Peculiarities and Quarks celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, looking back at half a century of science and looking ahead to the next 50 years.
In 1975, when David Suzuki presented the first episode of Peculiarities and QuarksThe excitement of the Moon landings had subsided and North America faced a new challenge – the effects of the 1973 disaster. energy crisis.
Oil supplies from the Middle East have been disrupted. The price of gasoline skyrocketed overnight, gas stations ran out of fuel, and those that had supplies had lines that stretched for blocks.
The keywords at the time were fuel economy and energy efficiency, as scientists and engineers were tasked with stretching limited oil reserves to the maximum, while also looking for alternative energy sources.
Consumers were switching from traditional, large, gas-guzzling North American cars to more efficient models, often from Japan and Europe. The U.S. auto industry followed suit with smaller, lighter, more aerodynamic vehicles powered by small engines capable of covering every possible mile on a gallon of gasoline.
Research dollars have been invested in renewable energy, which has led to the development of alternatives such as clean hydrogen fuel, improved solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal energy and biofuels.
Homeowners were encouraged to insulate their homes, and eventually high-efficiency heat pumps and furnaces became available, which reduced heating bills.
At the same time, industries began to be held more responsible for air and water pollution. Car manufacturers have been forced to install catalytic converters in exhaust pipes to capture emissions, while large industries have been forced to clean up effluents and limit discharges of waste and harmful chemicals into rivers and lakes.
The 1970s were a time when science began to turn its focus to caring for planet Earth, thanks in part to photos of Earth taken from the Moon by Apollo astronauts and the influence of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 book, Silent Spring. We have come to think of our planet as a small oasis of life in a vast and indifferent universe.
In other words, science was increasingly focused on the environment. It highlighted problems such as carbon emissions, but also presented solutions such as green energy.
During this period, a revolution began at home with the arrival of personal computers, which ended up changing the way we communicate, do business and connect with everyone in the world.
In medicine, the Human Genome Project emerged in the 1990s to sequence all human DNA, leading to a deeper understanding of human biology and the evolution of life.
WATCH | Diana Filer tells how she created the Quirks & Quarks program in 1975:
Diana Filer, the original producer of CBC Radio’s science program Quirks & Quarks, remembers releasing the first episode in 1975.
So here we are, 50 years later, and a lot has changed. In the developed world, we are largely healthier and live longer than ever before. More food is being produced to feed a population that has doubled and we are surrounded by technology that provides information at our fingertips. We can travel almost anywhere on the globe.
Science and technology have turned humans into a superspecies. We explore every domain on the planet and beyond. We discover our place in an unimaginably huge and expanding universe, investigate the mysteries of life down to the molecular level, and discover connections between all living things. Our knowledge has never been greater.
But all this progress came at a cost. Scientists have repeatedly warned us that the enormous environmental stress on our planet is unsustainable. Our technological advances have often brought paradoxical results. For example, vehicles today are cleaner and more efficient. But many of them have grown back to enormous size – so efficiency has fueled consumption, rather than reducing it.
The natural world is under extraordinary pressure. Scientists have calculated that species are disappearing at a rate not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs. There are a range of causes, from human pollution and pesticides, to habitat loss due to human activity, to climate disruption.
Every summer, more and more hectares of our forests catch fire. Water scarcity and droughts are becoming more common and impactful; stocked through warmer oceans, storms became stronger.
Despite ambitious international agreements, we have not met our commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate concerns often seem to take a backseat to economic interests. And many researchers point to positive environmental policies that are being obstructed by those trying to maintain business as usual.
The human impact on the planet has even been given a new geological name by some scientists: the Anthropoceneperiod defined by the permanent mark that we are making in the geological record.
It may seem like we live in dark times, but there is hope.
Many of the technological innovations that began to be developed in the 1970s to address oil shortages are now mature and realizing their enormous potential. The technologies to produce electricity from the free energy of the sun, the wind, the heat of the Earth or the energy of the atom are there for us.
We know how to keep the lights on, the wheels turning, and the food on the plate without burning the planet. Science and technology, researchers consistently say, are there for us to use.
However, it can be challenging to distinguish between real science and pseudoscience, between evidence-based research and self-appointed experts who claim that climate change is a hoax, that vaccines or painkillers cause autism, that the moon landings were faked, that the Earth is flat, and that alien civilizations live on Mars.
However, this distinction is vital because the issues we face, such as climate change, energy production, food and drinking water supplies, all involve scientific principles. And a scientifically literate society can make intelligent decisions about how to proceed from here.
Peculiarities and Quarks has been contributing in small ways to this scientific literacy for half a century, and I am extremely proud to have been a part of it.
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