Quirks and Quarks
CBC
Categorias: Ciencia y medicina
Escuchar el último episodio:
How animals dealt with the ‘Anthropause’ during COVID lockdowns (1:04)
During the COVID lockdowns human behaviour changed dramatically, and wildlife scientists were interested in how that in turn changed the behaviour of animals in urban, rural and wilderness ecosystems. In a massive study of camera trap images, a team from the University of British Columbia has built a somewhat surprising picture of how animals responded to a human lockdown. Cole Burton, Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Mammal Conservation at the University of British Columbia, was part of the team and their research was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution
Scientists helping maintain an essential ice road to a northern community (9:40)
The only ground connection between the community of Délı̨nę in the NWT and the rest of the country is a winter ice road that crosses Great Bear Lake. But climate warming in the north is making the season for the road shorter, and the ice on the lake less stable. A team of scientists from Wilfrid Laurier University, led by Homa Kheyrollah Pour, are supplementing traditional knowledge about the ice with drones, sensors, satellites and radar to help the community maintain a safe connection with the world.
Stars nudging the solar system’s planets leads to literal chaos (17:40)
The orbits of the planets in our solar system are in a complex dance, orchestrated by the gravitational pull from the sun but influenced by their interactions with each other. Now, due the findings of a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, that dance is a lot harder to predict. Nathan Kaib, from the Planetary Science Institute, said the chaos that stars passing by our solar system introduces to simulations deep into the past or far into the future make our planetary promenade predictions a lot less certain.
A freaky fish, the gar, really is a living fossil because evolution has barely changed it (26:33)`
The seven species of gar fish alive today are nearly indistinguishable from their prehistoric fossilised relatives that lived millions of years ago. Now in a new study in the journal Evolution, scientists describe why these “living fossils” have barely changed and why two lineages separated by 105-million years can hybridise. Chase Brownstein, a graduate student at Yale University, discovered the gar’s genome has changed less over time than any other species we know, a finding which could hold the key to fighting human diseases like cancer.
Water, water, everywhere. But will we have enough to drink? (33:47)
To mark world water day, Quirks & Quarks producer Amanda Buckiewicz is looking at the challenges we’re facing with our global freshwater resources. It’s one of Nature’s bounties, and vital to agriculture and healthy ecosystems. But climate change and overexploitation are creating a global water crisis as glaciers melt, snowpack becomes less predictable, rainfall patterns change, and we overdraw the global groundwater bank.
We spoke with:
Miina Porkka, associate professor from the University of Eastern Finland. Related paper published in the journal Nature.
Christina Aragon, PhD student at Oregon State University. Related paper published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.
Katrina Moser, associate professor and chair of the department of Geography and Environment at Western University.
Scott Jasechko, associate professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Related paper published in the journal Nature.
Episodios anteriores
-
607 - The future of freshwater — will we have a drop to drink, and more. Fri, 22 Mar 2024
-
606 - How animals eating, excreting and expiring is like the world's bloodstream, and more Fri, 15 Mar 2024
-
605 - How disabled primates thrive in the wild and more… Fri, 08 Mar 2024
-
604 - The boreal forest is on the move, and we need to understand how, and more... Fri, 01 Mar 2024
-
603 - Icelanders reap the costs and benefits of living on a volcanic island and more… Fri, 23 Feb 2024
-
602 - A post valentine’s look at humpback mating songs and a marsupial that’s sleepless for sex Fri, 16 Feb 2024
-
601 - Scientists explore which came first, the chicken or the egg, and more… Fri, 09 Feb 2024
-
600 - An ancient tree’s crowning glory and more… Fri, 02 Feb 2024
-
599 - The aftermath of a record-smashing volcano: Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai two years later, and more... Fri, 26 Jan 2024
-
598 - Can diet and exercise be replaced by pills and more… Fri, 19 Jan 2024
-
597 - Could buried hydrogen help save the world, and more… Fri, 12 Jan 2024
-
596 - A Cave of bones could rewrite the history of human evolution, and more… Fri, 05 Jan 2024
-
595 - Our annual holiday question show Fri, 29 Dec 2023
-
594 - Seasonal science with reindeer, special stars and miracle babies… Fri, 22 Dec 2023
-
593 - The Quirks & Quarks holiday book show! Fri, 15 Dec 2023
-
592 - A young carnivorous dinosaur’s last meal and more Fri, 08 Dec 2023
-
591 - Cat facts — the latest science on our feline companions Fri, 01 Dec 2023
-
590 - How biodiversity contributes to human health and more… Fri, 24 Nov 2023
-
589 - Alien blobs in the Earth’s mantle, and much more Fri, 17 Nov 2023
-
588 - Eating fossil fuels, sea stars get a head, Right whale diet, music soothes pain and does biology suggest we lack free will? Fri, 10 Nov 2023
-
587 - AI research prize and risks, football and lifespan, smart glasses see with sound, most powerful solar storm and killer whale contamination Fri, 03 Nov 2023
-
586 - Antarctic ice will melt for a century, the necrobiome recycles your corpse,how apes hang around, brain waves characterize false memories, and finding the biosignatures of long COVID Fri, 27 Oct 2023
-
585 - NASA’s metal mission, hungry hippos chew badly, music synchronizes us, cicada boom is trees bane and risks and rewards of deep sea mining Mon, 23 Oct 2023
-
584 - Quantum dot Nobel, super-hot supercontinent, lunar laser paving, neanderthal lion hunt, and evolving Eve Fri, 13 Oct 2023
-
583 - Nobel for vaccine key, human voices scare wildlife, baby black holes, fire and extinctions and concrete is a hard environmental problem. Fri, 06 Oct 2023
-
582 - Trilobite’s last meal, Antimatter falls down, C. difficile in hospitals, African cows and cowboys in the Americas and appreciating ugly babies Fri, 29 Sep 2023