Quirks and Quarks

Mar 20 2025 26 ep. 53 mins 27k

Quirks and Quarks Podcast artwork

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

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

Mar 20 2025 54 mins

Is our universe inside a black hole? New evidence from JWST galaxy imagesNew 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

The silent, long-term effects of COVID, and more...

Mar 13 2025 54 mins

Watching polar bear mums and cubs emerge from their winter densPolar 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

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

Feb 27 2025 54 mins

Big birds with bitty brains are still kind of brightWe’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 s

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

Feb 20 2025 54 mins

Scientists are recruiting elephant seals to learn more about the oceans’ twilight zoneBelow 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

How AI is transforming science, and more...

Feb 13 2025 54 mins

As soon as the last ice age glaciers melted, Indigenous people occupied this siteA 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 S

The rapidly changing Arctic, and more

Feb 06 2025 54 mins

A little bit of scratching can do some good, but too much can hurtScratching 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 m

Technology to preserve biodiversity and more…

Jan 30 2025 54 mins

Bits of Bennu have building blocks of lifeNASA’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

Solving mysteries in our solar system, and more

Jan 23 2025 54 mins

Reintroducing Hawaii’s sacred crow to the wildThe 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 Isl

Climate scientists as physicians of the planet, and more

Jan 16 2025 54 mins

Ancient human ancestors didn’t eat meat, and so couldn’t build big brainsOne 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 too

How crocheted hats help scientists learn about cats, and more

Jan 09 2025 54 mins

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 co