SGU Episode 973

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SGU Episode 973
March 2nd 2024
"An American company has made history by becoming the first commercial outfit to put a spacecraft on the Moon."  "The Odysseus mission is funded by NASA as part of their program to develop private industry to send instruments and supplies to the Moon."
SGU 972                      SGU 974
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
C: Cara Santa Maria
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Quote of the Week
The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.
Robert Coveyou, American research mathematician
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction, Leap year, AI Willy Wonka party

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

Special Discussion: Alabama SC Decision (7:28)

• [url_from_show_notes _article_title_] 

S:...ineluctably...

News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

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

First Private Landing on the Moon (19:39)

• Odysseus Lands on the Moon  

Sex Difference in the Brain (28:40)

• Men and women's brains do work differently, scientists discover for first time 

Bee Venom for Breast Cancer (37:29)

• Bee Sting Venom as a Viable Therapy for Breast Cancer: A Review Article 

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E:...Hey, I'm noticing a pattern: every three years, I bring up bee venom therapy. (Cara laughs) I don't know what it is. I don't know. I have to scratch this itch every three years. I did this last in 2021; before that I had talked about it in 2018. So I don't know.

Learning Empathy (48:02)

• Shaping Empathy: Adult Brains Can Learn Compassion 

Brightest Object (59:45)

• A mass of 17 billion suns: Growing black hole is the most luminous object ever observed by astronomers (Phys.org title)
  original title: The brightest object ever observed in the night sky is a black hole that’s growing by the equivalent of one Sun a day
   

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B: So it's been roughly 185,000 minutes (Transcriptionist's note: approximately 128 days) since I've had my last black hole news item^{[link needed]}.

...meatballs

Who's That Noisy? (1:10:10)

Answer to previous Noisy:

Half dollar pushed into dry ice (video in article)

New Noisy (1:13:49)

[_short_vague_description_of_Noisy]

J:...If you think you know what it is...

Announcements (1:14:58)

J:...1000th show...

Questions/Emails/Corrections/Follow-ups (1:28:56)

Correction #1: Oats consumption math error

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Science or Fiction (1:31:08)

Item #1: A recent review finds that male psychopaths outnumber female psychopaths 10:1. Item #2: A new study finds that boiling tap water for 5 minutes removes up to 90% of nano and microplastics from the water. Item #3: Using AI scientists have developed a method for atomic force microscopy of material surfaces with resolutions below the width of the microscope probe tip.

Answer	Item
Fiction	Male & female psychopaths
Science	Boiling removes plastics
Science	Atomic force microscopy

Host	Result
Steve	win

Rogue	Guess
Evan	Male & female psychopaths
Jay	Male & female psychopaths
Bob	Boiling removes plastics
Cara	Male & female psychopaths

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

Evan's Response

Jay's Response

Bob's Response

Cara's Response

Steve Explains Item #2

_rogue_mentions_scale_or_scaling_

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:47:35)

The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance.  – Robert Coveyou (1915-1996), American research mathematician who worked at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

E:... "Random number generation is too important to be left to chance [sic]

this is a slight misquote

." ...

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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Today I Learned

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

References

Vocabulary