There is lots of prettiness to the Canadian view of seasonal change. There’s something out there, though, that can’t be seen– and yet it is as exciting as the crisp air calling for layers, and as stirring as the color on the dying leaves. Every Saturday afternoon, this part of the world gets a radio signal from the CBC within which rides a new episode of Quirks and Quarks!
The fortieth season premier of this famed science investigation programme was broadcast last Saturday, September 6th, and served up the latest in fresh, assorted science stories. Bob McDonald returned as our guide amidst the latest activity in world scientific inquiry, once again granting us access to the products and possible consequences of such endeavours.
Canadian science culture is in no better hands than those of its champion, Mr. McDonald. With his team of producers, he has made Quirks and Quarks into a powerhouse of what many call ”popular science”. Since the show’s inception in the 1970s, popular science came into its golden era and science writers have created a name for themselves at every major news publication. This show still carries a unique legacy: it’s pure public inquiry– facts and findings yet uncolored by politics, the most useful kind of publicized inquiry available right now.
Nowhere else can we get faster access to the experts in the latest issues of interest and concern. Some of these stories are distressing– Ebola killing researchers, and a surge in tusk-less elephant carcasses— but McDonald’s candour in building rapport with his guests lets us see where solutions can come from. If we can be a part of that solution (even by raising awareness and sticking to the facts we hear from these researchers), our own experience can be as scientific as that of the people who started the conversation.
Not all the stories seem relevant to our lives but that doesn’t mean we can’t use the lessons they reflect to remind us what it means to benefit from a scientific mindset. Take last episode’s segment on moose spit, as an example. Dr. Bazely of the York University in Toronto found that moose saliva inhibits toxin growth on fescue grass– a finding that came from discussions of “Friday afternoon science”, as the professor calls it, and a “why not just see” attitude. By applying a scientific method to a place that instinct told them to look, Dr. Bazely’s team gained insight into the evolution of animal diet and digestion.
In a world that needs better ways to sustain large-scale agriculture and clean water reservoirs, it isn’t such a stretch to consider that such a study could become very valuable very quickly. Most of the time, the world around us– even our government policies– are organized by instinct alone. Commissioned studies easily get swayed by superstition and various biases when carried out.
Quirks and Quarks episodes arrive as a welcome break to hundreds thousands of the world’s thinkers, but it is a learning experience as much as one of leisure. Each hour covers news from an unlimited spectrum of domains (this last episode brought us the words of biologists, a computational geneticist, a paleontologist, and a glacial ecologist). The show’s style of truthiness and its focus on observable facts is refreshing at a time when many science stories need to appear alongside other topics of popular discussion, and need to have an arresting headline– which might cause the public to learn to disregard the discussion as a whole.
Even if we don’t know the basics of astrophysics, we can still use the latest news from space to shift our perspective of what kind of life system we are a part of. By working according to a clearer picture of the cosmos and our place in it, we can be more truthful with ourselves and others, and our work in the world can reflect these circumstances that have been found to be closest to reality.
To listen to the latest Quirks and Quarks and access a six-month archive of shows, visit this page. One can also simply input “Quirks” into whatever podcast aggregator service they have. The show plays on CBC Radio at noon EST on Saturday and at 3 PM on Mondays, airing on Sirius XM channel 169 at the same time.
This week’s episode was released today! It has an interview with the CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society who was on the expedition that discovered the remains of one of Cpt. Sir John Franklin’s ship earlier this week. On the side, Bob McDonald published his latest column on the two-way relationship between this discovery and the changing Arctic climate.
Also, series producer Jim Lebens debuts “The Next Big Thing”, a series examining the building of science mega-projects, and what we can expect from the inquiry being conducted at these places. First up in the series: the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Thirty-five countries are trying to get this thing built so they can see whether nuclear fusion is a reliable and sustainable source for electric power!
photo of the ITER in Cadarache, France, from Belgium’s info-site on the project http://iter.rma.ac.be/
As It is Found 