SGU Episode 909

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SGU Episode 909
December 10th 2022
_brief_caption_for_the_episode_icon_
SGU 908                      SGU 910
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
Quote of the Week
Quote
AUTHOR, _short_description_
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction

Voice-over: You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

What's the Word? ()

• Word_Topic_Concept

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Quickie with Bob ()

• [link_URL TITLE]

News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

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

Square Kilometer Array ()

• [link_URL TITLE]

Mantle Plume on Mars ()

• [link_URL TITLE]

Swimming Dinosaurs ()

• [link_URL TITLE]

Ancient Environmental DNA ()

• [link_URL TITLE]

Cat Domestication ()

• [link_URL TITLE]

Who's That Noisy? ()

New Noisy ()

[_short_vague_description_of_Noisy]

short_text_from_transcript

Questions/Emails/Corrections/Follow-ups ()

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Science or Fiction ()

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Answer	Item
Fiction
Science

Host	Result
Steve

Rogue	Guess

Voice-over: It's time for Science or Fiction.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ()

TEXT
– AUTHOR (YYYY-YYYY), _short_description_

6026.76 6028.92 E: Evan, give us a quote.

6028.92 6032.04 E: Scientific results are always preliminary.

6032.04 6037.36 E: No good scientist will believe that they have offered the last word on a given subject.

6037.36 6038.36 E: Brian Cox.

6038.36 6040.84 E: If I have to tell you who Brian Cox is, look him up.

6040.84 6041.84 E: You know him.

6041.84 6042.84 S: Look him up, Brian.

6042.84 6043.84 S: Yeah, that's good.

6043.84 6048.94 S: But that's, again, one of those quotes that it's true as far as it goes.

6048.94 6059.16 S: But there's a lot of discussion that you can have around that because that doesn't mean that we don't know something to such a degree that we can't act upon it.

6059.16 6060.16 S: Right.

6060.16 6062.68 S: So there's preliminary, then there's preliminary.

6062.68 6063.68 S: Right.

6063.68 6070.84 S: Like, yeah, this might be any scientific conclusion is always subject to revision when further evidence comes in.

6070.84 6076.28 S: But that doesn't mean we can't act as if it's true because we have overwhelming evidence.

6076.28 6078.92 S: You know, otherwise, like, how could you practice medicine?

6078.92 6079.92 S: Right.

6079.92 6080.92 S: Or do anything.

6080.92 6084.72 E: But is it appropriate for a scientist to declare it such?

6084.72 6089.64 S: Well, we say it depends on how careful you are with your verbiage.

6089.64 6090.64 S: Right.

6090.64 6098.64 S: We could say that this is, you know, rock solid or well established or established beyond reasonable doubt.

6098.64 6102.48 S: Or we can take this as a scientific given.

6102.48 6110.60 S: But that doesn't mean it's the last word because we can always get a deeper understanding of reality that changes it.

6110.60 6114.32 S: But usually that doesn't make it wrong.

6114.32 6116.68 S: It just means it just makes it incomplete.

6116.68 6117.68 S: Right.

6117.68 6119.76 S: Like, take something obvious.

6119.76 6124.12 S: The earth is a sphere that's never going to be proven wrong.

6124.12 6125.12 S: It's just going to be refined.

6125.12 6126.12 S: Right.

6126.12 6127.12 S: OK, it's a spheroid.

6127.12 6130.12 S: It's an oblate spheroid.

6130.12 6134.00 S: You know, it's it's a lopsided, oblate spheroid, whatever.

6134.00 6135.48 S: But it's still a sphere.

6135.48 6136.48 S: Right.

6136.48 6137.48 S: Right.

6137.48 6146.12 S: It's like even Newtonian mechanics wasn't rendered wrong by relativity, just, you know, incomplete.

6146.12 6147.12 S: Incomplete.

6147.12 6148.80 S: Yeah, it was as it's right.

6148.80 6154.12 S: As long as you're not traveling at relativistic speeds or parked next to a black hole or something.

6154.12 6155.12 S: That's an important caveat.

6155.12 6159.76 S: Like, you know, I mean, like DNA is the molecule of inheritance.

6159.76 6164.88 S: No later discovery is ever going to change that conclusion.

6164.88 6168.06 S: We can act as if that's 100 percent rock solid.

6168.06 6174.80 S: But that doesn't mean that there aren't nuances that we discover, like epigenetics and other things that modify it, et cetera.

6174.80 6181.16 S: But just the basic fact that like DNA is the primary molecule of inheritance is so well established.

6181.16 6183.20 S: I mean, nothing's going to overturn that.

6183.20 6186.92 S: So as long as you there's a lot of context to that to that quote.

6186.92 6192.72 S: So that's a kind of a complicated idea to try to put into one pithy quote.

6192.72 6198.00 S: It's again true as far as it goes, but it requires a lot of discussion to really put it into scientific context.

6198.00 6201.00 S: You know what I'm saying?

6201.00 6202.00 E: Yep.

6202.00 6203.00 S: We still love Brian Cox, though.

6203.00 6204.00 S: Yeah.

6204.00 6205.00 E: Yeah.

6205.00 6206.00 E: Good science.

6206.00 6207.00 E: What did he say after that?

6207.00 6210.24 S: Like, that's always like that's something else I would want to know.

6210.24 6212.68 S: Well, Brian, thank you for joining us on this episode.

6212.68 6213.68 S: It was a lot of fun.

6213.68 6214.68 BN: Yeah, man.

6214.68 6215.68 BN: Yeah.

6215.68 6216.68 BN: Yeah, no, thanks for having me.

6216.68 6217.68 S: It was a blast.

6217.68 6218.68 S: Appreciate it, Brian.

6218.68 6221.96 S: And from what you're saying, you're going to clean up all the plastic in the oceans, right?

6221.96 6225.52 S: That's what you're doing.

6225.52 6230.72 BN: We're focused on the marine protected area part of the problem.

6230.72 6235.68 BN: But yeah, plastics is just such a looming, awful threat.

6235.68 6236.68 BN: Totally.

6236.68 6238.16 BN: But yeah, we're working on it.

6238.16 6239.16 S: All right.

6239.16 6240.16 S: Well, good luck with that.

6240.16 6241.16 S: All right.

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.

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