Quirks & Quarks

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

The cloning debate is back in the news, after researchers in Oregon cloned a monkey embryo, then destroyed it to harvest embryonic stem cells. The technique, if applied to humans, could lead to treatments for serious illnesses, such as Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and spinal injuries. But it also raises ethical issues about the use of embryos and the scary possibility of creating a cloned human.

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

Washoe, the first chimpanzee to learn sign language, passed away recently at the age of 42. With a “vocabulary” of between 200 and 250 words, she has been communicating with humans since 1966, and even passed her skills onto other chimps living with her. There is some debate among primatologists about Washoe’s communication skills. Was she actually using language or just imitating her handlers, the way a dog understands signals and words from its owner?

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

According to the Retail Council of Canada, we spend just over a billion dollars every year on Halloween. That’s about $33 per person. So Please don’t tell me we can’t afford to explore space.

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the protection of Lake Superior’s famous north shore and about 10,000 square kilometres of water, making it the largest fresh water marine reserve in the world. It’s an impressive move, much to the delight of Parks Canada, which has been pushing for the Park for a decade. But there is a much greater need for protected areas off our beleaguered seacoasts.

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

For the first time in the history of the space program, two women are commanding space missions at the same time. Retired Air Force Colonel Pamela Melroy is leading the crew on Space Shuttle Discovery, while Dr. Peggy Whitson, who’s been in space since October 10th, commands the International Space Station. Their handshake in the tunnel connecting the shuttle to the space station this week was a milestone for NASA, but considering the space program is 50 years old, it was a long time coming.

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

I had an interesting summer, driving an assortment of clean cars: a fuel-cell- powered Ford in Vancouver, some cars that people had converted themselves to electric drives, a solar-powered car, and the hottest two-seater I’ve ever been in, the Tesla. It has a 250-horsepower electric motor that pins your head against the headrest and keeps it there - no matter what the speedometer reads.

While we should applaud the efforts of the green car movement, there is another issue associated with them: how many more cars, clean or otherwise, can our roads take?

By Bob McDonald, host of the science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

Nuclear power will be necessary to meet future demands for electricity.

There, I said it.

Now, before you begin writing the hate mail, this isn’t about Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or other mega-reactors like those found in Ontario. This is about small nuclear, an old idea that is coming back in a new form that could solve a lot of our energy and greenhouse gas problems.

By Bob McDonald, host of the CBC science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

Burning plants is better than burning rocks.

That’s the philosophy behind using biofuels instead of fossil fuels. Plants grow back, so the carbon released by burning them is re-absorbed by the next generation that grows to replace them. Burning rocks such as coal releases carbon from plants that lived millions of years ago - and those plants don’t come back. So the carbon stays in the atmosphere.

Biofuels are supposed to be carbon neutral, so we can burn as much as we can produce. It sounds good, but they still come with an environmental cost that may catch up with us in the future.

By Bob McDonald, host of the science radio program Quirks & Quarks.

The entire Space Age has happened within my lifetime, which could be interpreted as, either I’m really old, or the Space Age is remarkably young. I prefer the latter.

I remember, as a six-year-old, seeing the bold headline on the front page of the newspaper, “Russians Send Artificial Satellite Into Outer Space”, or something like that. Few people at the time had any idea how much the dawn of the Space Age would change our way of thinking, and more importantly, how differently we would see ourselves from the high perspective of space. No one could imagine that humans would step on the Moon less than 12 years later; and as I watched the space race develop, I wondered if I would be the first to step on Mars.

By Bob McDonald

News reports coming out of Peru this week sounded like a classic science fiction horror scenario: A fireball streaks across the sky, crashing to the ground in a thunderous explosion. People rush to a large, smoldering crater that was blasted out of the ground and are overcome by noxious fumes. Even cattle are struck ill, as rumours of glowing material and dangerous radiation emanating from the rock that fell from space spread through the media.

The incident underlines how even small meteorites can trigger calamities when they strike the Earth. And we never see them coming.