How feasting black holes time their burps
Black holes are voracious eaters, but they’re also quite messy, and often after devouring a star, they’ll let out a big burp, launching jets...
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Quirks and Quarks Complete Show from CBC Radio
CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks covers the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom... and everything in between.
Episodes
20 of 50 episodesHow corals tell us climate change is supersizing El Niño
The El Niño underway in the Pacific Ocean is a natural climate phenomenon but its warming effects are being boosted by climate change. Resea...
A feather found in dino poop and more...
It’s long been a mystery why one particular avian dinosaur was the only kind to survive mass extinction, but the recent discovery of a perfe...
Summertime and the science isn’t always easy
Summer is fieldwork time for many scientists. We talk to researchers who have been busy hiking on fresh lava, capturing thousands of ticks,...
Sweat, comets and dino milk. It’s our summer question show!
Quirks & Quarks has been taking your burning questions for 50 years. And while we thought we might have answered every question there is, ou...
How to battle climate apathy, and more stories about humans
From doubting our doubts to sleuthing out scientific fraud, this week we revisit some of our favourite stories about humans.
Celebrating 50 years of Quirks & Quarks!
For our 50th anniversary celebration last October, we spoke with some of Canada's top scientists about their predictions for the future. We...
Sensing space junk, and other stellar stories
From filming a black hole to flaming hot water ice on Neptune, we revisit some of our favourite space-related stories from the past season.
Dust? Tongues? Uranus? It’s our Holiday Question Show!
On this week’s best of Quirks & Quarks , we revisit our annual holiday listener question show, with fascinating queries like: Why did a Cana...
Monkeys swallow soil to eat more junk food, and other summery science
From the science of how we sweat to solving golf's greatest mystery, we revisit some of our favourite summery segments from the past season.
Using ants to make yogurt, and other producer picks
From elephant whiskers to Arctic rhinos and even science programming in prisons, we revisit some of our producers’ favourite stories from th...
Whales, sex and rocks — it's our book show!
We revisit our conversations with authors of some of the year’s most fascinating science books in our annual holiday book show. Featuring: Q...
Pumas vs. penguins, and other clever carnivores
From tiny T. rexes to a car-sized sea monster, we revisit some of our favourite stories about predators in their prime, like: Smaller tyrann...
Summer Science Spectacular
From camping out on 'bird poop island,' chasing down wild dogs in Madagascar, or even looking for bombs in a bog in Ottawa –– no one quite d...
Sweat, comets and dino milk. It’s our summer question show!
Quirks & Quarks has been taking your burning science questions for half a century. And while we thought we might have answered every questio...
Great white sharks in hot water, and more…
Some of the oceans biggest, most powerful predators, like certain sharks and tuna, are “mesothermic” or warm-bodied. Running hot allows them...
Fossilized squirrel poop full of ancient animals, and more…
Gold miners working in the Yukon regularly find ancient ground squirrel burrows throughout the permafrost, many containing fossilized feces....
Humans and animals love the same sounds, and more...
150 years ago, Charles Darwin noticed that birds and humans were both drawn to bright plumage and elaborate display. He called this interspe...
A terrifying T. rex of the sea, and more…
The newly described Tylosaurus rex was a violent bus-sized Komodo dragon-like creature with serrated teeth. Dubbed the ‘T. rex of the sea,’...
Listening in on fish grunts, and more…
Scientists recorded audio and video of 8 different kinds of rockfish living in the wild near British Columbia, and were surprised they could...