SGU Episode 451

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SGU Episode 451
March 1st 2014
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SGU 450                      SGU 452
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
R: Rebecca Watson
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Quote of the Week
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that the arts and sciences are at odds with one another. That is a recent, stupid and damaging idea. You don’t have to be unscientific to make beautiful art or to write beautiful things… science is not a body of knowledge or a belief system, it is just a term that describes humankind’s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome. The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is communicated.
Tim Minchin
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Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction

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

This Day in Skepticism ()

• March 1, 1865: Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman to receive an American medical degree!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Lee_Crumpler

News Items

My Three Parents ()

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-panel-debates-technique-that-would-create-embryos-with-three-genetic-parents/2014/02/25/60371c58-9e4d-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html

Dowsing for HIV ()

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-26345581

Climate Engineering ()

• http://m.phys.org/news/2014-02-limitations-side-effects-large-scale-climate.html

Open Data ()

• http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/2014/02/24/plos-new-data-policy-public-access-data/

Who's That Noisy ()

• Answer to last week: Oliver Stone

Questions and Emails ()

Question #1: Food Babe Follow Up ()

Hi guys. Love the show. I sent an email to my local public radio station when I heard that they were planning to interview Vani Hari (again). I sent a link to your recent blog about the Subway sandwich kerfuffle. Here's a link to the interview with her response to Steven's comments. http://cpa.ds.npr.org/wfae/audio/2014/02/CTPOD20140225.mp3Her interview starts around the 37 minute mark.Thanks for all you do. Alex WittigCharlotte NC

Michio Kaku ()

• http://mkaku.org/

Science or Fiction ()

[http://news.byu.edu/archive14-feb-emotionalparenting.aspx Item #1: A pair of studies both indicate that, contrary to prior research, breast feeding does not correlate with higher intelligence. Item #2: A review of data indicates that obesity prevalence among children and adults in the united states have not significantly changed between 2003 and 2012. Item #3: A new study finds that children as young as 9 months old are able to learn how to read.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ()

“Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that the arts and sciences are at odds with one another. That is a recent, stupid and damaging idea. You don’t have to be unscientific to make beautiful art or to write beautiful things… science is not a body of knowledge or a belief system, it is just a term that describes humankind’s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome. The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is communicated.” - Tim Minchin

S: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, dedicated to promoting science and critical thinking. For more information on this and other episodes, please visit our website at theskepticsguide.org, where you will find the show notes as well as links to our blogs, videos, online forum, and other content. You can send us feedback or questions to info@theskepticsguide.org. Also, please consider supporting the SGU by visiting the store page on our website, where you will find merchandise, premium content, and subscription information. Our listeners are what make SGU possible.

References