CBC NEWS Technology & Science: Oldest traces of life on Earth found in Quebec – A team of international scientists has found the oldest record of life on Earth in Northern Quebec, dating back at least 3.8 billion years. Our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago. 

The Current:  Balloons to MRIs – Why helium is important   If the world were to run out of helium, it would mean much more than the end of fun balloons.  Helium is a critical commodity in several scientific fields — including medical technology.   At the current rates of consumption, it’s expected that the world’s known reserves of helium will run out sometime between 2030 and 2040.

The Current:  Cows that milk themselves   As agriculture has become increasingly mechanized, the future of farming is high-tech.  To get a closer look at how robotic farming is changing farm life, a Southern Ontario dairy farm (where the cows get in line for the robots) is discussed.  Automation in farming has become commonplace for repetitive tasks such as irrigation and packaging and farmers say it’s only a matter of time before harvesting produce will be added to this list.  

The Current: Oceans ‘absolutely choked’ by plastic bottles and microplastic fibres    Our oceans are choking from plastic water bottles washing up on the beach to tiny microplastic fibres beneath the sea. It’s not clear what the long-term effects will be. The Current explores the efforts to haul tons of plastic off Vancouver’s west coast.

Day 6: Can you actually grow grass inside the Rogers Centre?   Eric Lyons, an associate professor of turf grass science at the University of Guelph has been commissioned by the Blue Jays to study whether it’s possible to grow real grass at the stadium.

Quirks and Quarks: The Planet Remade  2015 was the warmest year on record.  According to a new book, we’re going to need to radically cut back fossil-fuel emissions and perhaps make other interventions on the climate, through what’s known as geoengineering.

The Current: Cyborg Technology – Neil Harbisson thinks the future of humanity lies in taking control of our own design: using technology to enhance ourselves. He has that antenna surgically implanted in his bones so he could experience colour. He was born with achromatopsia, a condition which affects about 1 in every 33,000 people and leaves them unable to see colours. So Neil Harbisson’s camera records the colours and translates them into sounds.  (see TED talk )

Quirks and Quarks: How we’ll live on Mars Stephen Petranek thinks we’ll get to Mars, but not on NASA’s timeline, and he endorses an ambitious plan that goes well beyond NASA’s current ambitions. He thinks we’ll colonize Mars, and soon.