Episode #375

Episode #375

News Items

• Warp Drive
• Bad Science Reporting
• Dark Energy Camera
• Crowdsourcing Science
• Spheres on Mars
• CSICon 2012

Who's That Noisy

• answer to last week: being human

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Fiction

  A new study finds that more than 30% of patients who meet strict criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome are infected with the XMRV virus. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120918083907.htm

• Item #2 Science

  Russian scientists announce an earlier discovery of a massive deposit of diamonds, estimated at trillions of carats or 10 times existing world reserves, in a large Siberian meteor crater. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10834789

• Item #3 Science

  A large study of SAT scores find that they are good predictors of later college performance across socioeconomic status. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/do-sat-scores-help-or-hurt-in-decisions-about-who-will-do-well-in-college.html

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

‘The most important service rendered by the press and the magazines is that of educating people to approach printed matter with distrust.’ – Samuel Butler