, Indigenous people occupied this site A recently discovered archaeological site in Saskatchewan, dated to just less than 11,000 years ago is the oldest settlement in the region by about 1,500 years. It also is evidence that Indigenous people settled there as soon as the environment could support them after the glaciers disappeared. Glenn Stuart, from the University of Saskatchewan, is one of the archaeologists working along with local Indigenous community members to preserve and study the site. Just the right magnetic field will make sea turtles do a ‘happy dance’ Researchers investigating how sea turtles navigate the vast and trackless ocean have discovered just how sensitive the reptiles’ magnetic sense is, as they can even use it to identify the location of food resources. While feeding the loggerhead turtles in the lab, Kayla Goforth, a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University noticed that the turtles would perform a ‘happy dance’ when they recognized the right magnetic signature. She led this research that was published in the journal Nature. Intense exercise causes our bodies to belch out DNA that may reduce inflammation Scientists were surprised to discover that the more intensely you exercise, the more certain immune cells belch out fragments of DNA that can form webs to trap pathogens, and lead to fewer pro-inflammatory immune cells circulating in our blood. Canadian researcher Stephen Montgomery, a professor of pathology at Stanford University, said their findings suggest that circulating cell-free DNA may play a role in how exercise lowers inflammation in the body. The study was published in the journal PNAS. An ancient Antarctic duck lived at the time of T-Rex Birds are the last surviving lineage of dinosaurs, but modern birds are surprisingly ancient – dating to before the extinction of the rest of their family. An extremely rare, nearly intact bird skull found in Antarctica and dated to about 69 million years ago confirms this. This waterfowl had similarities to ducks and loons. Chris Torres is an assistant professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton California and was part of the team that analyzed this fossil. Their research was published in the journal Nature. Science is being transformed by the AI revolution The stunning advances in artificial intelligence that we see with internet AI apps are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to science. Researchers from almost every field are experimenting with this powerful new tool to diagnose disease, understand climate change, develop strategies for conservation and discover new kinds of materials. And AI is on the threshold of being able to make discoveries all by itself. Will it put scientists out of a job? Producer Amanda Buckiewicz spoke with: Jeff Clune, a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, and a senior research advisor to DeepMind. He’s also a co-author of The AI Scientist. Allison Noble, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford and a Foreign Secretary at the Royal Society, and chair of the Science in the Age of AI working group. Elissa Strome, executive director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR. Cong Lu, postdoctoral research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia and the Vector Institute, and a co-author of The AI Scientist. Fred Morstatter, a research assistant professor at the University of Southern California, and a principal scientist at USC's Information Sciences Institute.…

Quirks and Quarks

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The rapidly changing Arctic, and more 54:09

9 weeks ago54:09

54:09

A little bit of scratching can do some good, but too much can hurt Scratching an itch can feel great, so scientists decided to dig into why that is the case since we know too much scratching isn’t good for us. Dr. Dan Kaplan, a professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh, said they found that scratching drives inflammation to the skin, which, in light moderation, helps to fight bacterial skin infections. But he warns that continual or excessive scratching can prolong an itch and potentially damage the skin. Their study is in the journal Science. Bear hazing goes high-tech with drones A wildlife manager in the US has found that drones can be a safe and effective way to discourage problem bears from troubling human habitation and livestock. Wesley Sarmento started working in the prairies of Montana to prevent bear-human conflicts, but found the usual tricks of the trade were not as effective as he wanted them to be. Previously he tried to use noisemakers, dogs, trucks, and firearms, but buzzing bears with flying robots turned out to work much better. Now a PhD student at the University of Montana, he published an article about his hazing research in Frontiers in Conservation Science. Ants can remember and hold grudges against those who trouble them When ants fight with those from another nearby colony, it makes an impression. A new study has found the insects can remember the chemical signature of the aggressors, and will respond more vigorously and violently the next time they cross paths. Dr. Volker Nehring, a researcher at the University of Freiburg, Germany, describes the phenomenon as “the nasty neighbour" where ants are most aggressive to ant colonies closest to them, and says this is due to resource protection. Dr Nehring and his team’s research was published in the journal Current Biology. Scientists on the front line of permafrost thaw describe changes in the Arctic The acceleration of change in the Arctic due to global warming is transforming the landscape on a year-to-year basis, often in surprising ways. That’s according to scientists who’ve been studying the effects of climate change in the North. One study found that lakes in Western Greenland shifted from pristine blue to dirty brown from one year to the next due to increased permafrost melting and runoff. Jasmine Saros, a lake ecologist from the University of Maine, said they were astonished by the magnitude of change they saw in all 10 lakes they studied and how quickly it happened. That study was published in the journal PNAS. We also speak with William Quinton, a permafrost hydrologist from Wilfred Laurier University and the director of the Scotty Creek Research Station in southern Northwest Territories, an area he describes as “the frontline of permafrost thaw.” Quinton was part of a research team, led by Anna Virkkala from the Woodwell Climate Research Centre, that found that 34 per cent of the Arctic Boreal Zone — a region where carbon was safely locked up in the permafrost for thousands of years — has now become a carbon source. That study is in the journal Nature Climate Change.…

Quirks and Quarks

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Technology to preserve biodiversity and more… 54:09

10 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Bits of Bennu have building blocks of life NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission took six years to travel to the asteroid Bennu and return samples to Earth. Now, the first results from the analysis of these rocks are being released. Researchers found evidence of salty water, as well as the elements necessary for life, such as amino acids and the building blocks for RNA and DNA. We spoke with Kim Tait, senior curator of mineralogy at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and co-author of one of the recent studies, published in the journal Nature. Unlocking the secret of Polar bear de-icing Polar bears spend so much time going in and out of the water that they are considered marine mammals. So when they do this in the frozen Arctic, why are they not covered in ice? A new study reveals the secret turns out to lie in the unique oils they produce that covers their white fur. Julian Carolan, a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, worked with scientists in Norway, Denmark and the U.K. on this paper published in the journal Science Advances. Truffle-hunting dog finds fabulous new fungus A chance discovery has turned out to reveal a new species of North American truffle. These fungi can be desirable and valuable delicacies. An American truffle hunter, Lois Martin, and her trained dog Monza found a distinctive truffle in a city park that turned out to be a fungus new to science. Although native to North America, it was more similar to European truffles than any found in the Americas. Dr. Greg Bonito at Michigan State University named this new truffle Tuber canirevelatum, meaning the ‘dog-found’ truffle in honour of Monza and other dogs who look for truffles. The work was published in the journal Mycologia. Voiding your bowels can improve cognitive performance To maximize your cognitive function, it might be a good idea to make sure you have a poo first. That’s according to a recent study in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science. In it, scientists found that 9 out of 13 individuals improved how well they did in a mentally taxing cognitive test if they defecated first, whereas all 13 of them improved in their performance when they took a mild laxative the night before. Chia-Hua Kuo, a professor of sports medicine and nutrition at the University of Taipei, said they also saw an increase in oxygen consumption in the test subjects’ subnavel regions as they were doing the test, suggesting a previously unsuspected link between the rectum and the brain. Saving species on Earth, preserving them on the moon The world is in a biodiversity crisis. We’re losing species at an unprecedented rate, thanks to climate change, habitat loss, overexploitation and more. We look at some of the more out-of-the-box solutions that are currently in the works – from creating an internet of animals to monitor biodiversity, to saving samples of Earth’s biological resources on the moon. We spoke with: Martin Wikelski, the director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, honorary professor of ornithology at the University of Konstanz, and the scientific head of the ICARUS project. Mary Hagedorn, a senior research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and senior author of a recent paper published in the journal Bioscience proposing a passive biorepository on the moon.…

Quirks and Quarks

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Solving mysteries in our solar system, and more 54:09

11 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Reintroducing Hawaii’s sacred crow to the wild The world’s most endangered crow, the Hawaiian crow or or ʻalalā, is making tentative steps towards a comeback. After going extinct in the wild, only 120 birds remain in captivity, in two facilities operated by the San Diego Zoo. Over the years, researchers have attempted reintroductions in the bird's native habitat on the Big Island of Hawaii, but those efforts have all been unsuccessful. Recently, the team tried something different - reintroducing the birds to a different island than their native home. The initial release happened in October and so far, the team, including Bryce Masuda, has high hopes and positive signs from their latest attempt. Lasers tell us about the pterosaur’s unique tail The great flying reptiles of the dawn of the age of dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, took flight with delicate but flexible internal tail structure that allowed it to work like a kite. Scientists used recently developed technology to enable them to see a lattice-like structure in the soft tissue in the early pterosaur soft tissue that was otherwise invisible to the naked eye. Natalia Jagielska, a paleontologist at the Lyme Regis Museum in Dorset, England, said their kite-like tail vane would have stood upright and could have functioned as a display and to help them in flight. The study was published in the eLife journal, Evolutionary Biology. How gophers help re-seed volcanic landscape with life After Mt. St. Helens exploded in 1980 it left a shattered, ash-covered, barren landscape behind. But the one-time reintroduction of gophers to one area led to a remarkably fast recovery of plants and other fauna. Forty-years later, changes to the environment are still being documented by Dr. Mia Maltz, assistant professor of Microbial Ecology and Soil Earth at the University of Connecticut, and her team. They published their research in the journal Frontiers in Microbiomes. Desert ants’ magnetic navigation Desert ants that navigate the endless sands of the Sahara use the Earth’s magnetic field to find their way, which is not unusual. But unlike other animals like birds and turtles they don’t appear to have an internal compass that aligns north and south. Instead they are unique in that they use a more subtle cue – the polarity of the magnetic field. A study looking at this led by Dr. Pauline Fleischmann, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oldenburg in Germany was published in the journal Current Biology. Celestial body mysteries: dark comets and meteorites from young asteroid families The thousands of small celestial bodies in our solar system are now a bit less mysterious, thanks to several recent discoveries. One group of astronomers have traced back the origins of 84 per cent of all known meteorites that have pummeled Earth to just a few young asteroid families in the asteroid belt. Michaël Marsset, from the European Southern Observatory in Chile, said collisions in the asteroid belt create a collisional cascade that produces fragments, some of which end up raining down on Earth as meteorites. Two of their papers were published in the journal Nature and a third in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Another group of astronomers have identified two populations of stealthy dark comets that are something in between a comet and an asteroid. They’ve found fourteen of these objects whose orbital motion is comet-like, but which lack a visible tail like regular comets. Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, said they’ve found two types of these unusual solar system bodies: larger ones in an elliptical orbit out to Jupiter and smaller ones in orbit around Earth. Their study was published in the journal PNAS.…

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Climate scientists as physicians of the planet, and more 54:09

12 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Ancient human ancestors didn’t eat meat, and so couldn’t build big brains One of the main reasons scientists think we became so smart is because at some point in our evolutionary past, our ancestors started eating energy-dense meat to fuel the growth of large brains. However it hasn’t been clear when this started. Using a new technology, scientists were able to analyze the tooth enamel of seven 3.5 million year old Australopithecines to directly measure their meat consumption. Tina Lüdecke, from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, said it revealed they were primarily herbivores so meat eating would have had to come later in our evolutionary history. Their study was published in the journal Science. Building a robot bee that could one day pollinate crops Bees do an incredibly important job pollinating crops and wild plants. Now scientists in the US are trying to emulate their skills with a tiny robot bee that has all the agility and ability of the real insect. They hope eventually they can be used in indoor factory farms where real bees can’t survive. Kevin Chen, associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at M.I.T and PhD candidate Suhan Kim were a part of this project. Their research was published in the journal Science Robotics. We are made of star stuff – but how did it get here? Elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen that are essential to life were forged in supernovae billions of years ago. Now new research is helping to explain how these elements – especially essential carbon – were concentrated in such a way as to be plentifully available for the chemistry of life. The study, led in part by astronomer Trystyn Berg, discovered a cosmic conveyer belt funneling carbon in and out of our galaxy over billions of years. The research was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Australia’s vanishingly rare marsupial mole gets a genetic checkup In the southern desert of Australia, there lives an elusive and unique animal - the marsupial mole. It lives under the sand and is so rare that very few people have ever seen it. Scientists have now published the very first genetic research on this animal in the journal Science Advances, thanks to tissue samples donated by a local museum. Sarah Lucas is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Münster, Germany, and was part of the team. A climate researcher makes the case for scientist-activists The stereotype of a scientist is a dispassionate, objective and neutral seeker of nature’s truths, and many think that this makes a career in science incompatible with political activism. Canadian climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe thinks that this is a mistake. She sees her role more like that of a physician for the planet – diagnosing its ills and advocating for the health of her patient, and her patient’s inhabitants. She recently co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Climate Action arguing her case.…

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How crocheted hats help scientists learn about cats, and more 54:09

13 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Was Rome’s fall due to heavy metal poisoning making Romans dumber? Ice cores that preserve traces of atmospheric pollutants through history have revealed that industrial activity by Romans – particularly the use and production of lead – meant the air the Romans breathed was heavily contaminated. The levels were high enough to cause neurological problems, including a drop in cognitive function across the population. Joe McConnell and his team at the Desert Research Institute published their findings in the journal PNAS. Bats are surfing storms to make migration easier Migrating bats in Europe have to fly up to 2000km while pregnant, but they’ve figured out how to get a lift from the weather. The bats have been observed waiting for storm fronts, and then surfing the strong winds in front of the storm to save energy during their migration. Dina Dechmann from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, and colleagues, were able to tag bats with tiny specialized sensors to track their nocturnal movements during migration. Their paper was published in the journal Science. Squirrels have developed a taste for vole flesh Squirrels in California have been taking advantage of a boom in the population of tiny rodents called voles – by hunting and eating them. This widespread carnivorous behaviour was captured for the first time on videos and photos by a team led by behavioural ecologist Jennifer Smith, as a part of a long-term study of the squirrels. The researchers found dozens of instances of the squirrels killing the voles, which they say changes our fundamental understanding of ground squirrels. Their paper was published in the Journal of Ethology. EEG tattoos could outperform standard electrodes EEG is a valuable technology that allows researchers to monitor the electrical activity of the brain, but standard EEG electrodes are cumbersome and are hampered by the difficulty of attaching them. A new temporary EEG tattoo, made by printing conductive ink on the scalp, could be a step ahead. Luize Vasconcelos, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin helped create this ink. The research is published in the Cell Press journal Cell Biomaterials. To monitor cat brain waves, researchers made them cute hats Aude Castel, a veterinary neurologist from the Université de Montréal, and her team were studying chronic pain in cats — and ways to alleviate it — when she realized that she could crochet hats for the cats and add EEG electrodes to them in order to study their brains. Their research was published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods. When North America went to the dogs (or vice-versa) Researchers examining canid bones from Alaska dating to the last ice age have been intrigued by the complex picture it shows of dog domestication at the time. Their findings were published in the journal Science Advances. Signs of the animals’ diet are preserved in the bones, and shows that humans were clearly feeding their dogs, a clear sign of domestication. François Lanoë from the University of Arizona led the work.…

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Our Listener Question Show 54:09

14 weeks ago54:09

54:09

Genevieve Willis from London, Ontario asks: Is there any evidence to suggest that “getting cold” by, say, dressing inadequately in cold weather, or sitting in a cold draft, actually increases our susceptibility to illness? For the frigid answer, we spoke with Michael Kennedy who is an associate professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta. Jim Raso from St. Albert Alberta wrote us: My question has to do with our sense of time passing. As I have gotten older – I am 73 now – I noticed that time seemed to pass more quickly. Why does this happen? For the answer, we asked Dr. Holly K. Andersen, a professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Dan from Chateau-Richer in Quebec writes: Where does moon dust come from? We reached out to planetary geologist Gordon Osinski, a professor of Earth Sciences at Western University, who has studied samples sent back from the Apollo missions. Scott Beach from East York Ontario asks: Why do dogs sniff and lick each other's butts? To get the answer, we reached out to Simon Gadbois, the principal investigator at the Canine olfaction lab at Dalhousie University. Robert Smith from Victoria asks: Is there evidence to suggest red-heads are particularly sensitive to pain? To find out, we spoke with someone who has studied this in the past: Jeffrey Mogil, the E.P. Taylor Professor of Pain Studies at the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain at McGill University. Stephen Quinn from St. John’s, Newfoundland asks: How can the universe be expanding at the same time as galaxies are colliding? For the smashing answer, we spoke with Sara Ellison, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria. Susan Boyd from Ottawa asks: Since some of the elements in the periodic table do not occur naturally, is there a limit to the new elements that could be created? If so, what is the limiting factor? We went to the National Research Council Canada’s element expert, Juris Meija, for this answer. Robert LaRoche in Halifax asks: Why is the color of wet clothes always more vivid than when they are dry? For the answer, we turned to Sarah Purdy, a Physicist at the University of Saskatchewan who uses light to investigate materials. Paul Vander Griendt of Newmarket, Ontario asks: If animals wake up at sunrise and go to sleep at sunset, how do they cope with the varying hours of sunlight? How do they do compared to humans who are supposed to get 8 to 9 hours of sleep regardless of the length of sunlight? For the answer we turned to Ming Fei Li a Phd candidate at the University of Toronto in Anthropology who is studying the sleep patterns of animals. Marie Beaudoin from Salt Spring Island, BC asks: How do birds where the males and females look the same tell each other apart when it comes to mating?” We went to Matt Reudinik, a professor of biology at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, for the answer. Warren Saylor of London, Ontario asks: Could Neanderthals speak? If they could not, would that contribute to the dominance of Homo Sapiens? We spoke to paleoanthropologist Dr. Bence Viola, an associate professor in the department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto.…

Quirks and Quarks

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Silly seals sabotage serious science and more… 54:09

15 weeks ago54:09