Episode #867
News Items
Who's That Noisy
- Answer to last week: Tiger
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Science
Surgeons successfully implanted the first wireless electrodes that bypass the retina and optic nerve and directly stimulate the visual cortex with information received from an external camera. https://chicagolighthouse.org/icvp/
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Item #2
Science
Scientist have used data from radio telescopes to finally shed light on an enduring mystery – what initiates a lightning strike – supporting the theory that it begins with propagating streamers of cold plasma. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2021GL095511
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Item #3
Fiction
Scientists have observed untrained orangutans in captivity that, when provided with a hammer and rock core, spontaneously used the hammer to create sharp rocks that they then used as a cutting tool.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0263343
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
‘We take kids in elementary school and teach them math is important. Junior high, math is important. High school, math is important. And then all of a sudden as adults, for whatever reason in our culture, math disappears. It strikes me as odd that if math is so important, why are we hiding from it in our pop culture?’ Bill Amend, cartoonist, Foxtrot