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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 380 - 10/27/2012
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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
380
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October 27, 2012
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This Day in Skepticism
News Items: Genetic Logic Circuit, Efficient Language, Closest Exoplanet, Alien Hacker
Who's That Noisy
Your Questions and E-mails: Zombie Bite
Science or Fiction
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Segment: This Day in Skepticism
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October 27, 1780
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The first U.S. astronomical expedition to record an eclipse of the sun observed the event which lasted from 11:11 am to 1:50 pm.
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October 27, 1891
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Philip B. Downing, inventor, was awarded a U.S. patent for an improvement to the street letter (mail) box.
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Segment: News Items
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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 - revealed in three weeks
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Segment: Questions and Emails
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Question #1: Zombie Bite
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Hey Guys, I got a fun Medical Question for you all and maybe a little bit more aimed towards Dr. Novella due to his medical background.
If you've seen the new season of the Walking Dead (spoilers), in the first episode the old guy gets bitten on the leg and the main character decides to amputate his leg because he thinks it's like a venomous snake bite. The rationale is even though they all know they're all infected already, that zombie bites cause a secondary infection that makes you sick and you die thereby allowing the primary infection to turn you into a zombie. Is the choice to amputate really stupid even if the infection was like a venomous bite? You would think they made a relatively moderate problem of a huge bite into an enormous problem given that there's going to be massive blood loss now, chance of incidental infection, and well....the old guy is really old and he probably can't take the shock of getting his leg hacked on repeatedly by a handaxe. If they intended to cauterize the amputation later, wouldn't it have been better to just cauterize the huge bite wound instead and hope that would be enough? It seems like anything they could do to help the amputation they've could have done to the bite wound and it wouldn't have been as bad.
Dr. Novella has talked about in medicine that usually treatments have risks but the benefits outweigh the risks. In this case I'm wondering if the Amputation is causing more damage than it's helping, given their fictional situation.
Thanks,
Henry Loo
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Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
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Segment: Skeptical Quote of the Week
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Skeptical Quote of the Week
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"The Web is great for finding a list of the ten biggest cities in the United States, but if the scientific literature is merely littered with wrong facts, then cyberspace is an enticing quagmire of falsehoods, propaganda, and just plain bunkum. There simply is no substitute for skepticism."
- Samuel Arbesman
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