Oumuamua’s strange behaviour has a natural explanation, no aliens needed; Great apes spin to make themselves dizzy — apparently just for kicks; A sensor equipped surgical glove could help make delivery of babies safer; The process of elimination — how tiny insects pee 300 times their own weight every day; A new scale for atmospheric river intensity is helping us understand them; Extreme weather is increasing — so much that it’s changing earth’s gravity; Listener Question: Why do geese sometimes fly north in winter ..read more

5,000 years ago riding left traces on the legs and butts of the earliest horsepeople; Whales use ‘vocal fry’ to echolocate at depth; Fossils suggest that if equatorial oceans get too warm, plankton may desert; Scientists have mapped the most complex animal brain yet - and it's the size of a grain of salt; A new book explores the unique biology and uncertain fate of Australia’s iconic koala ..read more

Owls zero in on their prey under snow by eavesdropping on the sounds they make; Elephant behaviour helps to maintain healthy, carbon-rich forests; Feisty songbirds swarm their predators – but only when the time's right; The ‘sensory moustache’ that helps bats find sweet snacks; Cockatoos have a handy tool belt to fish for cashews; Seals may not tap their toes, but seals also appreciate a good musical rhythm; Listener Question: Why can’t waste plastic be dumped into volcanoes ..read more

Male giraffes drink and savour female giraffe urine to see if she’s ready to mate; What scientists do when a volcano upsets their climate change record; Europe’s first farmers suffered more violence than their hunter-gatherer ancestors; Recycled wastewater can be cleaner than conventional sources; Don’t worry about zombie fungus. Do worry about other fungal pathogens ..read more

Gorilla-sized penguins once roamed New Zealand; The first dedicated mission to Uranus will investigate why it’s tipped-over; Archaeologists decipher mummification secrets in embalming workshop; Engineered egg whites are the key element in a new water filter material; A new book explores 19 perspectives on the problem of consciousness ..read more

The science behind the ‘love hormone’ may have a big problem; Could moon dust solve our global warming problem?; Canadian researchers develop a smartphone app for making memories; Orca sons are costing their mom’s a chance at more offspring; Crossing the land bridge — and back again. The travels of North America’s first settlers ..read more

Humans intuitively understand ape gestural communication; Wolves on an Alaskan island ate all the deer, so now are preying on sea otters; A unique mummy is digitally unwrapped to reveal historical treasures; 52 million years ago Canada’s Arctic was home to pre-primates; Black in Science: have recent years of activism made a difference?; Quirks & Quarks listener question ..read more

A real viral video shows a microscopic virus attempting to infect a cell; A new study suggests scientific innovation has been stagnating; Studying the sex lives of constipated scorpions; We thought the Oort cloud threw snowballs at us — but it’s throwing rocks too; A biologist explains animal behaviour by tossing out the old nature/nurture debate; Quirks & Quarks listener question ..read more

To finish out the year, we’ve got another edition of our ever-popular Listener Question Show, where we find the experts to answer your burning science questions ..read more

Figuring out what reindeer can hear to understand the impact from industrial sounds; Scientists discover massive river flowing under the Antarctic Ice; A shocking solution to accidental killing of sharks in fisheries; Clawing back: How cougars and grizzlies are reintroducing themselves in Manitoba ..read more