Quirks and Quarks

How a helpless baby bird protects itself from hungry huntersThere’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.Seals have a sense of their oxygen levels, which makes them better diversSeals 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.Fruit flies can show a playful sideAs 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  of variability in personality for fruit flies. Wolf Hütteroth is an associate professor at Northumbria  University, Newcastle and was part of the team, whose research was published in the journal Current Biology.Scaring krill with a dose of penguin pooKrill, 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. Fossils tell us what dinosaurs were. How do we know what they did? 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, Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior: What They Did and How We Know.

A tree has evolved to attract lightning strikes — to eliminate the competitionScientists 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.Anti-anxiety drugs we pee out could be affecting wild salmonOur 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.  Jack Brand is a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and led the research published in the journal Science.Fossil discovery gives new insight into the mysterious DenisovansA 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.Earth’s inner core is a lot more dynamic and smushy than we previously thoughtScientists 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. Human noise has an impact on wildlife — here are two unique examplesTraffic, 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. 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. 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.

An attractive new strategy for brain surgeryA 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.Animal tool use is fishyIn 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.Bad news — a long cold bath may be good for youFor 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. How the unicorn of the sea uses its hornThe 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.Why your body and brain might be fighting your efforts to get and stay slimmerNew research is revealing why it’s so difficult to keep weight off after you’ve lost it. 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. 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.

In this enlightening discussion, guests include Joe Roman, a conservation biologist researching whale nutrient cycles, and Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist studying underground fungal networks. Christine Dudgeon sheds light on groundbreaking shark sperm collection, while Elise Zipkin explores butterfly population decline and conservation strategies. Dori Blakely shares insights from the James Webb Space Telescope on planetary formation. Together, they unravel the intricate connections in ecosystems and the innovative solutions to protect them.

Is our universe inside a black hole? New evidence from JWST galaxy imagesNew images from the James Webb Space Telescope of distant galaxies could support a mind-bending idea: that our universe was born in a black hole. The images show more of these galaxies spin clockwise, than counterclockwise. Lior Shamir, a computational astrophysicist from Kansas State University, says that may mean our universe inherited the spin of the black hole we’re currently living in, though he thinks its more likely that there’s something wrong with how we’re measuring objects in deep space. The study is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Modern-day Antarctic explorers go where no-one has gone beforeCBC Reporter Susan Ormiston spent a month on the Canadian Navy ship HMCS Margaret Brooke as it took a team of 15 scientists on a research trip to Antarctica. She brings us the story of Kevin Wilcox, a researcher using an uncrewed sonar vehicle to map the previously inaccessible near-shore waters of the icy continent.Finding out what juvenile sea turtles do during their ‘lost years’Once baby sea turtles swim away from their natal beaches, they enter what marine biologists call their “lost years,” a time of critical growth spent wandering the open sea. A new study is filling in the picture of what they do during this time. The research, led by marine ecologist Katrina Phillips, involved playing a game of oceanic hide and seek to find and track over 100 sea turtles as they moved through the ocean. The work was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Concrete plans to transform cement production’s CO2 waste into new building materialsCement production is responsible for five to eight per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions. A new study suggests that waste could be made into even more construction materials. Inspired by the way sea creatures build shells, Allesandro Rotto Loria — a civil and environmental engineer from Northwestern University — says they can use CO2 to boost the process to produce carbon-negative materials that could be used in materials like plaster, cement and as a replacement for sand in concrete. Their research is in the journal Advanced Sustainable Systems. A Dinosaur expert goes green — with a deep look at plant evolutionPaleontologist Riley Black has authored several books on dinosaurs. But she realized she had been neglecting the organisms that made dinosaurs – and all other animals – possible: plants. Her new book, When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance, looks at how plant fossils are telling the billion-years old tale of the evolution of complex life on Earth, from creating the oxygen that we breathe, to coaxing us out of the water and onto land, and even forming the forests that humans evolved in, which shaped our very anatomy from long arms and grippy toes.

Watching polar bear mums and cubs emerge from their winter densPolar Bear mothers spend the winter in warm and cozy dens, gestating and then birthing their cubs, and right about now the baby bears are taking their first steps out of the dens and beginning to explore the real world. Using satellite collars and remote camera technology, researchers from Polar Bears International, the Norwegian Polar Institute, and the San Diego Wildlife alliance, now have an exciting new picture of how and when they leave their winter refuges. The team included Louise Archer, Polar Bears International Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough, and their observations were published in The Journal of Wildlife Management.Lousy sleep? It’s quality, not quantity that may be your problemResearchers from the University of Toronto Mississauga have compared sleep in modern, industrial societies with non-industrialised societies, such as remote tribes in Tanzania and the Amazon. The team, led by anthropologist David Samson, found that people in modern societies sleep for significantly longer, but have weaker natural circadian rhythms, and so their sleep is not as functional as it should be. The researchers say that could be because people in industrial societies have lost touch with cues that regulate our circadian rhythms, like light and temperature changes. The results were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Greenhouse gases are messing up low-earth orbit for satellitesWhile greenhouse gases are warming the Earth’s surface, they’re paradoxically cooling the upper atmosphere, causing it to contract. And this means trouble for low-earth orbit as space junk and defunct satellites are not running into the tenuous atmosphere and falling out of orbit as fast as they used to. This is making low earth orbit more crowded, and more dangerous. William Parker, a PhD candidate at MIT, led this research, which was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.A 3.5 billion year old crater in Australia is telling the story of the early EarthResearchers have discovered shattered rock in an area of rolling hills in Western Australia that they think is evidence of an enormous and ancient asteroid impact. This would be the oldest evidence of an impact crater preserved on Earth, and could tell us about how the surface of our planet was formed, and even how the conditions for life were created. Chris Kirkland, a professor of Geology at Curtain University in Perth Australia, was co-lead on this research with Dr. Tim Johnson. Their work was published in the journal Nature Communications.Beyond long COVID — how reinfections could be causing silent long term organ damageIt’s now been five years since the COVID pandemic stopped the world in its tracks. The virus is still with us, and continues to make people sick. As many as 1 in 5 Canadians have experienced symptoms of long COVID, but scientists are finding that beyond that, each infection can also lead to long term silent cellular and organ damage. David Putrino, who’s been studying COVID’s long term effects at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, says even mild or asymptomatic COVID infections can lead to a wide range of silent long term heath impacts — compromising our immune, vascular, circulatory, renal, metabolic, gastrointestinal systems and even cognitive function.

Big birds with bitty brains are still kind of brightWe’ve learned a lot about the remarkable intelligence of birds like crows and parrots, but not much work has been done on large flightless birds. A new study that explored the problem-solving abilities of emus, ostriches and rheas suggests that some of these birdy behemoths have impressive cognition too. In a first-of-its-kind study, a team led by University of Bristol’s Fay Clark trained the birds to use puzzles to get food, and they found that the rheas and emus were able to solve the puzzle easily, though the ostriches did not. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.Cows jump over the moon — maybe humans should tooResearchers have done a lot of work to try and understand how astronauts can best prepare for and compensate for the muscle and bone atrophy that they will experience after long periods in zero G. A new study, led by Marco Chiaberge at Johns Hopkins University, suggests that a workout that includes jumping might be beneficial. The researchers found that by training mice to repeatedly jump up from one level to another increased their knee cartilage thickness by 26 per cent. The research was published in the journal npj Microgravity.Mary had a little lamb – 11,000 years agoSheep are among the animals that humans domesticated first, in the middle east during the dawn of agriculture. A new genetic study of hundreds of ancient sheep remains, which date across 12 millennia, is shedding light on the intertwined history of sheep and humans. The work, led by geneticist Dan Bradley of Trinity College Dublin, tells the story of how the sheep’s domestication not only gave us clothes but also milk and meat which fueled our spread around the world for thousands of years, and how humans molded sheep by selecting them for colour and wool. The research was published in the journal Science.A tiny great ape lived in Europe 12 million years agoThe tiniest member of the great ape family — the group that today includes the chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, gorillas, and us — has been identified from fossils found in Germany. Nearly 12 million years ago, the 10-kilogram animal would have shared its environment with another, larger great ape species, something researchers didn’t think was possible. David Begun, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toronto, said its two fossilized teeth and a single knee bone indicated that Buronius manfredschmidi had its own ecological niche high up in the trees. The study was published in the journal PLOS One. The recipe for finding life on other planetsIn the last two decades we’ve discovered literally thousands of planets orbiting nearby stars. And our technology has advanced to the point where we’re on the cusp of being able to investigate whether there’s life on those planets. We speak to astrophysicist Lisa Kaltenegger, the founder of Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute, about her work trying to answer that question, and her book Alien Earths: Planet Hunting in the Cosmos.

Join Allison Payne, a PhD candidate studying elephant seals, as she reveals how these incredible animals are helping scientists uncover the mysteries of the ocean's twilight zone. Gage Crump discusses the surprising link between mammalian ears and ancient fish gills. Johanna Mäkitaipale shares insights into rabbit calcium needs and skeletal health. Ryan Ridden delves into dark energy and introduces the Timescape model, challenging our understanding of the universe's expansion. Prepare for a wild ride through deep seas and cosmic mysteries!

As soon as the last ice age glaciers melted, Indigenous people occupied this siteA recently discovered archaeological site in Saskatchewan, dated to just less than 11,000 years ago is the oldest settlement in the region by about 1,500 years. It also is evidence that Indigenous people settled there as soon as the environment could support them after the glaciers disappeared. Glenn Stuart, from the University of Saskatchewan, is one of the archaeologists working along with local Indigenous community members to preserve and study the site.Just the right magnetic field will make sea turtles do a ‘happy dance’Researchers investigating how sea turtles navigate the vast and trackless ocean have discovered just how sensitive the reptiles’ magnetic sense is, as they can even use it to identify the location of food resources. While feeding the loggerhead turtles in the lab, Kayla Goforth, a postdoctoral researcher at Texas A&M University noticed that the turtles would perform a ‘happy dance’ when they recognized the right magnetic signature. She led this research that was published in the journal Nature.Intense exercise causes our bodies to belch out DNA that may reduce inflammationScientists were surprised to discover that the more intensely you exercise, the more certain immune cells belch out fragments of DNA that can form webs to trap pathogens, and lead to fewer pro-inflammatory immune cells circulating in our blood. Canadian researcher Stephen Montgomery, a professor of pathology at Stanford University, said their findings suggest that circulating cell-free DNA may play a role in how exercise lowers inflammation in the body. The study was published in the journal PNAS. An ancient Antarctic duck lived at the time of T-RexBirds are the last surviving lineage of dinosaurs, but modern birds are surprisingly ancient – dating to before the extinction of the rest of their family. An extremely rare, nearly intact bird skull found in Antarctica and dated to about 69 million years ago confirms this. This waterfowl had similarities to ducks and loons. Chris Torres is an assistant professor at the University of the Pacific in Stockton California and was part of the team that analyzed this fossil. Their research was published in the journal Nature.Science is being transformed by the AI revolutionThe stunning advances in artificial intelligence that we see with internet AI apps are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to science. Researchers from almost every field are experimenting with this powerful new tool to diagnose disease, understand climate change, develop strategies for conservation and discover new kinds of materials. And AI is on the threshold of being able to make discoveries all by itself. Will it put scientists out of a job?Producer Amanda Buckiewicz spoke with:Jeff Clune, a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute, and a senior research advisor to DeepMind. He’s also a co-author of The AI Scientist.Allison Noble, a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oxford and a Foreign Secretary at the Royal Society, and chair of the Science in the Age of AI working group.Elissa Strome, executive director of the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy at CIFAR.Cong Lu, postdoctoral research and teaching fellow at the University of British Columbia and the Vector Institute, and a co-author of The AI Scientist.Fred Morstatter, a research assistant professor at the University of Southern California, and a principal scientist at USC's Information Sciences Institute.

A little bit of scratching can do some good, but too much can hurtScratching an itch can feel great, so scientists decided to dig into why that is the case since we know too much scratching isn’t good for us. Dr. Dan Kaplan, a professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh, said they found that scratching drives inflammation to the skin, which, in light moderation, helps to fight bacterial skin infections. But he warns that continual or excessive scratching can prolong an itch and potentially damage the skin. Their study is in the journal Science. Bear hazing goes high-tech with dronesA wildlife manager in the US has found that drones can be a safe and effective way to discourage problem bears from troubling human habitation and livestock. Wesley Sarmento started working in the prairies of Montana to prevent bear-human conflicts, but found the usual tricks of the trade were not as effective as he wanted them to be. Previously he tried to use noisemakers, dogs, trucks, and firearms, but buzzing bears with flying robots turned out to work much better. Now a PhD student at the University of Montana, he published an article about his hazing research in Frontiers in Conservation Science.Ants can remember and hold grudges against those who trouble themWhen ants fight with those from another nearby colony, it makes an impression. A new study has found the insects can remember the chemical signature of the aggressors, and will respond more vigorously and violently the next time they cross paths. Dr. Volker Nehring, a researcher at the University of Freiburg, Germany, describes the phenomenon as “the nasty neighbour" where ants are most aggressive to ant colonies closest to them, and says this is due to resource protection. Dr Nehring and his team’s research was published in the journal Current Biology.Scientists on the front line of permafrost thaw describe changes in the Arctic The acceleration of change in the Arctic due to global warming is transforming the landscape on a year-to-year basis, often in surprising ways. That’s according to scientists who’ve been studying the effects of climate change in the North. One study found that lakes in Western Greenland shifted from pristine blue to dirty brown from one year to the next due to increased permafrost melting and runoff. Jasmine Saros, a lake ecologist from the University of Maine, said they were astonished by the magnitude of change they saw in all 10 lakes they studied and how quickly it happened. That study was published in the journal PNAS. We also speak with William Quinton, a permafrost hydrologist from Wilfred Laurier University and the director of the Scotty Creek Research Station in southern Northwest Territories, an area he describes as “the frontline of permafrost thaw.” Quinton was part of a research team, led by Anna Virkkala from the Woodwell Climate Research Centre, that found that 34 per cent of the Arctic Boreal Zone — a region where carbon was safely locked up in the permafrost for thousands of years — has now become a carbon source. That study is in the journal Nature Climate Change.