This week’s edition of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald features:
Voyager 1 nearing remarkable one light-day achievement
On November 18, Voyager 1 will be located 25.9 billion kilometers from Earth — marking the first time a human-made object has reached a distance equivalent to one light-day. Bob McDonald recalls witnessing the launch of Voyager 2 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 20, 1977, alongside Jon Lomberg, who served as the design director for the Golden Record on both spacecraft. They reconnect to discuss the launch and the mission’s significance. Joe Westlake, a space physicist and head of NASA’s heliophysics division, elaborates on how the Voyager spacecraft continue to yield scientific insights about the galaxy beyond our solar system nearly 50 years later.
Accelerating renewable energy could prevent a ‘global meltdown’
As the U.N. climate change conference commences in Turkey, the world is close to exceeding the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 C climate goal. Experts emphasize that global initiatives to reduce carbon emissions must intensify to avoid a “global meltdown.” John Pomeroy, a hydrologist at the University of Saskatchewan, highlighted in a recent study published in Science that even maintaining a temperature increase of 1.5 C could lead Canada into a “very bad spiral, into dysfunction.” Another study in Nature Climate Change by Corinne Le Quéré, a Canadian climate scientist at the University of East Anglia, revealed that from 2019 to 2025, 59 nations, including Canada, reduced their carbon emissions while simultaneously boosting their GDP. However, she cautions that significant progress is still required in the shift toward renewable energy.
Recent studies indicate that while there has been some progress in moving away from fossil fuel emissions towards clean energy, an increased pace is necessary to prevent a ‘global meltdown.’ (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Researchers uncover strongest evidence of dinosaur blood to date
Scientists have reported finding fossilized blood remnants within a 115-million-year-old dinosaur leg bone. A research team led by Kliti Grice, a geochemist at Curtin University in Australia, unexpectedly identified molecular traces of heme, an iron-rich component of blood, inside the dinosaur bone. Additional investigations uncovered microscopic structures resembling red blood cells and other chemical signatures indicative of blood. After employing 30 different methods, the research team published their findings in the journal PNAS. Grice asserts that the findings provide compelling evidence that certain biomolecules can endure far longer than previously believed under specific burial conditions.
Traces of dinosaur blood have been discovered preserved in this ordinary thigh bone for 115 million years. (Curtin University)
Exploring the feathered ties between humans and birds
Throughout human history, birds have been a constant presence — reflected in our art, fashion, and meals. However, this fascination has contributed to their decline and even extinction. Surveys indicate that North America has lost nearly three billion adult breeding birds between 1970 and 2019. Pete Dunne, the former director of the Cape May Bird Observatory in New Jersey, has authored over 20 books on birds, with his latest work titled Under Their Wing: How Birds Shape the Human Experience.
Prolific author Pete Dunne delves into the various ways that human history has intertwined with birds in his book Under Their Wing: How Birds Shape the Human Experience. (Chelsea Green Imprint / Penguin Random House)
Your genetic makeup influences medication responses
It is often uncertain how your body will react to newly prescribed medications until you actually take them. Certain drugs may behave differently based on an individual’s DNA. While researchers have identified connections between specific genes and drug responses, this knowledge is not frequently utilized — partly due to a lack of comprehensive data on the prevalence of these genetic variations globally. A new study, published in Science, by Philip Empey, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh, examined 100,000 Americans from diverse ancestral backgrounds to gain a deeper understanding of how widespread these genetic differences are.
A digital visualization of the human genome. (Mario Tama /Getty Images)