SGU Episode 403

This transcript was done by the Google Web Speech API Demonstration and therefore will require careful proof reading.

This is the transcript for the latest episode and it is not yet complete. Please help us complete it! Add a Transcribing template to the top of this episode before you start so that we don't duplicate your efforts.

This episode needs: transcription, time stamps, links, 'Today I Learned' list, categories, segment redirects. Please help out by contributing!

How to Contribute

SGU Episode 403
6th Apr 2013
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 402                      SGU 404
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
R: Rebecca Watson
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Guest
IO: Ian O'Neill
Quote of the Week
Design in nature is but a concatenation of accidents, culled by natural selection until the result is so beautiful or effective as to seem a miracle of purpose.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Pollan Michael Pollan
Links
Download Podcast
SGU Podcast archive
Forum Discussion

Introduction

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

Everybody

Rebecca Watson

have to run a no go hey guys

and Evan Bernstein

good evening how are you

feeling show is this the first time we're actually recording a show at first

I think so

remember that and I would force myself to forget it

he say we're staying what's going on with Becca

in much the same way that St Patrick's Day is amateur night for drinking hahahahahaha say night night amatuer night for comedians for pranksters yeah thanks you're like 99.9 percent of pranks not funny for it all interesting and it's even worse in VCU secrets now become this day for corporate viral videos make well yeah you're Asian is going to win April Fools today yeah did anybody spirit a good pranks today are here but one of the things now I got squat with the house at about Google trying to say that they were taking you to down there in CC YouTube for the day or so how was a stylus minute that was a funny video about all I heard that you tube was just a giant c*** contest and now they're ready to start sorting through all this emissions and filling out a winner in 10 years is taking a lot longer than that everything is it turns a sec at the Kentucky other one that was like oh no no that's a winner would definitely be a cat video in just by Angeline I don't like the ones where it's actually something that gets you really upset I think you can pull a prank that is just funny but Steven is it is a douche for doing this for helpful prank it'll be like I'm moving out of state bank yeah but it still sucked it took me months to build up to that prank yeah that was a one day saying that was a long I totally got everybody Terry was mad at me for the day he died doing you a favor for Dave you never know that your pregnant for the rest of your days ago I would have lunch or dinner or something he would be the years after that tracking you do you like a guy for having done that for you up never let it go never got me back unless you somehow still alive and that was the best prank ever that would be a Houseman ask her 

This Day in Skepticism ()

April 6 1992 Isaac Asimov Died

I did it for food stay in choosing this day in history ah

Because I hate it so much so it is a test Itasca such a pro 6th and April 6 1992 marks the day that I see chasm of died at the age 72 from complications of age is best known for his science fiction novels but she may be loved by our audience for being one of the founding members of the committee for the sign up for psych up what she sees ghost ICSI he was a busy man Christianity did or wrote near the 500 bucks in his lifetime across a huge variety of disciplines including a children's book and nonfiction guide to Shakespeare he's up to a professor posterior see which I attended tell you to school Madison NE died 6 years before I got to the time that I really gotta die sick as much as 20% your. He was riding exclusively science books nonfiction he had written in science fiction he was younger than me to the haters to write on pictures didn't come back to writing science fiction till later so I knew him exclusively as a writer of nonfiction books until he started taking up writing fiction again and then I got into the robot series in the India new riders foundation series was awesome it is still classic of Science Fiction highly recommend it for anyone to art science fiction I wouldn't I read for the first time a couple months ago and I thought this terrible just really on enjoyable Highland Way better

you're insane

Anna says in ASAP send an email yeah I didn't like it because it was just a really broad view of the universe with no there's no feeling of Placer culture character Ricky Rick Ross is what I found out it was just a serialized collection of short stories that word originally just a sin to a magazine was the street a virgin rations no doubt but you have to stick with a little bit first of all and he doesn't read the whole first f*** 2nd 3rd Thanks for a much better just keeps getting better and then he brings all the way back around to his robot series really great take your time line everything and it was different about it wasn't it took such a long view of history what about history that's what this series is really bad and the characters that have continuity through the stories to hold your interest are there any women in later books of one of the primary characters is a female know she's a robot what year does season and she isn't what I heard of the later cause I was there was one of the annoying things about it I think we're seeing is the difference between is really writing to make the 50's and enjoy the pics up in his 70's hits amateur modern in that regard in another regards and that's what really gets good enough is Liz and light is on the right side effects but yeah probably going to see this little dated.

News Items

Fairy Circle Update ()

• LiveScience: Fairy Circle Mystery Solved

well let's move on. Evan, you're going to tell us a scientific breakthrough that might finally resolve d to sing during controversy and mystery over the fairy circles give you a call back in July of 2012 I brought the news item about fairy circles Jerry circles are what the local population in Namibia call the mysterious circular shape pattern which appear by the thousands Show in the desert Grassland region umm some people can't help but look at the pictures and think she's right now ever when I first read the article I couldn't help but think about and I'm not on Netflix is fairy ring fairy rings are groups of mushroom I was Pierre fun guy which appear to grow in a tulip sign drink and fairy rings to the Grammys would it be okay to various folklore is dating back hundreds of years is ring shaped designs were deliberately designed by magical creatures such as fairies else Pyxis an Argonian that one in the older school Santa Ana and suppose the visa at rings are portals are gateways to the magical rounds all the way I think that an enlightened people of the 21st century are well beyond leaving in such fantasies as skeptics me know better than to overestimate peoples grasp on reality sometimes so and sizes to be studying the ferry service for some time they were having hard time figuring out the cause but missed reminder find the song is just a few days ago livescience.com post a follow-up on the story to share in last summer the news report states that a species of sand termite called cemetery miss loks in this center my could be behind the serious study was published on March 28 in the journal Science talked about before I had focus on prior studies suggesting that it might have been some kind of insect activity perhaps and perhaps termites scientist from Germany measured the water content in the soil at the center the circles and determined enough water in that swell to support a termite even in the driest season the service also look at the Oregon other organisms found in for circles but the center my only creature down consistently atria patch yet is it consistently majority of patches means not in every patch right so I think they're still heading to bed a little bit here that's the impression I got yeah that this is pretty compelling evidence that the termites are a good candidate they can be cracked you eating the route of the grass is killing me definitely changing the soil but I do know I'm not convinced by this evidence to the Terminator not just living in these fairy circles I don't need a really prove that they're creating the fairy circle right and there swelling fairy circle seems to be altered for that plants can survive where is strange usually in rich soil Emagine through their next group which would make it more hospitable plants so there's still things to be figured out about these fairy circles but the termites are present there the most commonly found creatures in the circle so they are working along those lines of f**** going with termites search said this before me to give a s*** but there's a few questions to recover from time to time does essentially is a genuine scientific controversy when is two schools of thought the debate back and forth what I find a little annoying is it everytime the mainstream media reports on a new study on one side of the day or the other day always talk as if it's settled like the debate over this is the right answer me wild one in a long series of back and forth between the two sides again when we from settling and I wonder if this really is fitting into that same moon just hearing about the printer mites I didn't want to publish the latest study right right termite issue termite Big big insect is behind I'm sure OK Thanks Evan.

Retraction Watch ()

• http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/why-publishers-should-explain-why-papers-disappear-the-complicated-lewandowsky-study-saga/

Rebecca you're going to tell us about published papers That disappear from literature yeah I'm going to do it less boring way then you just implied so does Stephen Liu Indo ski is an Australian to colleges to write it out and research is sin sin I listen to some other pics PSU audience may best known him for koala sirene TD Bank in Handbook which is free pdf isn't it I had to be a good skeptic and how to communicate faxed your audience in cracked misconceptions so last year the dusky release a paper titled nasis fake the moon landing there for climate science is a hoax anatomy of the motivating rejection of science this study using an anonymous survey of climate blog readers to show people who believe in a non regulated market that predicts whether or not they will deny global warming there more likely to deny global warming um which isn't huge news I am also shows that people who 29 global warming are also more likely to believe that the Moon Man in wasn't real and that the government doctors are online and they say smoking causes lung cancer add a government it created AIDS other conspiracy theories like that this isn't exactly groundbreaking in that we did discuss the city last year that showed add a similar search results about how people believe in one conceive conspiracy theory tend to believe in mini conspiracy theories that one that saves call dad and I'll live police in contradictory conspiracy theories but at this study the fact that it included denial of global warming as a conspiracy theory was pretty controversial especially amongst the people think that global warming is a giant hoax Lewandowski study has been replicated since it was first on and it is the publisher few days ago and psychological science that he released it last year so its been out there on the Internet what makes this study for taking the interest season is the reaction to it and also do in Dallas keys reaction to the reaction so obviously convocation irswheres curious about the study find large many as an excuse and ask if purposely fudge in the data to fit his liberal bias or the Q's climate scientists and cleaning for clients science levers of pretending to be tonight analyst in order to take the survey and make them look crazy so in other words they were inventing new conspiracy theories to deny the results that shows that they were more likely to be more drawn to conspiracy theories and then I'll yes Ray Lewis house key did not miss the irony of that but instead of chocolate in a movie on he published another paper about that reaction to the first paper this time title tracker 6 Siri conspiracist ideation in the blogosphere in response to research on conspiracist ideation and in that paper examines reactions and points out that some of the Nile is conspiracy theories included not just the original authors of the paper but and club University executive a media organization and the Australian Government he tried to Tracy bellaries theories and determine how quickly they caught on a month and the other kind of tires today newpaper was just published in February in French years and personally science and individual differences but now everything but the abstract has disappeared with no explanation as of this recording. Ivan or in ski a blogger app retraction watch which is retraction watch at wordpress.com ask the journal why it was removed and the editor told him that there was going to be a meeting this week to find out which is odd either is that when Paul Matthews is University of Nottingham ask them he was told it was taken down just for typesetting Italian people online are clearing to find out what's going on if the papers then retracted if its then disappeared for good is coming back particularly the kind of change tires are arguing that the paper should be disappeared for good because of a number of problems with it add some are arguing that loud ass key has a conflict of interest because the second paper is specifically looking at critical response is to own work but to me is it more interesting Chris's and they're bringing up is that a meeting that little ski conducted an experiment on subject you did not consent to participate in that study which may not seem like a big deal because he's dealing with a blog posts and comments that were published in really acceptable but then when you think about it you realize that he actually needs to bloggers that he discusses in the paper and then he goes on to discuss as a psychologist in a psychology journal does bloggers mental states so add to this one could be considered a gray area and it's certainly exploding online with a lot of anger and frustration um and you know that the journal itself isn't helping things by you know just making the entire paper magically disappear with no explanation its only feeding into probably more conspiracy theories what's going on I should be really interesting to find out exactly what they're going to do in and if the papers can be tracked it or not it is interesting gray area yeah I hate Asians of transparency first of all it also writing apps publishing a paper naming people but sit in about things they've made put in the public domain online you know yeah so what you mean you're basically surrendering any expectation of privacy I think that is the standard right why would agree with that and that's why when I first read these accusations of consent I didn't really give much credence but the fact that he is a psychologist commenting on their mental state your name you know yet like the fact that its in a published papers psychological Journal imply that his summary of their mental state is accepted incomplete which I don't think it's fair so I feel like it would have been fine so long as he is made them anonymous iight I think I probably would have taken care of a lot of his criticisms have some professional him to speculate about the mental state of Maine people in psychological paper

Zombie Parasites ()

• http://style.uk.msn.com/health/zombie-nation-the-outside-forces-controlling-human-brains

Alright well Bob, you're going to tell us about two of my favorite topics Zombies and parasites in one of the guys not only that free will mail take another hit with this at least research now I have half of us maybe zombies and not even know it sounds pretty cool but I'm not talking about Walking Dead style zombies but the new research on parasites infect the brain or newer parasitology conclude after 40 percent of people 40 percent may have a parasite in your brain that's some level can actually control their behavior or is it delete Ellicott put your job be re programming you know you know there was a comedian like okay we need we need a nice little sound by phrase at everyones going to pick up on zombie reprogram them all over the place so you're saying that you can have it was the bacteria what is it your site a dick hit you right now and she's single celled protozoan to tip a text message saying exactly what I was going to talk about that and I know how to say it happens to the brain I was really quite aware the surprise is actually very parasite from the place when you consider that was your day are you pretty much protected from the full power of the music shop there they are there bro to be protected and you're in the brain so you got access to the mine too kind of makes sense if they will they can actually have a fact and is a lot of President is to one of my favorite examples of furniture are worms that need to get into shapes if she's got to continue to their life cycle and reproduce to the Paradise City to the amp brand makes a climb to the top of a blade of grass and Justin just kinda hang out there not do anything and this is where the yacht the sheeple Grey's and if you eat and then again just did it goes through and died and reproduces if the and doesn't get eaten by the time the Sun rises and it gets really strong it'll just go down the umm the blade of grass go back to visit in the next next /a to do the same thing to look at T toxoplasmosis is another great example I'm sure most people you guys for that right to me that you were that yeah this is a single cell parasite that need to get to the stomach of cats so to do that is it infected mice and a cheater Braziel that they're not freak out when they smell a cat instead when encountering a cat or cat urine every act like its a really hot female mouse and dopamine is released in da and they're not afraid of a peek at all so they can eat in the band the odd parents I get site into the city to the digestion and finishes it its life cycle now at the pier side affects people too but instead of making a stink at shirt are really sexy in it it may according anyway to us Joseph Fletcher with a pressure of evolution biology on at the extras University project he says that it takes a taco place most can cause people to be more right reckless in risk averse so they actually from his studies it you kinda showed the ticket to more car accidents for example or you might get these people might be more prone to what were hi iris suicide risk just because it got this disparity confections can you get rid of it what you have it I don't think we do have a way to get rid of Steve if you read way to get rid of toxoplasmosis there are in a row tix to achieve toxoplasmosis virgin really it just to Steve's of the progression of the infection it doesn't get rid of it if you have a tree sapling you have talk so you may need to be on antibiotics for life. alright I'm pretty sure that this doesn't explain the rage in popularity of cat videos on YouTube hahaha oh my god of Sun and the coop in the cafe you're watching what actually of Alicia love Lakers studies he said that done it infected men become introverted suspicious and more likely to wear wrinkled old clothes Wow huh manifest yeah is it really affected women or just the opposite apparently in one study he says they were you sleep well dressed when I arrive at the lab work for interviews I also we're trusting and social and if you select all because it got a spare to breed a text at this lady's research on shows it might be related to what to the influenza virus itself into university of research is infected 36 of their staff using their staff as as controls a vaccine and ethical price yes but it's a cool before and after they got the shots and they were really surprised but they found the people became social animals going from an average of a number of 5 yards from the social interactions a 54 day 201 a day to date a double directions almost beat people but the time spent with each person went from 33 minutes to two and a half minutes so she's like the virus if you want to get this way was making them see as many people as I can and I not for long just enough time possible to train to transmit this and when we should you said we had very limited or simple social lives were suddenly decided they needed to go out to bars or parties um which of course would be a great way to pass is on the more we learn about this the more we can learn to catch a late I had to rewire are self centered making and make more effective psychiatric drugs and I can't help it its chocolate a little bit more its magic design parasite second hand Acuvue to a few minutes I can make you smarter or more pictures were or perhaps I'd learn how to appreciate how good brains really taste to see where this goes does toxoplasmosis thing is this is really interesting man about a third of the show humanity on the planet is infected Toxoplasma about 30 percent of people need wide and a shirt does research now showing that its associated with the development of schizophrenia text some people with schizophrenia may have it because of the baby triggered by Riva toxoplasmosis I'm also Tesla compulsive disorder in which isn't really interesting is that some drugs which are typically used to treat schizophrenia like hell. All and Epico actually hat have anti talk so sex so they may be alright God against me because Direction correcting Toxoplasma itself and at Maple I was trying to fight which patient with schizophrenia respond to the structure how do we know somebody has the parasite to measure yeah or or a CSS lot of people have this mean a lot of people have the right idea I heard 30 percent summer that's right P magic actually dramatically increasing the rates of certain psychiatric diseases that means one or two of us might have it yeah I am assuming I had a lot I'd catch growing up the router cats so I tell if a bacteria viruses parasites a rule the god damn world wow that sure do concert I need and out and I said yes they are overlord tiny evil that's why I love it science fiction weapons are these big powerful like guns and weapons in a sec know if you're going to be so tiny you don't even know that you're there until you're completely overwhelmed to disassemble logos Mauldin ok a big yeah the super dance Stanley innovation sexy sound like people sigh soldiers down to the earth just released a nano cloudOn just converted we would have no chance 0% chance against it.

Genetic Transistors ()

• http://www.interestingthings.net/2013/03/stanford-researchers-discover-genetic.html

Prescribing Placebos ()

• NeuroLogica Blog: Do 97% of UK Doctors Prescribe Placebos?

Interview with Ian O'Neill ()

• Discovery: Ian O'Neill

Astronomer with PhD in Solar Physics, science producer for Discovery News

Science or Fiction ()

Item #1: A new study finds that wearing a special contact lens for even a single night can correct for loss of near vision in adults with presbyopia. Item #2: New research finds that most fame is not fleeting – people who become famous tend to stay famous for years or decades. Item #3: Researchers analyzing the fossil record find that thousands of Pacific island bird species went extinct following first contact with Europeans.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ()

Design in nature is but a concatenation of accidents, culled by natural selection until the result is so beautiful or effective as to seem a miracle of purpose.

References