TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Quirks and Quarks

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26 episodes
2025 to 2026
Median: 54 minutes
Collection: Science

Description (podcaster-provided):

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

CBC Radio’s *Quirks and Quarks* is a wide-ranging science podcast that surveys discoveries and debates from the largest scales of the universe to the smallest scales of biology and matter. Across its recent topics, it regularly blends space science—astronomy, cosmology, planetary formation, black holes, dark matter, asteroid hazards, SETI, and the practical challenges of spaceflight—with Earth science such as climate history, sea level rise, glaciers, earthquakes, and the environmental impacts of industry and technology (including geoengineering and pollution from rockets).

A major throughline is life science in many forms: animal behaviour and evolution (from primates, whales, elephants, insects, and reptiles to extinct megafauna and dinosaurs), ecology and conservation in a warming world, and the surprising mechanisms that let organisms survive extremes. The show also frequently explores human biology and neuroscience, including memory, perception, injury and recovery, immunity, genetics of lifespan, and how pathogens persist in bodies and ecosystems.

Another recurring emphasis is how scientists learn what they know: field studies and long-term monitoring, fossil and ancient DNA/RNA evidence, instrumentation and imaging, AI-assisted analysis, and the process of sorting signals from noise—sometimes extending to questions about research integrity. Interspersed are listener-question and book-focused formats, along with reflective episodes that look back at scientific predictions and milestones, highlighting how scientific understanding changes over time.