Quirks and Quarks
CBC
Categorieën: Wetenschap en geneeskunde
Luister naar de laatste aflevering:
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.
Vorige afleveringen
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606 - How animals eating, excreting and expiring is like the world's bloodstream, and more Fri, 15 Mar 2024
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605 - How disabled primates thrive in the wild and more… Fri, 08 Mar 2024
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604 - The boreal forest is on the move, and we need to understand how, and more... Fri, 01 Mar 2024
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603 - Icelanders reap the costs and benefits of living on a volcanic island and more… Fri, 23 Feb 2024
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602 - A post valentine’s look at humpback mating songs and a marsupial that’s sleepless for sex Fri, 16 Feb 2024
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601 - Scientists explore which came first, the chicken or the egg, and more… Fri, 09 Feb 2024
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600 - An ancient tree’s crowning glory and more… Fri, 02 Feb 2024
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599 - The aftermath of a record-smashing volcano: Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai two years later, and more... Fri, 26 Jan 2024
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598 - Can diet and exercise be replaced by pills and more… Fri, 19 Jan 2024
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597 - Could buried hydrogen help save the world, and more… Fri, 12 Jan 2024
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596 - A Cave of bones could rewrite the history of human evolution, and more… Fri, 05 Jan 2024
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595 - Our annual holiday question show Fri, 29 Dec 2023
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594 - Seasonal science with reindeer, special stars and miracle babies… Fri, 22 Dec 2023
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593 - The Quirks & Quarks holiday book show! Fri, 15 Dec 2023
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592 - A young carnivorous dinosaur’s last meal and more Fri, 08 Dec 2023
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591 - Cat facts — the latest science on our feline companions Fri, 01 Dec 2023
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590 - How biodiversity contributes to human health and more… Fri, 24 Nov 2023
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589 - Alien blobs in the Earth’s mantle, and much more Fri, 17 Nov 2023
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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
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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
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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
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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
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584 - Quantum dot Nobel, super-hot supercontinent, lunar laser paving, neanderthal lion hunt, and evolving Eve Fri, 13 Oct 2023
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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
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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
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581 - Quirks & Quarks presents White Coat Black Art Tue, 26 Sep 2023
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580 - Studying the holes in an asteroid, Great Slave lake life, stone-age wood, finding the right homes for bats, understanding marine heat waves and aurorae on other planets Fri, 22 Sep 2023