SGU Episode 402

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SGU Episode 402
30th March 2013
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 401                      SGU 403
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
R: Rebecca Watson
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Guest
KW: Karl Withakay
Quote of the Week
There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.
Søren Kierkegaard
Links
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Forum Discussion

Introduction

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

special just call me bish games hello what is your channel I live in the US 2012 skeptics guide you lose your pictures passing through ugh music try to do I get the end did you ready for the following yeah actually this is the fastest speed ever done again stroke slot in last year's guys definitely really not something to brag about no one like it like a week or two afterwards wanna think about it call tones little bit about your journey into skepticism my journey into skepticism into actual skepticism rather than just eat chicken query really kinda started with a friend of mines blog called up like to send it to blow the heat release get this is related at all he covers basically pop me a comic books and medicine topics and also for many years wrote a very well followed review of House MD the show and he had some links to some other web sites one of which was respectful insulin checking out other blood the link to I found respectful influence in started following or excite and then from there kinda spread out to science based medicine in neurological to get to plug in thing just kinda grew from there pick up or click to be just want a simulated into the whole eggs actly home network how's your implant going to talk about that Eric Bell is your journey is complete bike is around yes yes you say that remind me of a certain Emperor once you said yes exactly

This Day in Skepticism (2:39)

March 30: Happy birthday to Mary Whiton Calkins and happy death day to Ellen Swallow Richards. Two BAMF ladies for the price of one.

Alright well let's get started. Rebecca, you're going to tell us about March 30th yes happy birthday to Mary Whiton Calkins and happy to stay to Ellen Sullivan church that's right it's a twofer on my studies 1863 Mary c*** incest porn in Hartford Connecticut not that far from you guys she developed an interest in philosophy and psychology which of the time is the new discipline and is considered a part of philosophy to studying at Smith and then she went on speech at Wellesley learn more about psychology sedation she could teach it and so at Harvard nearby was the perfect place to go because there was a few schools with the psychology lab time unfortunately its not her because they didn't admit women professors there to sit in on their lectures despite the fact that the president of the college said that she would not be considered a tree stand it would be informal learning did it anyway and after year there she figured out and stuff so she could go back to Wells in San Fran psych lab but she returned Harvard to continue her education and once again to send a hard person who said nope you cannot be a real student you can only sit on IMAX is informally so she did as she conducted experiments 27 lectures she presented pieces with your professors unanimously agreed was more than sufficient for her to get her doctorate but Hartford continued to refuse to give it to her after many years Harvard agreed to allow Radcliffe College the right to give doctors to Calkins and a few other women who had informally study at Harvard but c*** in her shoes do to the unfairness of it all the symbolism she still had a pretty great life she went on to become the first president of the American Psychological Association she delivered several major contributions to psychology missing concerning the psychology of the self I heard discovery Chanel bit dated but she did time for the field she's also a noble fir open the question accepted scientific ideas about the differences between men and women putting out that her colleagues were adequately controlling for the environment when they made vol. town since about biological differences between men and women thank god that doesn't happen anymore I know right grown up since then so yeah she was in the early awesome woman in science and early Christmas Day is Ellen silo Richard she died on March 30th 1911 and she is the one who came with the idea of home economics as she believe that women who work in the home deserve to be educated and to be important you contributing members of society she had a ton of firsts for lice if you give me for a meeting directly from Wikipedia for mother she was the first woman admits hes my key and I see stars female instructor the first woman in America to be admitted to school science and technology and the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry South Elmsall Richard and Mary Whiton Calkins too bad ass women in science Priceline Trail Blazers

News Items

Homeopathy Debate (6:11)

• Debating Homeopathy Part I
• Debating Homeopathy Part II

So did I tell you guys that I actually participated in a debate a Yukon last week no I know I get my invitation yeah it was about homeopathy I debated that was the strongest argument just remain silent call the whole argument here all week show me that was Andre sane who is Andy and natural path a member of the Canadian naturopathic society and also a pass on the eve of practice is homeopathy what a similar debate in 2007-08 icon yep if there is there dinner recipies tree on three but this time is 11 and you sayings there to 6 years ago free runs tonight Russian race is there absolutely very interesting there's anything new in the world of homeopathy but it is interesting to see what they're saying now to and how they handle specific argument essentially his approach is this he would prevent me from one of my many articles everything homeopathy saying that there is no critical evidence to support you whatever just some statement about homeopathy how many grams of no active ingredient whatever and any presents some study that contradicted my statement in a really good city to the point oh yeah haaa it was the most pathetic the crappy study you can imagine that he found in tirely compelling as it is established The Sims this is now this is done this is a stablished this is down we can take this is a fact that the cross to the differences in state between to decide to send normal real people that was such a difference between me and him in terms of how we defend our positions I think that um they're probably other differences in terms of river coming from for example can go over everything is it was a little long to bake but when new singer homeopata saying these days it was a paper published in India in the last year where the researchers found that even is so cold Ultra Molecular Dr Lucien's that means graders and avocados number so they shouldn't be any active ingredient left that's what they do to get the papers published you know homeopathy no respectable journey Journal looked on sleep now because I'm used to Lucia that stats increase penis your page using this now low energy nuclear reactions write something to get away from the stink of cold fusion its the same conclusion nude the new homie out the terminologies ultra molecular yes to the delusion that sounds kinda comic book to Lucy it should be delusions and she's come delusions that's awesome did they really did a true electric does dilution today still found nano particles of the starting movies radiant nano particles in a molecule what are they use this thing to study the small uncontrolled and of course design controlled blanket is nothing a blind is no control and constraint it is a study buddy is explain what that means when you say on controlled group the researchers knew what they were looking for and lo and behold they found it yeah they didn't compare it anything dude no worries dear this is a contaminant what it actually is where I come from what it means its just a found an anomaly and that was it that's Italian know in which type as the water running Hey the sticks point and the reason why that sucks is it is totally skew the results it invalidates I think I remember reading about that they didn't even do a test of their water before to compare to the afternoon in German if it already has a contaminant it to be in town crazy Sin City on a sober here early one of the office this paper wrote an email to Harry Hall in science based medicine and say hey look at our paper we know you guys are skeptical of proving that is actually stuff in there I would be happy to engage with you in a dialogue about this new exciting scientific evidence and Harry Reid back to replace she is and said text that's nice can you at your service my opening you guys can you tell me why the window controls samples in your study the author wrote back and said we don't discuss things with nasty skeptics this is the end of the conversation oh hey I picked a date there we go how to date today actually use the word nasty II might have said so bet that was there oh yeah oh yeah right you emailed us and now you don't want to have a discussion Cosby ask you one question why did you not include a control group that was the end of discussion that's the club that is the study that Andre quoted as Steve contradicting my claim that old for molecular dilutions don't have any active ingredients to do is gone with say to all this PC using st little skeptical hahahahahahahaha nice Brian did you tell that story on stage yes I did get this is hilarious course I did yesterday knows it that's like that was the exchange you know he is one crappy study after another and then I went to the clinical evidence and I presented and the systematic reviews now I deliberately chose a systematic review that was not altered by a charger its cause I know they hate him for dinner also included his systematic review of systematic reviews for 2010 could still the most current thorough systematic review a chemical studies of Cochran review systematic reviews of homeopathy and it completely naked is a meeting change it includes in at home remedies do not have any sex p on placebo and his response to that was Jordan's not a real homeopath he only took six months or whatever not two years of training and you lied about being on the name is a nasty person you just listen to an ad hominem attack against turn ons and against me for relying upon and charger for my analysis which is not true reliance credit in months and studies myself in any way hey sorry was conducting a systematic review of Cochran reviews cheap collating with decent he wasn't doing research for you what you need to do directly you just summarizing the results of the systematic reviews at work that you're high quality

Shooting the messenger instamessage that's ridiculous trash in one thing we didn't it was fun about this today is always be ready to ask each other questions so I asked him what is the indication sure which homeopathic remedies have been shown to be effective in multiple high quality reproducible clinical trials and yeah he did should try to dodge a little bitty ceesail your day just like the did Jacob review of the Grammys for diarrhea that was his best case that's the one that he said he threw out there so I can see anything at me like I do remember the Thea details of the homeopathic remedies for diarrhea I just didn't like review the right before the debate so I could use I could have turned off but I did afterwards for my blog view updated and even the time is it is a bit ok good talking about surfing small methodologic the flood studies studies with mixed results Jacob three studies for diarrhea and Caesar in this is a homeopath this is guy trying to spin in a positive direction and he said that she you indicated is possibly in a sec you're a note to your other authors review the same three studies instead d Steve's results for mixed sweetheart three studies with mixed results that's your not compelling evidence and Jacobson the following web study that was your break a wrist and was dead negative show once again we have this pattern of the better studies are negative you never get any consistent signal is consistent a second from the clinical research it's just these mixed results to know when you finally get around to doing a rigorous studies negative studies done by homeopaths 7c had to offer clinically Cheetos same thing is that she has studied the historical evidence for homeopathy so he goes on and on about display getting in the 1800 silver homeopath treated Colleran cured everybody you know take really that is a hundred year old anecdote soup is supposed is compelling evidence is the clean today May the effectiveness of homeopathy during those plagues were true it would be absolutely trivial to demonstrate homeopathic remedies for affective against does epidemic illness is Right see it and if its not as effective as they say in the morning in the end results are not reliable which is the ID be easier exclamation 850 you ain't to pre scientific reports indicate a report of homeopathy works a lot of Physics Chemistry and and physiology on the other side what's more likely to be wrong give it to their best options for talking about times when homeopathic hospitals people weren't dying is often because the doctors were deleting people to death mean you're having terrible sanitary conditions at an exit to it they were doing any kind of active treatment it's just that they weren't killing in place quickly panel doctors reason careful techniques 200 years ago doing nothing was an advantage him so that's the update on defending homie I see so did you have a good time enjoy doing that was fun and what was the audience response what is packed homeopaths app haha its so excited

Small Pterosaur (17:10)

• Crow-Size Pterosaur Named After 9-Year-Old Fossil Hunter

So Evan, you're going to tell us about a tiny fossil hunter in a tiny fossil. But first I'm going to ask you all this so what were you doing when you were nine years old what is a long time scar what were you doing when you were nine years old can you remember wow that would have been 81 probably be thinking about Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Sunday right myself I was some kind of 5 grams is constantly daydreaming prepubescent stating that I had a healthy fascination with fire to put it lightly seasoned Niners soldier your boyfriend you know these things fascinate you that it but I'd like you to meet Daisy Morris she's nine years old he hails from the Isle of Wight in United Kingdom show and she just had her first restrict creature named after her JC's mother says that her daughter has been a fossil hunter since the age of story and by the time she was 5 years old p**** 2008 Street in her to earth 3rd year of her paleontology I'll be walking on the beach looking for fossils and sure enough she hit up a Leo jackpot dark colored bones for protruding from the sand in her pass she stumbled across the remains of a cleaning her I could only be generated by that of a five year old girl she took a deep breath and she said aloud dang there is no is going on okay so she carefully click to the phones in together with her mother they brought the bones to Southampton University uh they're the professors study instead their tests and they were able to determine that these bottles for a new genus and species of small Paris or the crap that in Xmen book your findings find fossils is exciting enough to discover any kind of fossilized is a rare spirits for anybody to have found the fossil remains of a new genus and species that I say is practically beyond belief yeah and I would get to heaven and after you look absolutely I was a total loser when I was nine pterosaurs in case you don't know we're worth flying reptile struge from the Lower Cretaceous. Which some training 65 million to 220 million years ago and they're saying that the speaker find sesame to be around a hundred twenty five million years old and the reason that it was in the news just recently is fat this new species name is officially confirmed in the scientific paper published I just a few days ago so yes you would like to officially welcome Drako DC Morris I to the collected some of human scientific understanding awesome so cool can a researcher cruiks date their wings the other mainly supported by the other PT address is usually extended is this very different birds or bat Soopers Bachan enters Rizzoli vault flight goes completely completely different Anatomy bats have I called her fingers support their wings and rings are basically the fingers Birds their wings there arms and terrace or is it just a dinner one thing usually longest finger knuckle a good idea sounds painful to what are these what does this creature actually look like they have a drawing of it or anything out yet yep they have they do have some drawings of it had a wing span of about two and a half feet and was just over a foot from snout to tail show picture the size of a goal or large pro off today so pretty small sexy when you I compare to its size larger cousin Castle which had a wingspan a more than 30 feet what is very small but its close cousin was the largest thing to ever fly on earth that we know of its cool for lots of different reasons obviously the age of person involved Daisy fantastic it's cool she's hunting bones at that age you know like I said were most certainly don't even remember what we were doing back and I think it dries on the point that there's a little luck involved in the process right I mean timing is it is essential here this the bones on the beach me to veggli would have found your way into the ocean and swept away a roadway and set adrift or whatever question about the situation is that time ok normally if you find a fossil imbedded in rock somewhere in urine amatuer he was just wondering not use your not a scientist can you come across puzzles you're probably better off leaving the bones where they are and is this going to want to investigate we're the bones are in bed at night just the bones of cells that other day made date them based upon the rock Aaron but the situation is a little different she found them on the beach right cities are probably already washed away from wherever they were deposited right now and probably to the sand on the beach that doesn't really matter right there's nothing to be gained by finding those bones in that doesn't tell you much about it about when are the surrounding area you know when something is fossilize Argos that process and the tissue decays around the bones and everything it mean is there anything in the immediate ground rate was the best touching the bones that gives any DNA or any kind of samples for scientist to find out more about the tissue the creatures at all just completely obliterated when bench fossilized by definition minerals around the bone replace house human bones on and did a little early to come stone uh a retainer structure but f****** lies bone can still retain some DNA me can extract tiny amount of DNA even from afar slides cost wise bones ok to tens of thousands of years old not wear the actual real case you used to live outside of the bone like to meet of the Laker whatever there is nothing in the dirt right there were that use to be right no no no I'm not at no cost wise is any soft tissue is completely destroyed probably never fully dressed parking and I get DNA into it and grow into a dinosaur because it to dine DNA just does not last that long does an upper limit Wade where did you know what we're doing a Will Survive I have no time limit is nasty to know what it is about that reason it's certainly not 65 million years yeah you just think bacterial gobble it all up and food Damian has to be very special conditions low oxygen conditions for example of things it's falling to the silk at the bottom of the river yeah thats thats were things get finalized most of the stuff is dies on the surface somewhere he does get completely decomposed and does not only very tiny percentage of bones end up getting f***** like the wind up in some special um environment send me some when we don't you talk about the same reason why we don't see bones laying around everywhere outside because it's taken away by rodents and Aliens in things yeah efficiently destroyed yeah.

Fracking Earthquakes (25:05)

• Oklahoma's biggest quake tied to fracking

Never Eat Again (33:48)

• This Man Thinks He Never Has to Eat Again

Voyager at the Edge (41:52)

• Voyager 1 has entered a new region of space, sudden changes in cosmic rays indicate

Who's That Noisy? (46:01)

• SGU Forums: Who's That Noisy? Episode #402
• Why Worry? Answer to last week: Amanda Peet

Questions and Emails (49:12)

Question 1: More than Gravity ()

I'm a friend of Rebecca's, a former CFI employee, and a huge fan of SGU, so let me start by thanking you for all that you do! My editor at Buffalo Spree magazine sent me a press release about two local scientists affiliated with Ecology and Environment, Inc. just outside of Buffalo, New York. They have apparently established something called the "More than Gravity" theory. I did some Googling and had trouble finding anything about this that didn't seem to come right from the press release; if two local scientists are using a prominent Buffalo company to promote woo, I want to know about it and write about it; that said, if there's something to this I am obviously interested in covering that as well. Have you heard anything about this? Having no physics background I don't have a lot of frame of reference, but the lead to the press release prickled my skeptic senses: "Through 50 years of research and observation, scientific and engineering experts, Gerhard and Kevin Neumaier, have developed a new theory that refutes the 400-year old assumptions currently held by the scientific community." Any help you could give me would be much appreciated! Thanks, Julia Burke

Science or Fiction (1:01:48)

Item #1. Scientists report the discovery of new lizard species, tetrahymena, that exists in seven distinct sexes. Item #2. Nature recently reported that two counterfeit scientific journals successfully scammed hundreds of researchers out of author fees. And item #3. New genetic evidence suggests that primates evolved trichromatic color vision while still nocturnal, rather than as an adaption to diurnal living, as previously believed.

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:17:04)

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.

Søren Kierkegaard

Announcements

NECSS (1:18:12)

• http://necss.org

Rebecca at Academia Film Olomouc (1:18:58)

• http://afo.cz

Cordial Deconstruction (1:20:00)

• http://blog.cordialdeconstruction.com/

References