SGU Episode 961

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SGU Episode 961
December 9th 2023
"In contrast to data usually stored on the best hard drives and the best SSDs of today, Cerabyte wants to use ceramic material, combined with glass, to hold mountains of data. For instance, it wants to build palm-sized cartridges that can store 10,000TB of data."
SGU 960                      SGU 962
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
C: Cara Santa Maria
J: Jay Novella
Quote of the Week
People can be extremely intelligent, have taken a critical thinking course, and know logic inside and out. Yet they may just become clever debaters, not critical thinkers, because they are unwilling to look at their own biases.
Carole Wade, American cognitive psychologist
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction, Steve's coyote sighting, Rogues’ dogs

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

Quickie with Bob (12:19)

• Video of ceramic storage system prototype surfaces online — 10,000TB cartridges bombarded with laser rays could become mainstream by 2030, making slow hard drives and tapes obsolete  
   (Note: this article is not from the SGU show notes page)

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News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

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

Quantum Gravity (15:35)

• New Theory Unites Gravity and Quantum Mechanics 

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X-Prize for Health Span (28:41)

• XPRIZE on aging will award up to $101 million for therapies that restore vigor to the elderly 

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ECT Heals the Brain (44:29)

• How electroconvulsive therapy heals the brain − new insights into ECT, a stigmatized yet highly effective treatment for depression 

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Building New Materials with AI and Robots (57:21)

• Google AI and robots join forces to build new materials 

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From Tik Tok: Electric Car Without Charging (1:08:36)

• Did a Man from Zimbabwe Invent an Electric Car That Requires No Charging? 
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Who's That Noisy? (1:18:23)

Answer to previous Noisy:

Eurasian bittern booming call
(The Eurasian bittern or great bittern is a wading bird in the bittern subfamily of the heron family Ardeidae.)

New Noisy (1:21:46)

[echo-y hissing, then whirring of a musical/mechanical nature]

what this week's Noisy is

Announcements (1:22:44)

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Science or Fiction (1:24:06)

Item #1: A new study finds that the average volume of speech, called “sonority” is highest in the tropics and lowest in the northwest coast of North America. Item #2: A new comparative study finds that human newborn brain size is relatively smaller at birth than our primate relatives, representing a relatively shorter gestation and delay in brain development.†  Item #3: Researchers find that the electric organ discharge of an electric eel is capable of transferring DNA into zebrafish larvae. † The "What's the Word" segment in Episode 655 explores the word "altricial", which is found in the title for this article.

Answer	Item
Fiction	Human newborn brain size
Science	Average volume of speech
Science	Electric eel DNA transfer

Host	Result
Steve	win

Rogue	Guess
Cara	Average volume of speech
Jay	Human newborn brain size
Bob	Human newborn brain size

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

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:40:15)

People can be extremely intelligent, have taken a critical thinking course, and know logic inside and out. Yet they may just become clever debaters, not critical thinkers, because they are unwilling to look at their own biases.  – Carole Wade, American cognitive psychologist

Signoff/Announcements (1:41:59)

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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Today I Learned

• Fact/Description, possibly with an article reference
• Fact/Description
• Fact/Description

References