Quirks and Quarks

<p><strong>Energy with a grain of salt</strong></p><p>Researchers have developed a new sodium metal powered fuel cell with up to triple the output for its weight of a lithium-ion battery. The team from&nbsp; MIT, including Yet-Ming Chiang, think these fuel cells could have enormous potential for electric vehicles — including flight. They say sodium can be electrically produced from salt on a large scale to facilitate this technology. The research was published in the journal Joule.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Plants hear their pollinators, and produce sweet nectar in response</strong></p><p>A new study has found that plants can respond to the distinctive vibrations of pollinating insects by activating sugar-producing genes to produce rich nectar. In contrast they respond to the sound of nectar-stealing non-pollinators by cutting back on sugar. Francesca Barbero, from the University of Turin in Italy, presented this work at a recent joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and 25th International Congress on Acoustics.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Penguin poop helps create the cooling clouds over Antarctica&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Penguin guano is rich in ammonia, and when it accumulates in penguin rookeries in Antarctica, that ammonia is released into the atmosphere, encouraging cloud production. Those clouds reflect sunlight into space, but can also trap sunlight reflected from the ice, so have complex climate interactions. This connection was discovered by University of Helsinki researcher Matthew Boyer, and was published in the journal Nature.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Giant sloth family tree suggests trees are just a recent part of it</strong></p><p>Sloths used to be giants the size of bears and even elephants before disappearing around 12,000 years ago. An international group of paleontologists including University of Toronto’s Gerry De Iuliis have assembled a comprehensive family tree of the sloth to understand how a group that used to dominate the landscape was winnowed away to only a handful of relatively small, tree dwelling species. The research was published in the journal Science.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Eradicating diseases — Can we wipe out ancient and modern plagues forever?</strong></p><p>In 1980 the World Health Organization declared Smallpox officially eradicated, meaning that for the first time, a plague that killed hundreds of millions of people had been eliminated by human ingenuity. It opened the question of whether we could do this for other lethal threats? We look at efforts to eradicate Polio, an ancient plague, and HIV, a more modern epidemic, to understand how researchers are trying to eradicate these diseases , how close they’ve come, and what’s preventing their final victory.</p><p><br></p><p>Quirks spoke to Stan Houston, an infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine and public health at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. He’s worked on treating HIV and tuberculosis in places such as Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Ecuador and Alberta.</p><p><br></p><p>Catherine Hankins was the chief scientific adviser for the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS in Geneva, Switzerland. And in 2013, she was named to the Order of Canada and in 2023 was inducted in the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. She is currently an adjunct professor at the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University and a senior fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development. </p>

<p><strong>Mutant super-powers give Korean sea women diving abilities</strong></p><p>The Haenyeo, or sea women, of the Korean island of Jeju have been celebrated historically for their remarkable diving abilities. For hour after hour they dive in frigid waters harvesting sea-life, through pregnancy and into old age. A new study has shown they are able to do this because of specific genetic adaptations that appeared in their ancestors more than a thousand years ago. These genes make them more tolerant to the cold, and decrease diastolic blood pressure. The women also spend a lifetime training, beginning to dive at age 15 and continuing on until their 80s or even 90s. Melissa Ilardo of Utah University and her team published their findings in the journal Cell Reports.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>This dessert is automatic and autonomous&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Care for a slice of robo-cake? Scientists in Europe have baked up a cake with pneumatically powered animated gummy bears, and candles lit by chocolate batteries. They think their edible robotics could develop in the future to food that could bring itself to the hungry and medicine could deliver itself to the sick. Mario Caironi of the Italian Institute of Technology and his colleagues presented their creation at Expo 2025 Osaka.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Shrinking Nemo — heat is causing clownfish to downsize</strong></p><p>Scientists have found that clownfish, made famous by the Disney movie Finding Nemo, have an ability never seen before in fish in the coral reefs. When the water they live in gets warmer, they are able to shrink their bodies — becoming a few per cent of their body length shorter — to cope with the stress of the heat. Melissa Versteeg of Newcastle University says the size of the clown anemonefish is important for their survival and their ranking within their hierarchical society. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>When the music moves you — the brain science of groove</strong></p><p>You know that groove feeling you get when you listen to certain music that compels you to shake your bootie? Scientists in France investigated how our brains experience groovy music to better understand how we anticipate rhythms in time. They discovered that we perceive time in the motor region that controls movement. Benjamin Morillion from Aix Marseille Université said they also found a specific rhythm in the brain that helps us process information in time, that could predict if a person thought the music was groovy. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Scientists hope a new storm lab will help us understand destructive weather</strong></p><p>Extreme weather is far less predictable than it used to be, and now a new research centre at Western University wants to transform our understanding of Canada’s unique weather systems. The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory will collect nation-wide data on extreme weather, including hailstorms, tornadoes, and flash flooding, and look for patterns to help predict where they’ll be hitting and how to prevent the most damage.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Producer Amanda Buckiewicz spoke with:</p><p><br></p><p>Greg Kopp, ImpactWX Chair in Severe Storms Engineering and CSSL founding director at Western University</p><p>Harold Brooks, senior research scientist at NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory</p><p>John Allen, associate professor of meteorology at Central Michigan University</p><p>Paul Kovacs, executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University.</p><p>Tanya Brown-Giammanco, director of Disaster and Failure Studies at NIST</p><p><br></p>

<p><strong>Chimpanzees lay down mad beats to communicate</strong></p><p>Apart from their rich vocal palette, chimpanzees drum on trees to communicate over long distances. A new interdisciplinary study, led in part by PhD student Vesta Eleuteri and primatologist Cat Hobaiter from the University of St. Andrews, has explored the details of the rhythms they used, and found that different populations drum with rhythms which are similar to the beats in human music. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>An exciting new fossil of an early ancestor of modern birds gives insight into evolution</strong></p><p>Archaeopteryx, a 150 million year-old bird-like dinosaur, is known from about a dozen fossils found in Germany. A new one that has been studied at Chicago’s Field Museum may be the best preserved yet, and is giving researchers like paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor new insights into how the ancient animal moved around the Jurassic landscape. The research was published in the journal Nature.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>A house with good bones — in more ways than one</strong></p><p>Inspired by the structure of bone, researchers have created limestone-like biomineralized construction materials using a fungal-scaffold that they seeded with bacteria. Montana State University’s Chelsea Heveran said they demonstrated they could mold it into specific shapes that had internal properties similar to bone, and that it remained alive for a month. It’s early days yet, but she envisions a day when they can grow living structural material on site that may even be able heal themselves. The study is in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>A different kind of emotional band-aid</strong></p><p>Scientists have created a clever combination of physical sensors and computer technology to produce a flexible band-aid like device that can accurately read emotions when it is stuck to the face. It’s not quite mind reading, but could give physicians better insight into the emotional state of their patients. Huanyu Cheng of Penn State led the work, which was published in the journal Nano Letters.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>A scientist explores what it takes to live a longer, better life</strong></p><p>Do you want to live forever? As he noticed himself showing signs of age, immunologist John Tregoning decided to find out what he could do to make that possible. So he explored the investigations that scientists are doing into why we age and die — and tried a few experiments on himself. Bob speaks with him about his new book <em>Live Forever? A Curious Scientists’ Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death.&nbsp;</em></p><p>Tregoning dutifully documents everything he discovers as he undergoes testing for his heart, gets his genes sequenced, has a bronchoscopy, and follows an extreme diet, among other experiments. But he comes to the conclusion that “when it comes to improving life outcomes, exercise considerably trumps nearly everything I am planning to do whilst writing this book.”</p>

In this discussion, Elodie Freymann, a biologist from Oxford, reveals how chimpanzees use medicinal plants for self-care, highlighting their surprising healing behaviors. Joseph Moysiuk, a paleontology curator, shares insights on the Cambrian explosion and a newly discovered fossil that adds complexity to our understanding of extinction. David Stephen, a physicist, describes how quantum computing can solve seemingly impossible puzzles, while the group navigates the challenges of information overload and misinformation in today's digital age.

Join an intriguing discussion with Andreas Hejnol, a zoology professor uncovering the evolutionary origins of the anus, and Peter Eisert, who tackles the complexities of deepfake detection in our digital age. Learn how crows not only use tools but also demonstrate surprising geometry skills, thanks to insights from Andreas Nieder. Discover Anirudh Patel's research on magnetars and their cosmic link to heavy elements, alongside Eran Elhaik's groundbreaking forensic microbiology methods, revolutionizing crime-solving approaches.

Join a lineup of fascinating guests! Daniel Rubinoff shares the eerie life of a caterpillar that uses insect parts for camouflage. Claryana Araújo-Wang discusses river dolphins' unique aerial urination as a surprising form of communication. Branden Murphy explores how the Snowball Earth era shaped life on our planet, while Paul George reveals the innovative use of car air filters to study antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Timothy Allan uncovers the significance of obsidian in Indigenous trade, and Maëlan Tomasek highlights fish cognition, demonstrating their ability to recognize humans.

<p><strong>All the colours of the rainbow, plus one</strong></p><p>Researchers have fired lasers directly into the eye to stimulate photoreceptors, and produce the perception of a colour that does not exist in nature. They describe it as a “supersaturated teal,” and hope the technique will allow them to better understand colour vision and perhaps lead to treatments for vision problems. Austin Roorda has been developing this technology using mirrors, lasers and optical devices. He is a professor of Optometry and Vision Science at University of California, Berkeley. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Following in the footsteps of an ancient ankylosaur</strong></p><p>Paleontologists have found fossil footprints of an armoured dinosaur in the Canadian Rockies that fill in a critical gap in the fossil record. The footprints belonged to a club-tailed ankylosaur about five to six metres long, and are the first evidence of this type of dinosaur living in North America in a period known as the middle Cretaceous. The research was led by Victoria Arbour, curator of paleontology at the Royal B.C. Museum, and published in the journal Vertebrate Paleontology.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Did the Neanderthals die from sunburn?</strong></p><p>Neanderthals disappeared 40,000 years ago, and new research suggests this corresponds to a period of weakness in the Earth’s magnetic field that allowed an increase in the solar radiation reaching the surface. Researchers think they have evidence that modern humans were able to protect themselves from the sun better than Neanderthals could, and this might have contributed to the Neanderthal extinction. Raven Garvey is an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. Her team’s research was published in the journal Science.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Cloudy with a chance of ammonia mushballs</strong></p><p>New observations and models of activity within Jupiter’s stormy atmosphere is giving a weather report for the giant planet, and it’s pretty extreme. Most interestingly, researchers predict conditions that could lead to violent lightning storms producing softball sized frozen ammonia “mushballs” that would rain through the upper atmosphere. The research was led by Chris Moeckel, a planetary scientist and aerospace engineer at the University of California-Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, and was published in the journal Science Advances.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Shattering heat records: climate change is turning out to be worse than expected</strong></p><p>In the last few years, we’ve seen global temperatures rising faster, with more extreme localized heatwaves, than climate models predicted. Climate scientists are trying to understand this by investigating the underlying factors behind these heating trends.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Richard Allan, from the University of Reading in the U.K., was expecting a larger than normal rise in global temperatures due to natural fluctuations, but global temperatures in 2023 and 2024 were much higher than expected. Their recent study in the journal Environmental Research Letters found a growing imbalance in the earth’s heat system, with increasingly more heat coming in than leaving, in large part due to changes we’ve seen in global cloud cover.</p><p><br></p><p>This global heating is not happening evenly around the world. Kai Kornhuber, from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria and Columbia Climate School in New York, found regional hotspots that are experiencing unexpected extreme heat, likely due to a combination of factors. That study is in the journal PNAS.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p>

<p><strong>How a helpless baby bird protects itself from hungry hunters</strong></p><p>There’s not a more vulnerable creature in nature than a baby bird. Tiny and immobile, they’re easy pickings for predators. But the chicks of the white-necked jacobin hummingbird have evolved a unique defence. They disguise themselves as poisonous caterpillars to discourage those that might eat them. Jay Falk, an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado and Scott Taylor, director of the Mountain Research Station and associate professor at the University of Colorado, studied these birds in Panama. Their research was published in the journal Ecology.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Seals have a sense of their oxygen levels, which makes them better divers</strong></p><p>Seals can dive at length to tremendous depth thanks to some remarkable adaptations, like the ability to collapse their lungs, and radically lower their heart rate. Chris McKnight, a senior research fellow at the University of St Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit in Scotland, led a study looking to see if tweaking oxygen and C02 levels changed the seals’ dive times. The researchers discovered that the seals have the unique ability to measure the oxygen levels in their tissues, so they can anticipate when they need to return to the surface before they get into trouble. The research was published in the journal Science.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Fruit flies can show a playful side</strong></p><p>As the joke goes, time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Researchers recently demonstrated that fruit flies enjoy more than just aged produce. Using a custom carousel built to fly scale, scientists found that some, but not all, of their fruit flies would play on it, enjoying an activity that had nothing to do with the necessities of life. This brings up the possibility&nbsp; of variability in personality for fruit flies. Wolf Hütteroth is an associate professor at Northumbria&nbsp; University, Newcastle and was part of the team, whose research was published in the journal Current Biology.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Scaring krill with a dose of penguin poo</strong></p><p>Krill, the small, shrimp-like creatures that swarm the world’s oceans and are particularly abundant in southern oceans, play a big role in marine food webs, connecting microscopic organisms with many of the oceans’ larger animal species. Researchers in Australia investigated how krill respond to predator cues, like the smell of their feces. Nicole Hellessey, from the University of Tasmania, said the mere whiff of penguin feces affects the Antarctic krills’ feeding behaviour and causes them to take frantic evasive action. The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Fossils tell us what dinosaurs were. How do we know what they did?&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Dinosaur bones can tell amazing stories about these prehistoric beasts, but how do we piece together how they behaved? A new book dives into the many lines of evidence that can shed light on the behaviour of these extinct creatures. From fossils, to tracks they left behind, to their modern day descendents, paleontologist David Hone from Queen Mary University of London explores how scientists develop robust theories about how dinosaurs lived in his new book, <em>Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior: What They Did and How We Know. </em></p>

<p><strong>A tree has evolved to attract lightning strikes — to eliminate the competition</strong></p><p>Scientists working in Panama noticed that a particular tropical tree species was frequently struck by lightning, but was infrequently killed by the strikes. Forest ecologist Evan Gora found that Dipteryx oleifera trees were often the last ones standing after a lightning strike, which can kill over 100 trees with a single bolt. His team discovered the giant trees were more electrically conductive than other species, which allows them to not only survive strikes, but also channel lightning into parasitic vines and competing trees around them. The research was published in the journal New Phytologist.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Anti-anxiety drugs we pee out could be affecting wild salmon</strong></p><p>Our bodies only process some of the pharmaceuticals we take, which means when we pee, we’re releasing traces of drugs into the ecosystem. A study of the impact of trace amounts of anti-anxiety drugs on juvenile salmon suggests they might become too brave for their own survival. &nbsp;Jack Brand is a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and led the research published in the journal Science.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Fossil discovery gives new insight into the mysterious Denisovans</strong></p><p>A jawbone pulled up by fishers off the coast of Taiwan in 2008 has proven to be a unique discovery. Analysis of preserved protein in the fossil has proved it is from a male Denisovan — a mysterious species of ancient human known from only fragmentary bones and ancient DNA. This gives new insight into how widespread this mysterious branch of humanity was. The research was led by a team including Takumi Tsutaya and Enrico Cappellini at the University of Copenhagen, and published in the journal Science.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Earth’s inner core is a lot more dynamic and smushy than we previously thought</strong></p><p>Scientists used to think the inner core of our planet was a solid sphere of metal, but a new study in Nature Geoscience suggests its softer outer layers shift and deform over time. The researchers used pairs of earthquakes from the same location as X-rays to peer inside Earth to gauge what the inner core is doing; much like a stop-motion film. John Vidale, from the University of Southern California, said this insight can shed light on how a planet like ours evolves.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Human noise has an impact on wildlife — here are two unique examples</strong></p><p>Traffic, aircraft, industry, construction. Our world is saturated with artificial noise. We know noise impacts us and other animals, but new research is shedding light on how past experiences factor into the ways wildlife adapt to our noise pollution.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Researchers in one study in Animal Behaviour found that yellow warblers in the Galapagos Islands that live closer to traffic become aggressive when defending their territory in noisy conditions compared to birds in quieter areas. Çağlar Akçay, from Anglia Ruskin University, said the birds exposed to more traffic have learned their warning calls aren’t as effective when things get too noisy; and they resort to physical violence.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Another study in Current Biology shows how spiders that are exposed to loud noises construct their webs differently in ways that could affect their ability to sense vibrations from prey or a potential mate. Brandi Pessman, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, found that spiders tune their webs in noisy environments like a volume dial: city spiders turn their web volume down whereas country spiders turn it up. </p>

<p><strong>An attractive new strategy for brain surgery</strong></p><p>A Canadian team is developing minimally-invasive micro-tools for brain surgery that can be operated by magnetic fields from outside of the skull. The tools, including scalpels and forceps, will enter the cranium through small incisions, and then be controlled by focused and precise magnetic fields. Eric Diller is associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Toronto and his research was published in the journal Science Robotics.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Animal tool use is fishy</strong></p><p>In recent decades scientists have discovered animals from primates to birds and marine mammals can use tools — a capacity once thought to be exclusive to humans. Now scientists have discovered fish using hard surfaces to crack open hard-shelled prey and get at the meaty meal inside. The research, led by Juliette Tariel-Adam from Macquarie University, included recruiting divers and scientists from around the world to report any sightings of tool use, which led to 16 reports across five species of wrasses. The results were published in the journal Coral Reefs.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Bad news — a long cold bath may be good for you</strong></p><p>For a hardy few, soaking in cold water has long been held out as being healthful and invigorating. Well, unfortunately, the latest research suggests that they’re right. Volunteers who soaked in cold water for an hour a day for a week showed improvements in autophagy, an important cellular clean-up function that typically declines with age. Kelli King is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Ottawa and was co-lead on this study, published in the journal Advanced Biology.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p><strong>How the unicorn of the sea uses its horn</strong></p><p>The Narwhal is a small whale distinguished by its long spiral horn — an elongated tooth. Researchers have long speculated about what the ostentatious bit of dentition is actually for, but the elusive narwhal has, until now, been hard to study. Now scientists, including Cortney Watt from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, have used drones to learn that the horn is used in several ways: to play, explore, and forage. The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Why your body and brain might be fighting your efforts to get and stay slimmer</strong></p><p>New research is revealing why it’s so difficult to keep weight off after you’ve lost it.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>One study in Nature found that genes in the fat cells of people who lost a significant amount of weight through bariatric surgery largely continued to behave as if they were still obese. Ferdinand von Meyenn, from ETH Zurich, said that despite these individuals becoming, in many respects, much more healthy, genes that became active during obesity remained active, and genes that were turned off, remained turned off, predisposing them to regain lost weight. In formerly obese mice, their fat cells remained much better at taking up sugars and fats.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>In addition, another study revealed that neurons in a primitive part of the brain hold onto memories of fat and sugar that can drive our cravings, according to a study on mice in Nature Metabolism. Guillaume de Lartigue, from the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the University of Pennsylvania, said specific neural circuits in the brain light up, depending on whether the gut received sugar or fat. Removing these neurons protected the mice from diet-induced weight gain, something de Lartigue is hoping to translate to humans to dial down impulsive eating behaviour.</p>