SGU Episode 760

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SGU Episode 760
February 1st 2020
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 759                      SGU 761
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
Quote of the Week
Each one of you can change the world, for you are made of star stuff, and you are connected to the universe.
Vera Rubin, American astronomer
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction

Voiceover: You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

What’s the Word? ()

• Ablation

consider using block quotes for emails and definitions read aloud in this segment

News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

(laughs) (laughter) (applause) [inaudible]

Dark Matter or Information ()

• Neurologica: Does Information Have Mass?

Fighting Fat with Salt and Ice ()

• New Atlas: New Harvard study fights fat with salty, icy injections

Where Does Poop Go? ()

• Live Science: Where does all our poop go?

Solar Scam ()

• US Department of Justice: Top Executives Plead Guilty to Participating in a Billion Dollar Ponzi Scheme—the Biggest Criminal Fraud Scheme in the History of the Eastern District of California

Who's That Noisy? ()

• Answer to last week’s Noisy: _brief_description_perhaps_with_link_

New Noisy ()

[_short_vague_description_of_Noisy]

Questions/Emails/Corrections/Follow-ups ()

Question #1: Kinesio Tape and Pregnancy ()

• Kinesio Taping During Pregnancy + Techniques for the Pregnant Belly

I’m in a moms running group, and it is rife with pseudoscience. They often talk about going to a chiropractor, cupping, taping, and all the other usual suspects found in fitness. This is one I hadn’t seen before. This is spreading a lot of misinformation, and the writer is preying on pregnant people who are already saturated with misinformation. Fitness pseudoscience is one of the areas that really gets under my skin.
– Jessika, Washington state

Science or Fiction ()

Answer	Item
Fiction	Visuospatial
Science	Paper wasps
Science	Bulk graphene

Host	Result
'

Rogue	Guess

Voiceover: It's time for Science or Fiction.

Item #1: Scientists find that a species of paper wasp is able to recognize individual wasp faces, a rare talent in insects.
Item #2: A new study finds that women perform better than men on visuospatial tasks, contrary to prior research.
Item #3: Chemists report a process by which they can cheaply and quickly create usable graphene in bulk from any organic material, even garbage.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ()

Each one of you can change the world, for you are made of star stuff, and you are connected to the universe.
– Vera Rubin (1928-2016), American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates.

Signoff/Announcements ()

S: —and until next week, this is your Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.

S: Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, dedicated to promoting science and critical thinking. For more information, visit us at theskepticsguide.org. Send your questions to info@theskepticsguide.org. And, if you would like to support the show and all the work that we do, go to patreon.com/SkepticsGuide and consider becoming a patron and becoming part of the SGU community. Our listeners and supporters are what make SGU possible.

Today I Learned

• Fact/Description, possibly with an article reference
• Fact/Description
• Fact/Description

References

Vocabulary