SGU Episode 873

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SGU Episode 873
April 2nd 2022
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 872                      SGU 874
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
C: Cara Santa Maria
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Guest
AJR: Andrea Jones-Rooy, political, social, and data scientist and professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the NYU Center for Data Science
Quote of the Week
I beg of you, do not jump to the conclusion that certain things you see are necessarily "supernatural" or the work of "spirits" just because you cannot explain them.
Harry Houdini, Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, stunt performer
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction, Live from NYC

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

S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. (applause) Today is March 25^th, 2022, and this is your host, Steven Novella. (applause) Joining me this week are Bob Novella...

B: Hey, everybody! (applause)

S: Cara Santa Maria...

C: Howdy. (applause)

S: Jay Novella...

J: Hey guys. (applause)

S: ...and Evan Bernstein.

E: Hello New York! (applause)

S: And we have a special guest Andrea Jones-Rooy. Andrea, welcome to the SGU. (applause)

AJR: Hello. Thank you for having me.

S: You've been on the show before.

AJR: I've been on the live stream.

S: The live stream.

AJR: I've never done a, I've never done a SGU.

E: Not on SGU.

S: You're first time the guest rogue. A virgin. Yeah. (Cara laughs)

AJR: So, we'll see. I'll just just wink and I'll leave whenever [inaudible] (Cara laughs)

E: Not before science or fiction.

AJR: Yep.

S: Andrea you are a political scientist and a data specialist.

AJR: Yes.

S: That is accurate?

AJR: Political scientist and data scientist.

S: Data scientist.

AJR: Yeah. I don't just specialize. I science. (Cara laughs)

S: Okay.

J: It that two PhDs?

AJR: Yes.

S: Is that two separate PhDs?

AJR: It's one PhD and a rebranding, is what it is. (Cara laughs) Yeah. So I have a PhD in political science and then all the students in the entire world wanted to study data science and I said "yeah, I teach data science". And so now I'm a data scientist.

C: That's what you can do when you have a PhD, people don't seems to know.

AJR: Exactly, exactly, Cara you're ready you can, you can change it all around. So I did do quantitative political science. And so I was doing statistics and now I just said yeah, I can look at other numbers, they don't have to be about politics. That's where I am now, yeah. And I did the programming side of analysis in political science so it was sort of related.

B: What kind of program.

AJR: I started in R and now I'm in Python, what do you think about that?

B: I've heard of Python, I've never heard of R. Is that like a pirate language? Arrrr.

AJR: Yes, yeah. Well there's a hilarious statistics joke, I don't know, I'm sorry a programming joke, are you ready?

B: Please please yes.

AJR: So the joke is: what is a pirate's favorite programming language?

C: Arrrr.

AJR: Stata. (Cara and Evan laughs) And we like it because it makes someone say arrr and you're hilarious. (laughter) So we had fun in grad school. I have a, I have an actual statistics joke if you want to hear it. I'll stop. Is this why you want to go?

J: Go ahead.

AJR: Do you know the three statisticians who go hunting?

J: No.

AJR: No? You know this?

S: I think I've heard this.

AJR: Okay, so three statisticians go hunting. Don't say if you know what it is, right, they go hunting. One of the statisticians shoots at the duck and hits 10 feet in front of it. Another one statistician shoots at the duck and hits 10 feet behind it. And the third statistician says "you got it!". (laughter)

C: I like it.

AJR: And those were the two times we laughed in grad school. (laughter)

S: I had a doctor duck hunting joke.

AJR: Oh let's hear it.

S: So there was a family practitioner, neurologist and a surgeon go duck hunting.

AJR: Perfect.

S: Right? So they're waiting for the [inaudible] for the ducks to come. A flock of ducks flies by. The family doctor says "There, oh duck, wait do you think it's a duck? What about you? Do you think those are ducks?". By the time he was done getting consultations they had, they had flown by. Then another five minutes go by, another flock of ducks come by and now it's the neurologist's turn to shoot he aims his gun "It's a duck! Wait that could be a goose. Or it could be a, you know, a swallowed tail but before he would caught up, you know, figured out exactly what the species was, they were gone. Then a few minutes later another more ducks come by now it's the surgeon's turn. As soon as they come into view he raises his gun blam blam empties both barrels. Grabs the other guy's gun, there's birds falling all over the place. Then he turns to, actually, there's supposed to be a pathologist there as well (Cara laughs), turns to the pathologist and says: "Go make sure those were ducks".

C: Yeah, there you go.

E&B: Ooh.

AJR: Yeah, that's good. All right, I have one for being stranded on a desert island. And it's, what is it, it's a physicist, a chemist and an economist, okay? Does anyone know this one? You might know that, in the front you know this one, okay. So let me see if I get this right. So they're stranded on a desert island. Everyone is starving. It's a physicist, chemist and economist. And a political scientist my PhD's in political science so we added ourselves to the joke, right? It's the kind of entrepreneurial spirit we have. They're stuck on a desert island. All there is is one can of food and no can opener. So they say: "How we're gonna open this?". And the physicist says: "Well, we could set up some kind of lever and then have it catapult against the thing and then crack it open and blah blah blah.". The chemist says: "Well we could apply heat", I don't come from the natural sciences, so I don't know it might work, "We could apply some heat and crack it home and it would expand". And the economist says: "Assume there's a can opener.". And then the political scientist says: "Assume the economist is right.".

C: There you go.

AJR: But if you're a political scientist that's uproariously hilarious. (laughter)

Special Report: Political Science of War (4:36)

• James D. Fearon: "Rationalist Explanations for War"

News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

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

S: All right. Let's move on to some news items. We have a few news items to get to.

Transgenic Plants and Space Travel (22:55)

• Transgenic Plants and Space Travel

S: We're going to start with one about transgenic plants in space.

Homeopathy Trials and Publication Bias (37:13)

• Reporting bias makes homeopathy trials look like homeopathy works

Anti-Universe (52:34)

• Our universe may have a twin that runs backward in time

Psychedelic Treatments (1:04:49)

• AI maps psychedelic ‘trip’ experiences to regions of the brain – opening new route to psychiatric treatments

Plastic in our Blood (1:21:00)

• The Guardian: Microplastics found in human blood for first time

Science or Fiction (1:30:55)

Theme: Ancillary skills of U.S. presidents Item #1: President Nixon was an accomplished musician who could play the piano, clarinet, violin, accordian, and saxophone. Item #2: President Lincoln was a champion wrestler, being almost undefeated and holding a regional title for several years. In 1992 he was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame. Item #3: Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair, inspired by the long hours spent in drafting the Declaration of Independence.

Answer	Item
Fiction	Lincoln into Wrestling h.o.f.
Science	Nixon accomplished musician
Science	Jefferson's swivel chair

Host	Result
Steve	clever

Rogue	Guess
Andrea	Lincoln into Wrestling h.o.f.
Bob	Lincoln into Wrestling h.o.f.
Jay	Nixon accomplished musician
Cara	Jefferson's swivel chair
Evan	Lincoln into Wrestling h.o.f.

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

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:41:35)

I beg of you, Sir Arthur, do not jump to the conclusion that certain things you see are necessarily "supernatural" or the work of "spirits" just because you cannot explain them.
– Harry Houdini (1874-1926), in a 1922 letter to Arthur Conan Doyle after Doyle visited Houdini at his apartment in New York City to partake in a slate-writing session.

Signoff

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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