SGU Episode 357

Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, you're escape to reality.

S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, today is Tueday, May 15th 2012 and this is your host Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella...

B: Hey everybody.

S: Rebecca Watson...

R: Hello everyone.

S: Jay Novella...

J: Hey Guys.

S: Evan Burnstein...

E: Top of the evening to you.

S: And we have a special guest rogue with us this evening, the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait...

PP: Hey, hey. You know...

R: Wow! For the first time ever.

PP: I was going to say...

S: Finally we got you on the show.

PP: This is like the 300th time I've been on this show I don't think I'm special anymore.

R: Awww... you'll always be special to us.

PP: Oh thank you, Rebecca.

J: God! Alright, can we please start with the science? Let's go...

This Day in Skepticism (00:51)

R: You know what, Phil? If you were to die I would put your head in a device that maintained your life somehow. Much like the one that was Patendend... Patented.

J: Patendend.

S: Patendend.

R: It's a hard word to say

B: Paten-tated.

R: On May 19th 1987, a device for perfusing an animal head from Chet Flemming. Chet created a machine, or at least the drawings for a machine, which he called a cabinet, that wouldand I quote, "Provide physical and biochemical support for an animal's head which has been discorporated. (i.e. severed from its body). The device can be used to supply a discorped head with oxygenated blood and nutrients by means of tubes connected to arteries which pass through the neck." And there's al sorts of interesting little tubes and stuff in the drawings that provide for waste disposal and all that stuff.

B: Oxygenation, yeah.

R: Yeah, 1987, that was the year that the Futurama head in a jar became... well not a reality but... ah...

PP: A drawing.

S: A fiction.

E: A living breathing concept.

R: A slightly less implausible reality.

PP: So this guy had a drawing and Futurama is basically all drawings so I don't really think that's a step forward.

R: That's a good point.

S: In this guy's diagram it has the animal head which looks suspiciously like a human head.

R: It could be a chimp.

PP: Is it Richard Nixon?

S: It could be a chimp.

R: It's from the back so it's hard to tell.

S: I don't know, those ears are awfully humanoid.

J: But why? All kidding aside, and the Futurama thing, why the hell would you want to do that?

S: I think this actually a script for a horror movie.

E: Real horror show.

R: Jay, aren't you the one who is having his head frozen?

J: Oh my god. Yeah, because I want it in a box? No.

B: Cabinet. Cabinet.

S: Well, Jay, what if that's all they can do when they thaw out your head it's just going to be in a cabinet attached to tubes. Iit's not going to be actually attached to a robot or a flesh body, it's just going to be a head in a box.

J: Then I would tell them to kill me.

R: You'd still take it.

J: I would say melt my head down for spare parts.

R: No, come one, head in a box, they could put a monitor in there. You could still watch TV.

PP: What happens to the body? Does he talk about that? Do you become one of the headless monks from Doctor Who.

R: If he had plans for the body they're in another patent I haven't found yet.

E: That's a different category.

J: They have a cabinet that keeps a body alive without a head.

R: Oh yeah, I think Dr Caligari actually patented that. That'a a german expressionist joke there, thank you.

News Items

Ghost Box (03:34)

http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/ghost-box/

Mayan Calendar (11:06)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343

Electricity from Viruses (17:52)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343

UK Libel Law Update (23:13)

http://skepchick.org/2012/05/uk-parliament-will-tackle-libel-reform/

Announcements (74:44)

R: Steve, a quick announcement. Because we've recorded so many shows leading up to and during NECSS, we missed what I originally said would be the deadline for the magnetic poetry contest, so let's extend it to June 1st.

S: June 1st.

R: If anyone wants to send in a work of art using their magnet, their word magnets for skeptics which you can get on skepticalrobot.com, you can still send that to us through our email, info@theskepticsguide.org. And the winner will get a t-shirt.

S: Phil, what have you got coming up?

PP: I'm giving a bunch of public talks, and I'll be putting those up on the blog. Dragon Con for sure, probably Comicon. And you know, I'll throw in a plug. My wife and I have started a company called science getaways, and you can find that at sciencegetaways.com where we are taking vacation packages and adding science! So our first one is in September and it's going to be at a luxury ranch basically in the Rocky Mountains. And it's going to be, it's a dude ranch.

J: Dude!

E: (laughs)

PP: All inclusive dude ranch. But yeah, it's great. Think City Slickers except totally different. And we'll have a geologist, a biologist and me, so we'll be having some talks and then hikes and star gazing and all kinds of stuff. It's going to be awesome.

S: Cool!

PP: I've been out to this place and it's beautiful and the food is fantastic.

S: And if there's anyone out there who doesn't know, Phil writes a very popular blog called bad astronomy, you can find him at discovermagazine.com/badastronomy and is a frequent flyer among several podcasts including Big Picture Science, you're on there once a month with Seth who was just on our show recently, great guy.

PP: No way, yeah.

S: And occasionally you'll find him on the Skeptics' Guide podcast, every now and then, occasionally.

(laughter)

S: Well Phil, thanks so much for joining us this week.

PP: It was great as always, thanks to all you guys.

R: Thanks Phil.

B: Thanks Phil.

E: Thank you doctor.

R: Thanks Steve.

S: Thank you, and may I thank of you for joining me as well.

E: Thank you Steve.

J: Doctor.

S: Doctor.

E: Doctor, doctor.

S: And until next week, this is your Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.