Episode #376

Episode #376

News Items

• Ig Nobels 2012
• GM Corn Rat Study
• HIV and Faith Healing
• Emoticon turns 30
• CSICon Private Recording

Who's That Noisy

• Answer to last week: Warp core from Enterprise TNG

Interview with Pamela Gay

• Host of Astronomy Cast

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Science

  Astronomers may have solved the ‘missing baryon problem’ with the discovery of a halo of hot gas surrounding the Milky Way galaxy. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/halo/

• Item #2 Science

  This year’s peak Arctic ice melt is the greatest since records have been kept, and likely the greatest in a million years. http://www.ucalgary.ca/news/utoday/september24-2012/melting

• Item #3 Fiction

  Physicists have built a 4-dimensional ‘space-time crystal’ that can be used to keep perfect time until the end of the universe. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2012/09/24/a-clock-that-will-last-forever/

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

“An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. ‘Can they be brought together?’ This is a practical question. We must get down to it. ‘I despise intelligence’ really means: ‘I cannot bear my doubts.” ― Albert Camus