Dec 16: The Quirks & Quarks holiday book show!

If youre looking for a special science book for that special person this holiday season, weve got some great ideas for you.

Trailblazing women scientists, learning about old age from animals, and peering inside planets

CBC Radio Posted: Dec 15, 2023 12:10 PM EST | Last Updated: June 26

books stacked up irregularly — Find a special book for a special someone. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)

Originally published on Dec. 16, 2023

Quirks and Quarks54:02The Quirks & Quarks holiday book show!

On this episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald:

How studying long-lived animals might give us the key to longer, healthier life

Quirks and Quarks18:03How studying long-lived animals might give us the key to longer, healthier life

Steven Austad is one of the world's leading authorities on aging in animals, and his new book surveys research into how animals get old. He thinks that by better understanding how creatures like whales and tortoises live for centuries, we might be able to age a little more gracefully ourselves. His book is called Methuselah's Zoo: What Nature Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Healthier Lives.

Photo of author and scientist Steven Austad — Steven Austad is a leading authority on aging in animals (Steve Wood, University of Alabama at Birmingham)

Looking deep inside planets, under our feet and out there in space

Quirks and Quarks17:21Looking deep inside planets, under our feet and out there in space

Canadian planetary scientist Sabine Stanley grew up in Sudbury, a city built by mining minerals brought to the surface by a cosmic impact 1.8 billion years ago. She says that might have inspired her career using tools like seismology, gravity observations and magnetic fields to understand the Earth, the other planets in our solar system, and, increasingly, planets around other stars. She speaks to us about her new book, What's Hidden Inside Planets?

Canadian planetary scientist Sabine Stanley, from Johns Hopkins University, is the author of the new book, 'What's Hidden Inside Planets?' (Heidi Markley)

Honouring the overlooked legacies of women in science

Quirks and Quarks16:15Honouring the overlooked legacies of women in science

For decades, women in science have faced obstacles: Their work has been overlooked or met with burdensome hurdles, and they've been passed over for awards and recognition that often went to male colleagues. That's a record Shohini Ghose strives to correct in her book Her Space, Her Time. Ghose, a quantum physicist and professor at Wilfred Laurier University, documents the contributions of women to major discoveries in physics and astronomy over more than a century.

Shohini Ghose in front of a blackboard covered in equations — Shohini Ghose is a professor of physics and computer science at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. Her new book is 'Her Space, Her Time.' (Gabriela Secara / Perimeter Institute)

And bibliophile, science journalist, and co-host of the BookLab podcast Dan Falk brings us his reviews of some of the notable science books he's read this year, including

Kevin Mitchell's - Free Agents: How Evolution gave us Free Will
Is Math Real by Eugenia Cheng
Caspar Henderson's The Book of Noises