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Quirks and Quarks

Quirks and Quarks

CBC

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

606 - How animals eating, excreting and expiring is like the world's bloodstream, and more
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  • 606 - How animals eating, excreting and expiring is like the world's bloodstream, and more

    Why a detective is studying blood spatters in zero-gravity


    There hasn’t been a murder on the International Space Station — yet. But Crime Scene Investigator Zack Kowalske has been studying how blood spatters in microgravity so that when someone does commit the first astro-cide, he’ll be able to use science to figure out whodunit. Kowalske sent a blood substitute for a ride on a parabolic microgravity flight to study how the absence of gravity changes how it moves, and discovered that surface tension takes over to shape how the blood splatters. The research was published in the journal Forensic Science International Reports.


    Lifting the fog to let starlight shine through at the cosmic dawn


    Not too long after the Big Bang, the universe went dark for many millions of years. Stars, black holes and galaxies began to form, but the universe was full of a cosmic fog in the form of light-absorbing hydrogen gas that blocked light from shining through. Hakim Atek, from the Paris Institute of Astrophysics led a group that used the James Webb Space Telescope to identify what cleared that fog: dwarf galaxies. In his new study in the journal Nature, Atek describes how young and tiny galaxies full of super-bright stars emitted enough radiation to burn through the fog and fill the universe with light. 


    Do whales get hot flashes? They have menopause


    We don’t know if whales experience the same symptoms as human women, but in five known species of toothed whales, females do experience menopause. This is unusual as extended post-reproductive life is very rare in mammals — most of the time animals reproduce until the end of their lifespan. A new study led by Sam Ellis from the University of Exeter suggests that they have it for the same reason humans are thought to: because grandmothers are useful to have around. The research was published in the journal Nature.


    Bees can learn tasks that are more complicated than they can invent


    Researchers have laboriously taught bumblebees a complex, multi-step task that they never would have learned in nature, and found that once they learned it, other bumblebees could learn to do it from then. This suggests that they share with humans the ability to hold cultural knowledge that exceeds their own innovative capabilities. Behavioural scientist Alice Bridges was part of the team and the research was published in the journal Nature. 


    Our planet’s circulatory system depends on animals eating, excreting and expiring


    Did you know our planet has a circulatory system? It moves vast amounts of nutrients over huge distances, processing them to extract energy and efficiently recycle them as well. It’s called animal life, and in a new book called Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World, biologist Joe Roman explains how it works — and how restoring wild animal populations might be the best nature-based tool we have to beat the climate crisis.

    Fri, 15 Mar 2024 - 54min
  • 605 - How disabled primates thrive in the wild and more…

    Nature’s nurturing side — disabled primates thrive in the wild with community support


    Survival of the fittest for primates in the wild often includes them going out of their way to accommodate those with physical disabilities. In a study in the American Journal of Primatology, scientists reviewed 114 studies of a wide range of non-human primates that spanned more than nine decades. Brogan Stewart, a PhD candidate from Concordia was part of the team that found that more often than not, the physical disabilities arose as a result of human activities, and in the face of those pressures, primates show a remarkable resilience in how they care for those with malformations or impairments.


    Beetle larvae feeding on dino feathers left signs of that relationship trapped in amber


    Bits left behind from a beetle larvae feasting on dinosaur feathers shed by a theropod became trapped in tree resin that preserved evidence of this relationship for 105 million years. The beetle larvae is related to a beetle that’s known to live in birds’ nests and feed on their feathers. Ricardo Perez de la Fuente, the senior author of the study in PNAS from Oxford University Museum of Natural History, said finding dinosaur feathers is a find in itself but to find evidence of two organisms in deep time interacting is incredibly rare. 


    Jellyfish demonstrate how it’s possible to learn and remember even without a brain


    A jellyfish the size of a pinky nail can learn to spot and dodge obstacles using their visual system with 24 eyes but no centralized brain. By simulating their natural murky mangrove environment in a lab, scientists discovered how quickly the box jellyfish learned to maneuver around roots in their path. Jan Bielecki, a biologist at Kiel University, said their findings in the journal Current Biology suggest that learning is an integral function of neurons.


    Bottlenose dolphins sense their prey’s electrical fields through their whisker dimples


    Dolphins were once thought to be acoustic specialists due to their hearing ability and how they detect prey through their reflected pings using echo-location. But when their next meal is hiding in the sand, bottlenose dolphins also seem to be able to hone in on their prey by sensing their electrical fields. Tim Hüttner, a biologist at Nuremberg Zoo, said dolphins likely use echo-location to detect from afar and electroreception to close in on their prey. His research was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.


    How documenting the disappearance of the great auk led to the discovery of extinction


    Before a fateful trip in 1858 when two biologists traveled to Iceland in search of the rare penguin-like great auk, the word “extinction” had never been used to describe a species that humans wiped out of existence. After being unable to locate any living great auks, John Wolley and Alfred Newton turned their attention to documenting the demise of this flightless bird. The new book, The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction, Icelandic anthropologist Gísli Pálsson explores the case that ushered in our modern understanding of extinction. 


    Listener question


    Chris Corbett from North Sydney asks: If we see the star Betelgeuse, that’s 642 light years from Earth, going supernova, does that mean it might have already gone supernova? 


    For the answer, we went to Jess McIvor, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia.

    Fri, 08 Mar 2024 - 54min
  • 604 - The boreal forest is on the move, and we need to understand how, and more...

    Speedy ocean predators change their skin colour to signal they’re going in for the kill (1:02)

    Marlin are predatory fish that can reach tremendous speeds in pursuit of food, making collisions between them potentially deadly. A new study has shown that the fish display bright and vivid skin colours to signal to other marlin when they’re attacking prey, so as to avoid butting heads. Alicia Burns and her team from the Science of Intelligence Cluster, Humboldt University used drones to capture video footage of the marlins’ hunting behaviour.


    The tiny genetic fluke that led humans — and other great apes — to lose our tails (9:15)

    Back when in our evolutionary history, a fragment of genetic material accidentally found itself in in a gene long been known to be important for the development of our entire back end. The result of this mutation, according to a study in the journal Nature, was that we and our great ape ancestors lost our tails. Itai Yanai, a cancer biologist from New York University Grossman Medical School, identified the mutation and found when they duplicated it in mice, they also lost their tails. 


    A cannibal star shows signs of its last meal (18:06)

    Astronomers have identified a nearby white dwarf star with what they are calling a ‘scar’ of material visible on its surface. This was probably an asteroid flung towards the star, ripped apart by its gravity, and its rubble drawn onto the star’s surface by its powerful magnetic field. This is the first time such a phenomenon has been seen. This study was conducted by a team including astronomer John Landstreet, a professor emeritus from the Physics and Astronomy Department at Western University.


    Stone age craftsmen acted like engineers when selecting materials for their tools (26:32)

    A new study of what it takes to make efficient and effective stone tools, like the ones ancient humans were producing back in the Middle Stone Age, shows how discriminating they were in the materials they selected. Patrick Schmidt, an archaeologist from University of Tübingen, published a study in the journal PNAS about a model he developed to assess how well suited the raw materials were for the type of tools they were creating. Schmidt said their findings suggest that stone age craftsmen had an engineer’s understanding of the mechanical properties of the materials they used.


    Boreal forest on the move — the past, present, and potential future of the ‘lungs of the planet’ (35:39)

    The boreal forest has an important role in maintaining a healthy planet, by storing carbon, purifying the air and water, and helping to regulate the climate. Researchers are using novel ways to understand how the boreal forest has changed over time, to help predict how it can change in the future.


    Paleoecologist Sandra Brügger traced a detailed history of the forests in Eastern Canada over the past 850 years by studying trapped pollen found thousands of kilometers away in the Greenland ice sheet. The ice cores allowed the team to look at the shrinking and expansion of the forest since the Little Ice Age, and spot the effects of humans as they took over the landscape. The research was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.


    Then, by doing detailed analysis of trees along the Brooks mountain range in Alaska, a team of researchers including Colin Maher discovered a link between retreating sea ice and an expanding Boreal forest. When the sea ice disappears, the open water generates more snow, which not only blankets the landscape and protects the young seedlings, but it also helps the soil unlock more nutrients for the growing trees. The research was published in the journal Science.

    Fri, 01 Mar 2024 - 54min
  • 603 - Icelanders reap the costs and benefits of living on a volcanic island and more…

    We now know what happened to a supernova discovered by a Canadian 37 years ago (0:58)

    A mystery about the ultimate fate of an exploding star has been solved. Canadian astronomer Ian Shelton discovered the new bright light in the sky back in February 1987, and recognized it as the first supernova to be visible to the naked eye in 400 years. In a new study in the journal Science, astrophysicist Claes Fransson from Stockholm University, confirmed that the remaining cinder collapsed into a super-dense neutron star.


    A vibrating pill makes pigs feel full (10:30)

    There’s a lot of interest in weight loss drugs right now, but a new technology could one day be able to help control appetite without pharmaceuticals. Researchers at MIT have developed a mechanical pill that, when ingested, vibrates in the gut, stimulating the nerves that signal fullness much like drinking a full glass of water before a meal. The research was led by Shriya Srinivasan, a former MIT graduate student who is now an assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard University. She says that while it hasn’t been tested in humans, pigs ate 40% less food after ingesting the pill. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.


    Wildebeest push Zebras out in front in the annual Serengeti migration (18:22)

    Nearly two million animals — zebras, wildebeest and gazelles — migrate through Africa’s Serengeti plain every year. It was thought the Zebras led the migration. But a new large-scale study has shown that the reason the Zebras go first is that they’re being pushed ahead by the more numerous Wildebeest who eat everything in sight. Michael Anderson from Wake Forest University in North Carolina shares the new findings in this migration pattern.


    Temperature and pollution are conspiring to mess up sea turtle sex ratios (26:55)

    Biologists have known that higher temperatures cause endangered green sea turtle hatchlings to develop as females more often. Now a team has discovered that pollution can exacerbate this, causing sex ratios to skew even more. Arthur Barraza of the Australian Rivers Institute in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University in Australia said this could add to the turtles’ difficulties if too few males are available for reproduction. The research was published in Frontiers in Marine Science.


    How Icelanders suffer and benefit from their volcanically active home (36:14)

    Scientists studying the recent volcanic activity near the town of Grindavik now have a much better understanding of what’s behind the recurring eruptions. Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, said they’ve seen pressure building up and moving underground repeatedly before erupting at the surface. Their study was published in the journal Science. 


    Over in the northeast region of the country, in Kafla, scientists and engineers are busy preparing to tunnel into a relatively shallow magma chamber. Hjalti Páll Ingólfsson, the director of GEORG, described their plan to dig into the magma chamber that was discovered by accident for scientific research. However they are also interested in whether it can be exploited as a potential energy source ten times more powerful than current geothermal energy sources. 

    Fri, 23 Feb 2024 - 54min
  • 602 - A post valentine’s look at humpback mating songs and a marsupial that’s sleepless for sex

    Atlantic ocean circulation edging closer to potentially catastrophic climate tipping point

    The stability of much of the world’s climate depends on ocean currents in the Atlantic that bring warm water from the tropics north and send cool water south. New research in the journal Science Advances confirms what scientists have long feared: that we are on course to this tipping point that could cut off this important circulation pattern, with severe consequences. René van Westen from Utrecht University, said if we reach this critical threshold, it could plunge Europe into a deep freeze, disrupt rains in India, South America and Africa, and lead to even more sea level rise along the eastern North American coast — all within 100 years.

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    Humpback whales look for quiet corners to broadcast their breeding songs

    Scientists wanted to know why the thousands of humpback whales in Hawaii for breeding season move closer to shore to sing their choruses at night. Anke Kuegler, a marine biologist at Syracuse University, tracked whales to get a better understanding of their daily movement patterns. She found that during the day, they take their songs offshore, likely to ensure potential mates or other male competitors can hear their songs in the crowded underwater environment. Their research was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

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    A tiny marsupial sacrifices everything — including sleep and life itself — for love

    The Antechinus, a small mouse-like marsupial that is native to Australia, has a short, frenzied, three week-long annual breeding season, after which the males drop dead. A new study, led by Erika Zaid at La Trobe University, shows the males will sacrifice a significant amount of sleep to ensure they don’t miss out on their one shot at reproductive success. The researchers don't believe the sleep loss leads to their demise—in fact, they show very little signs of exhaustion despite losing out on so many zzz’s.

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    How to encourage climate action without bumming people out

    In a global study involving almost 60,000 participants in 63 countries, behavioural psychologists compared 11 different ways of talking about climate change to see which one encouraged the most action. Madalina Vlasceanu and her team at New York University found that, unsurprisingly, the results varied widely depending on demographics. Some of the more successful interventions tested include writing a letter to future generations, showing examples of past effective collective action, and emphasizing scientific consensus on the causes of climate change.

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    Saturn’s ‘death star’ moon could have the water of life

    Liquid water has been found in what astronomers say is the solar system’s most unlikely place 

    Saturn’s moon Mimas is a small body with an irregular orbit, best known for its resemblance to the Death Star in the Star Wars movies. A new study in the journal Nature, led by astronomer Valery Lainey, suggests it has a liquid layer of water beneath its frozen surface, which may mean life-sustaining water is far more common in the solar system than we thought. 

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    Moths aren’t drawn to the flame - they’re just really confused by them

    A new study suggests that insects flit around artificial light at night because they are confused, not because of a fatal attraction. Sam Fabian and Yash Sondhi used motion capture and high speed imagery to understand insects’ flight patterns, and found that they always turned their backs to the light, which leaves them trapped in a spiral around the source. This suggests the insects are mistaking the lights for the sky, which normally helps tell them which way is up.

    Fri, 16 Feb 2024 - 54min
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