Quirks and Quarks

An elephant’s trunk is incredibly strong and rugged, and yet it is one of the most sensitive touch organs in the animal kingdom. New research reveals that this sensitivity is partly powered by over 1000 whiskers.PLUS:A new 'inside out' solar system is making astronomers question planet formationPaleo-Inuit people in the high Arctic were masterful seafarers, new study showsTwo-month-old babies can categorize objects in their brainHow insects deal with smog or microplastics can impact them and the environment

Researchers made the surprising discovery that Alaska beluga whales have swinging sex lives — and that could be their key to survival in the warming Arctic.Plus:mission to the 'doomsday' Thwaites glacier in Antarctica ends in disappointment near-infrared light therapy offers hope to football players with brain injuries with nuclear power making a comeback, what's changed since the last Atomic Age?

Scientists spent nearly 25 years studying close to 800 polar bears in the Barents Sea region and discovered that those polar bears seem to be doing just fine, even though melting sea ice is also a major issue.PLUS:Sargassum seaweed is becoming such a problem, you can see it from spaceWhy some people only get mild sniffles with a cold and others get sickA woolly rhino's DNA found in an ancient wolf’s stomach reveals their quick demiseHow to change a memory — one scientist's quest to understand memory permanence

Some dogs are more adept at learning language than others. Researchers studying these special dogs discovered that, much like toddlers, these smart furry canine companions can pick up words just by eavesdropping on their owners' conversations.PLUSTracking space debris using seismometersUsing nitrogen to boost treesHow Mars shapes our climateExtracting ice age mammoth RNA and using lichens to find dino bones

We may share a common ancestor with chimpanzees, but somewhere along the evolutionary line to us, our brains took a major detour. New research suggests that chimpanzees can rationally weigh evidence, a trait that used to be thought as uniquely human.PLUS:Why penguin-eating pumas live closer together in PatagoniaAnts sacrifice the strength of individual workers for quantityMapping the landmass beneath Antarctica's massive ice sheetHow deep sea ocean environments affect fish body shape

An unassuming fossilized slab in the basement of a museum in Brazil turned out to be 110-million-year-old dinosaur vomit, and inside that vomit were the bones of two strange, seagull-sized pterosaurs.PLUS:Loss of fresh groundwater is now the leading driver of sea level riseHow doubting your self-doubt makes you doubt lessA huge black hole in a peculiar galaxy may date from the universe’s earliest moments Shining a light on where viruses hide out in our bodies, and how they make us sick

On this week’s episode of Quirks & Quarks, it's our ever-popular and always satisfying Holiday Listener Question Show that includes: Why did a Canadian astronaut's eyesight change when she went to space? How is the dust inside our homes changing? Why do some professional athletes stick out their tongues when they play?Why are most fruits round, but bananas and pineapple are not? What would have happened if the dino-killing asteroid never struck Earth?We'll satisfy all these scientific curiosities and many more!

In 2000, Quirks & Quarks celebrated its 25th anniversary by travelling forward in time — to 2025 — to find out how science had changed in the years since. In this fictitious future, our present, Zargon the robot, wakes up a Bob McDonald clone from the year 2000 to speak with scientists about 25 years of science. It's a mindbending audio time-capsule with predictions that were oddly prescient, sometimes unsettling or wildly wrong.

We talk to authors of some of this year’s most fascinating science books in our annual Holiday Book Show.INCLUDING: Questioning the purpose of whale song — for love or echolocation?Journeying through deep geological time to better tackle problems of the futureBiological sex is complicated but that's what helps animals like humans thriveMini reviews of: The Martians by David Baron, Dinner With King Tut by Sam Kean and The Mind Electric by Pria Anand. 

Next stop - the moon! Jeremy Hansen stops by our studio to chat about how he’s prepping to be the first Canadian to go to the moon.Plus:Santa’s reindeer may be losing their antlers –– and climate change could be the culpritReindeer are the only animal in the deer family where the females also grow antlers, and they typically have a full rack over the wintertime and drop them in June when they give birth. University of Guelph PhD student Allegra Love was monitoring reindeer on Fogo Island in Newfoundland, when she made a surprising discovery that female reindeer are losing and growing their antlers much earlier than usual. This can put more stress on the animal during a crucial part of their pregnancy, and the researchers think this could eventually lead to the reindeer losing their antlers altogether. The work was published in the journal Ecosphere.Pterosaur brains reveal clues about why these mighty fliers took to the skiesFlight has only evolved among vertebrates three times — in bats, birds, and first in pterosaurs. How pterosaurs first took to the skies was always a mystery to scientists, until the discovery of a fossilized 230-million year old pterosaur relative in Brazil. An international team, including Ohio University professor Lawrence Witmer, used an MRI for detailed analysis of the fossilized skull, to pinpoint the miniscule brain changes that happened as the animal developed the capacity to fly. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.Scientists are using AI to find life in 3 billion year old rocksEarth’s earliest signs of life are often incredibly difficult to detect. An international team of researchers have developed a new tool that uses AI to find “whispers” of life locked inside ancient rocks. Using this tool, the researchers, including astrobiologist Michael Wong from Carnegie Science, were able to detect fresh chemical evidence of life in rocks that are 3.3 billion years old. This tool can not only be used to explore the origins of life here on Earth, but also on Mars and other planetary bodies. The work was published in the journal PNAS.

Scientists are shedding light on the strange, car-sized, armoured fish that lived 360 million years ago in what is now Cleveland. Plus: The cosmic collider that gave us our moon came from our own solar system, soccer fanatics' brains are wired differently than regular fans, industrial chemicals are hurting our microbiome, and scientists are using our brains to build a better computer.

On this week’s episode: a mini tyrannosaur is a new species, ants redesign to avoid illness, toxic lead gave humans the edge over Neanderthals, invasive fish are evolving to avoid eradication attempts, and how big mining projects — and attempts to hurry them along — can spell bad news for the environment.

This week: bees trained to keep track of time, eating small amounts of plastic can kill ocean animals, scientists spot winds blowing from our black hole, a "one-two punch" earthquake may be coming for the Pacific coast and what “drunken trees” can tell us about our warming climate.

On this week's episode: tracking down a stellar explosion, climate apathy, arctic foxes are key in northern food web, why golf balls lip out of holes and making snake bites less deadly.

On this week's episode: studying a rare visitor to our solar system, eating saturated fats can mess with our internal clocks, holding hands with our 2 million year old ancestors, woodpeckers drill into trees like hammers, and the pros and cons of geoengineering.

On this week's episode: selling sunlight on demand, rhinos roamed Canada’s Arctic 23 million years ago, making a more precise parachute using kirigami, the winner of this year's prestigious Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal and uncovering widespread scientific fraud.

On this week's spooktacular episode: Wolves are afraid of the big bad human, methane spewing from Montreal’s largest snow dump, screaming babies make us hot to get our attention, baby pterosaurs died in a torrential storm and mind-controlling parasites turn bugs into zombies.

Nobel Prize in medicine for a leash on our immune systemOur immune system has enormous power to defend us against the wide range of pathogens and invaders that nature sends at us. But it’s a double-edged sword, and can target its powerful weapons against us as well. This year’s Nobel prize in Medicine or Physiology went to a group who discovered a critical mechanism that keeps the immune system in check, under normal circumstances, giving them new insights into the diseases that occur when it goes wrong.Yogurt with a creepy-crawly secret ingredientA team of researchers has duplicated an ancient recipe for yogurt that uses a unique ingredient to initiate fermentation: ants. They added squished ants to fresh milk, buried it in an anthill to incubate it, and enjoyed zesty yogurt soon after. A microbiological analysis showed that the ants contributed a bacteria to the yogurt that is also present in sourdough starter.An ancestor of the largest dinosaurs was a dog-sized bipedResearchers have discovered a 230 million year old fossil high in the Andes of Argentina that is the precursor to the giant, long-necked sauropod dinosaurs like the iconic brontosaurus. This animal, however, is a two-legged herbivore that likely weighed less than 20 kilograms.Nobel in physics awarded for laying the groundwork for quantum computing Quantum tunneling is a strange phenomenon in which subatomic particles can pass through apparently impenetrable objects like magic. This year’s Nobel prize in physics was awarded to a team that discovered that this strange quantum phenomena can happen on larger scales too, and how their superconducting circuit also absorbs and emits energy at distinct energy levels, laying the groundwork for quantum computers.Neanderthals systematically rendered fat from animal bonesScientists think that the fragmented bones of at least 172 animals discovered at a Neanderthal site in Germany represent the remains of a large-scale processing site where they extracted nutritious and useful fat. This could be used for a range of things, from skin protection to preserving meat similar to pemmican.Moose are hot. Are they bothered?During the fall rut moose, particularly the males, are very active searching for mates and competing with rivals. This activity generates a large amount of heat, which could be a problem as moose don’t sweat. Scientists are investigating if, in a warmer climate, this might be interfering with their reproductive success.

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, 2025 we celebrated with an anniversary show in front of a live audience at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. We had guests from a range of scientific disciplines looking at what we’ve learned in the last 50 years, and hazarding some risky predictions about what the next half century could hold. Our panelists were:Evan Fraser, Director of Arrell Food Institute and Professor of Geography at the University of Guelph, co-chair of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council, a fellow of the Pierre Elliot Trudeau foundation, and a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.Katie Mack, Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.Luke Stark, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies at Western University in London, Ontario, and a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Azrieli Global Scholar with the Future Flourishing Program.Laura Tozer, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto and director of the Climate Policy & Action Lab at the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough.Ana Luisa Trejos, a professor in the Department Electrical and Computer Engineering and the School of Biomedical Engineering and Canada Research chair in wearable mechatronics at Western University in London, Ontario.Yvonne Bombard, professor at the University of Toronto and scientist and Canada Research Chair at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, where she directs the Genomics Health Services Research Program.

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 ahead of the Canadian launch of her IMAX film Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees. Bob and Jane spoke about how a girl growing up in urban England developed a love for animals, why scientists critical of her work were wrong, and how she was able to get close to the wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park. Scientists can predict what colour a person is looking at based on brain activityScientists can predict what colour a person is looking at based on brain activityDo you see what I see? New research says you do. Using brain imaging technology, scientists were able to predict what colour a person was looking at by reading their brain activity. This suggests that everyone responds essentially the same way to certain colours. Michael Bannert, a postdoctoral student at Tuebingen University in Germany, led the research published in the Journal of Neuroscience.A Mars rover spots strong evidence of ancient life on the red planetEarlier this month, NASA revealed that their Perseverance rover gathered what could be the strongest evidence yet that life may have existed on Mars. Using the rover's scientific instruments, scientists identified two minerals in an ancient river that they say are most often found as a result of microbial life here on Earth. They also set aside a sample for a future return mission. Joel Hurowitz, a geologist at Stony Brook University, says he can't wait to get the sample back to Earth to find out if it truly is a sign of life. It was published in the journal Nature.Life at the limits: searching for 'Intraterrestrial' life deep within the Earth’s crustA new book explores the latest research into the search for life deep inside the Earth, where the sun doesn't shine and oxygen doesn't reach. Scientists travel to some of the most geologically dangerous regions of our planet to understand how life forms in extreme environments, and answer deep questions like the origin of life on Earth and what life might be like off of our planet. Karen Lloyd, a subsurface biogeochemist from the University of Southern California, is the author of Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life On Earth.