Episode #297

Episode #297

News Items

• Meier Earthquake Non-prediction
• Swarm Robots
• Sexual Preference
• Pre-Biotic Chemistry
• Science Fact vs Fiction

Who's That Noisy

• Answer to last week: Steve Wozniak

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Science

  Male genital amputation is an adaptive strategy, according to findings recently published by biologists from the Smithsonian and the National University of Singapore. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-52FKJ68-1&_user=911953&_coverDate=03/23/2011&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000047881&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=911953&md5=16eb41a604027b1e237b1a41dda7108b&searchtype=a

• Item #2 Fiction

  A team of geologists have just launched an expedition off the coast of Costa Rica where they plan to be the first to drill into the ‘Moho discontinuity’, the upper boundary of Earth’s mantle. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7339/full/471437a.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20110324

• Item #3 Science

  The Oxford English Dictionary has traced the origin of the initialism OMG, which means Oh My God, to a 1917 letter from a British Admiral, who wrote ‘ I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the table—O.M.G.’ http://oed.com/view/Entry/293068

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

‘Galileo was a man of science oppressed by the irrational and superstitious. Today, he is used by the irrational and the superstitious who say they are being oppressed by science. So 1984.’ - Mark Crislip