Male giraffes drink and savour female giraffe urine to see if she’s ready to mate; What scientists do when a volcano upsets their climate change record; Europe’s first farmers suffered more violence than their hunter-gatherer ancestors; Recycled wastewater can be cleaner than conventional sources; Don’t worry about zombie fungus. Do worry about other fungal ... Show More
Oct 10
Celebrating 50 years of Quirks & Quarks!
On October 9, 1975, CBC listeners across the country heard David Suzuki introduce the very first episode of Quirks & Quarks. 50 years and thousands of interviews later, Quirks is still going strong, bringing wonders from the world of science to listeners, old and new.On October 7 ... Show More
54m 9s
Oct 3
Life at the limits, and more…
Remembering Jane: a conversation with Jane Goodall on her storied careerScience lost a unique pioneering figure this week. Jane Goodall — primatologist, conservationist and activist — died at the age of 91. In 2002, she visited the Quirks & Quarks studio to talk with Bob McDonald ... Show More
54m 9s
Sep 26
Tracking Grizzlies in B.C with AI and more...
Let’s go, Grue Jays!New kinds of birds are not usually discovered while browsing Facebook, but an ornithologist spotted something he’d never seen before in a photo, and tracked down the strange bird. Brian Stokes, a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, discovered i ... Show More
54m 9s
Feb 2024
Dengue, decaying dead bodies, and a stone age deer trap
In the news pod, as an outbreak of Dengue fever rips through Brazil, we ask, should we be worried in Europe? Also, scientists describe the microbes responsible for the decomposition of animal flesh, and a miraculous underwater archaelogical find sheds light on ancient hunting pra ... Show More
28m 3s
Aug 2018
Cavendish banana survival; Guillemot egg shape; Unexpected Truth About Animals; Tambora's rainstorm
The last banana you probably ate was a type called Cavendish. But this, our last commercially viable variety is under severe threat, as the fungus, called Tropical Race 4, is laying waste to swathes of Cavendish banana plants across China, Asia and Australia. Recently, scientists ... Show More
28m 8s
Mar 2017
Earth's Earliest Life, The Benefits of Pollution, Sexuality and Science and New ideas on Evolution
The World's oldest sedimentary rocks reveal traces of our earliest ancestors. New analysis shows life forms existed more than 3.7 billion years ago which were very similar to those found in our deepest oceans today, microbial life around hydro thermal vents. Some pollution might ... Show More
29m 19s