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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 275 - 10/19/2010
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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.
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Podcast
275
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October 19, 2010
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Guest Rogue: Brian Trent
News Items: Benoit Mandlebrot 1924-2010, Stem Cell Funding, Do Mummies Get Cancer, Asteroids Buzz Earth
Your Questions and E-mails: Whale Poop Correction, T-Rex Blood Cells, Help - My Friend is a Pseudoscientist
Who's That Noisy
Science or Fiction
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Segment: News Items
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Segment: Questions and E-mails
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Question #1 - Corrections
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Regarding Whale Feces and the ocean nitrogen cycle
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Question #2 - T-Rex Blood Cells
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Flipping through channels I saw a guy on stage talking animatedly to a large group of teenagers. It was called ... Maybe... Science Faqs? and I think his name was (now I'm gonna regret not googling first) Greg bachelor. He wasn't just talking antievolution, he was serious young earth creationist. And it looked like the kids were lapping it up. He basically said the reason we don't see dinosaur and human bones in the same geological layers is because of different sedimentation rates... He did bring up a tyrannosaur skeleton that had RBCs in it and that since all cellular elements should've been fossilized by then (according to 'evolutionists') the dating methods must be seriously flawed. Any thoughts? Sorry about this, I don't have access to a computer while temping here in AK, so I'm doing all this on muh iPod and it takes forever. PS I'm listening to every episode and I LOVE YOU ALL. Next time anyone visits Hawaii island let me know and I'll gladly be your personal tour guide.
Mahalo,
Alan Laird
Ketchikan/Kailua-kona
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Question #3 - Help - My Friend is a Pseudoscientist
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Audio Question
Hi Rogues,
I'm having a bit of an ethical, moral, skeptical dilemma. Through Facebook I recently realized that one of the people I went to highschool with was a huge fan of Darwin. And being a fan of Darwin myself I decided to strike up a conversation. It went well, had a good conversation, until about two-thirds of the way through. I asked her what she was doing and she informed me that she was working with monkeys in Washington state. I asked her what experiment she was doing and she told me that they were running a battery of cognitive tests and taking gut biopsies.
Now doubtlessly it's occurred to you what is happening, but it didn't occur to me at the time. I asked her if these measurements had anything to do with each other. She told me that they did, in fact, and asked me if I knew who Andrew Wakefield was. Instantly I realized my oversight. And so I endeavored to end the conversation politely. I informed her that I did know who Andrew Wakefield was, but I didn't divulge my opinions of his research.
Should I say anything? It seems to me like this could hurt her career, working with Wakefield, and I feel like I should say something. But at the same time I think she has a lot of respect for Wakefield, and I wouldn't want to just throw away a friendship.
Thanks, Rogues.
Emerson White
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Segment: Who's That Noisy
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Who's That Noisy
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Answer to last week - solar seismography
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Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
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Segment: Quote of the Week
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Quote of the Week
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In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms.
Stephen Jay Gould
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