We end our season with our always popular and always fascinating Quirks & Quarks Listener Question Show.
Evelyn Campbell in Vancouver, British Columbia asks: If you were in space and died, would your body break down?
For the answer we contacted Daryl Haggard, astronomer in the Department of Physics at McGill University and the McGill Space Institute. He explained that there are no microbes in space that act to break down your body, although it would persist in a “freeze-dried” state.
If you died in space, your body would not decompose, even inside a space suit. (NASA)
Bernie Buzik, of Wainwright, Alberta, asks: Why are there concentrations of metals in some areas and not in others around the world? Basically, why isn’t there a concentration of gold in my backyard?
For the answer we resorted to Peter Hollings, a NOHFC Chair in Industrial Research in Mineral Exploration in the Department of Geology at Lakehead University. He says that the place where minerals are deposited depends on complex geological processes, and which metals are collected in what places has to do with the physical and chemical conditions of these substances, which lead to concentrations of different metals in different parts of the world. world.
An amateur gold digger is looking for gold near Mercenac in France. (Georges Gobet / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images)
Bob Ennenberg of Vancouver, BC asks: Why can’t the immune system get rid of herpes viruses like it does with other viruses?
Seconds Jennifer Corcoran, a virologist at the University of Calgary, herpes viruses have a unique ability to hide from the immune system, either the chickenpox virus which can then manifest as shingles or one of the viruses of herpes simplex causing recurrent mouth or genital sores. Until some kind of stress triggers their reactivation, the viruses remain essentially invisible as they do not produce viral proteins that would otherwise alert the immune system to their presence.
The herpes virus family includes herpes simplex, which can cause cold sores, and chickenpox, which causes chickenpox and shingles. These viruses can hide from the immune system in nerve cells. (Shutterstock)
Bill Yates of Lethbridge, Alta. question: If space is at absolute zero and the Earth has been running through it for millions of years, how does the center of the Earth keep its heat from remaining outside?
There are two reasons why the Earth’s core remains molten in these second conditions Jesse Rogerson, astronomer and astrophysicist at York University in Toronto. One is that heat does not escape from the planet because the geologic plates that cover the surface act like a giant insulating blanket. And the other reason is that decay or radioactive elements within the Earth provide a constant source of heat.
This illustration shows a cross section of the different layers of the Earth. (Goddard Media Studios / NASA)
Sheena Sharp in Toronto, Ontario asks: Why is poop brown in most animals, but white in birds?
For the answer we asked for Emma Allen Vercoe, Professor and Research Chair of Canada in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph. She says it comes down to how birds get rid of waste. They only have one waste hole, called a sewer, and their pee equivalent is a white pasty substance. They mostly excrete their poop and pee at the same time, all mixed up in a dirty mess.
Bird poop includes a white pasty substance that is the equivalent of mammal urine. (Yawar Nazir / Getty Images)
Doug McDougall, an expatriate Canadian living in Newcastle, California, asks: I looked [the documentary] “The Octopus Teacher” some time ago and was very curious: what possible evolutionary advantage can it have that this animal could only have a batch of eggs before they self-destruct?
To find out why pop mothers die shortly after laying their eggs, we went to Stefan Linquist, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph specializing in ecology and genomics and interest in octopuses. He said females stop hunting and eating to protect their eggs from predators and give them the best chance of surviving into adulthood, maximizing the chances of their lineage surviving.
The Netflix documentary, The Octopus Teacher, tells the story of the year Craig Foster spent with wild pop. (Craig Foster / Sea Change Project / Netflix)
James Schoening of Vancouver, BC asks: Animations of the new James Webb space telescope show that it is orbiting an empty point in space called Lagrange 2 Point. How can you do that if there isn’t too much real gravity to attract you?
To help explain this question so far, we went to Nathalie Ouellette, astrophysicist at the University of Montreal and outreach scientist at the James Webb Space Telescope in Canada. He said he imagined space-time in the solar system as a large sheet of rubber with a large drop in the middle for the Sun and another for the Earth following its furrow around the Sun. Lagrange points are like flat areas on this sheet of rubber where an object like the telescope can remain, like a parking spot in space.
Animation of the orbit of the James Webb Space Telescope at Lagrange Point 2. (GSFC / NASA)
Bill Bean of Kitchener, Ontario. question: The lack of memory of our first years of life is explained, by some, as childhood amnesia. However, many things learned in this period, such as talking and walking, are not forgotten. Why are some events for young children erased from memory?
We talked to Myra Fernandes, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo. He says the main theory is that the hippocampus, which is where memories are stored, is not developed enough to consolidate memories at that age. In addition, at this age the brain is prepared to learn through repetition, such as how we learn to walk and talk, rather than preserving unique details from a single event.
We don’t tend to remember things from our early childhood because the part of the brain where memories are consolidated is not yet fully formed. (Pavel L Photo & Video / Shutterstock)
Elva Kellington of Salt Spring Island, BC asks: Is there any similarity in the water that revolves around a drain when the plug, a hurricane, and the stars that revolve around the black hole in our galaxy are removed Dairy?
For this mental breakdown, we spoke with Kunduri Day, a New York Memorial University mathematician who moves to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He said the angular momentum of each of these systems remains constant, so in the same way that spinning figure skaters accelerate when they stretch their arms, the material that rotates around the central axis in these systems also accelerate the closer you get to the point where you rotate. around.
Swirls are seen after the 2011 tsunami and earthquake off the coast of Fukushima, Japan. (Yomiuri / Reuters)
Anna-Marie Weiler in Ottawa, Ontario. question: Humans have a coccyx, also known as a vestigial tail. Did we ever have a tail and, if so, when did we lose it?
Caroline Parins-Fukuchi from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto explains that the coccyx is part of our tail bone, which is really a tail, just a short one. We have to go back at least 20 million years to find a common ancestor of all apes, including us, with the traditional long tail.
This photograph shows a piece from a 2021 exhibition in Madrid, “Body Worlds, the rhythm of life” by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens. You can see the small triangular-shaped bone known as the coccyx at the base of the spine through the pelvic bones of the skeleton. (Oscar Del Pozo / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images)
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Jane Sly of Ottawa, Ontario. question: What protection against concussions can we get with helmets?
For the answer, we went to Blaine Hoshizaki, the director of the Neurotrauma Impact Science Laboratory at the University of Ottawa. He says traditional rigid foam cycling helmets were only designed to break the impact to prevent catastrophic brain injuries, not concussions, unlike today’s hockey and soccer helmets which usually have softer interior materials. with some degree of protection against concussions.
Miami Dolphin players perform training exercises while wearing extra helmet protection to prevent concussion injuries during their 2021 training camp in Miami. (Mark Brown / Getty Images)