| |
The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 105 - 7/25/2007
|
|
|
|
|
<<< Back to Podcast Archive
|
|
The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, LLC - dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science through online and other media. The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.
SGU Podcasting Awards: SGU on XM: You can listen to the SGU on America's Talk XM 166 every Saturday night from 8-9pm Eastern.
|
Podcast
105
-
July 25, 2007
|
|
Interview with Jimmy Carter; News Items: Ward Churchill Fired, Homeopathic Surgeon, UK UFO, Asian Parasite Killing Bees; Your Questions and E-mails: Electric Car, Brain Evolution; Science or Fiction; Skeptical Puzzle
|
|
|
|
Segment: News Items
|
|
|
Segment: Questions and E-mails
|
|
Who Killed the Electric Car
|
Hi, I'll shorten the kudos for the show...suffice it to say it keeps me thinking on my long commutes (burning more fossil fuel than I'd prefer) like none other. A recent show had a 175 mpg car in the science or fiction segment. I was suprised by the talk on the topic especially the flippant remark about the electric cars in California in the late 80's
and 90's. Have none of you seen the documentary "Who killed the electric car?" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F It seem compelling to me...and batteries were not the issue. Many people wanted to take over the leases on these vehicles that could be charged at home and go 125 miles on a charge with the batteries of the day. They even had charging stations in the last century! In big cities, this would eliminate a lot of smog, and many have commutes of way under half that, but something else extinguished them. The inventer of Ni-MH batteries is interviewed and his solar cell roofing tiles seem like a no brainer...but... Please discuss this issue in depth.
Thanks, David
|
|
Evolution of the Brain
|
Evolution of the Brain
How do biologists refute the following argument by evolution deniers:
The brain has the capacity for storing information far greater than can be 'filled' in many human lifetimes. If the brain is developed by the natural selection of desirable traits, how would this incremental process develop such storage capability far beyond any 'useful purpose'.
I have a good idea of how I would refute this, but perhaps your answer would be more thorough and precise.
Thanks for setting the record straight,
Christian
Central PA
|
|
Segment: Interview
|
|
|
Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
|
Question #1  Fiction
|
Astronomers, using spectrographic analysis, have discovered organic molecules in interstellar space sufficiently complex that they might be considered life.
|
Question #2  Science
|
Researchers have found that using hand gestures in learning dramatically improves memory.
|
|
Question #3 Science
|
Researchers have discovered a fruit fly gene that was created de novo and is not the product of gene duplication.
|
|
Segment: Skeptical Puzzle
|
|
Puzzle
|
This Week's Puzzle:
Name the person who believed that it was his Father's teachings, accompanied by study and prayer, that compelled him to dedicate his life to bringing down Darwinism, just as several of his fellows had dedicated their lives to bringing down Marxism.
Last Week's puzzle:
A dog in Romania
A vulture in Chile
A fox in China
A bear in Iceland
A boar in Greece
A buffalo in America
Identify the psuedoscientific pattern.
Answer: Animals associated with lycanthropy
Winner: JDay
|
|
Segment: Quote of the Week
|
|
Quote
|
Sent in by Richard Harriman, Botswana
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
- Martin Luther King Jr., (1929 - 1968) A civil rights leader "of some note."
|
|
|
|
|
|