The 'best of' Quirks 2020 season as selected by the show's producers

Do you feel lucky? A biologist explains we exist because of ‘A Series of Fortunate Events’; A ‘Black hole Survival guide’ and your brief life in a paradox of space and time; A new book about our ‘Kindred,’ the Neanderthals, puts to rest the brutish image.

Pluto probe finds mysterious ‘night light’ in the universe; Your smartwatch might be able to detect early signs of COVID-19; These birds communicate through feather flutters - and even have different accents; Scientists reverse aging in retinal cells by removing genetic 'rust' to restore vision; Ice Walker — a mother polar bear's precarious existence in the changing Arctic; Why does Jupiter’s moon Io have volcanoes but our moon doesn’t?

Could quick COVID ‘antigen’ tests break the back of the pandemic?;This gorgeous African rat combs poison into its fur to deter predators; Neuroscience suggests that yes, when you see purple, it's the same purple I see; The world's major climate zones - polar, temperate and tropical - are transforming as we watch; Why are the hottest temperatures measured in Death Valley?

Microbes may be our miners on asteroids, moons and other planets; Songbird parents manipulate their chicks out of the nest before they’re ready to go; Canadian food scientists develop eco-friendly substitutes for palm oil; Super rare deep sea squid spotted in Australian waters for the first time; Canadian technological ingenuity and astronaut talent has been our ticket to space; Why do fans make the air feel cooler?

COVID vaccines are on the horizon, but how long might protection last?; Wallabies from Australia have gained a foothold in the UK, and may be there for good; In the ancient Americas, female big-game hunters were common; You're cooler than your ancestors — by about a degree; Chemical engineer Molly Shoichet wins Canada's most prestigious science prize for ‘hydrogels’; How far back, evolutionarily speaking, do circadian rhythms go in animals?

A blast of radio waves in our galaxy gives insight into mysterious 'fast radio bursts'; These monkeys have a ‘puberty switch’ they flip when the right male comes along; Extreme Astrophysics: new Nobel Laureate Andrea Ghez’s work on supermassive black holes; 'Forever chemicals' can have far-reaching consequences, need more regulation in Canada, scientists say.

The diabolical ironclad beetle’s super-tough shell can even resist being run over by a car; How birds and mammals got their evolutionary edge by getting their legs under them; How 'forever chemicals' have come to contaminate even the remotest parts of Canada; How a Canadian vet took on the challenge of saving the world's great apes.

The coronavirus could be messing with your pain perception — and that could help it spread; A NASA probe with Canadian content will touch an asteroid next week; Which forest fires spew out the most CO2? It's the soil that matters, not the trees; Female moles are intersex — they have testicle-like tissue that helps them grow big and tough; Angry Weather: the science of blaming droughts, hurricanes and wildfires on climate change; Which trees provide the most oxygen over the course of a year, deciduous or evergreen?

Jennifer Doudna on her Nobel win, the ethics of gene editing, and CRISPR’s full potential; Decoy sea turtle eggs with GPS crack illegal egg trafficking; An 'awakening' moment: a sleeping pill restores function to a brain-injured patient; A new class of 'forever chemicals' is an emerging threat to our health and environment.