SGU Episode 353
Links
Skeptical Rogues
- S: Steven Novella
- B: Bob Novella
- R: Rebecca Watson
- J: Jay Novella
- E: Evan Bernstein
Guests
Introduction (0:00)
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. Today is Monday April 16th 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: And Evan Bernstein.
E: Carpe dium.
S: To you too, Evan.
R: So I'm just going to quit the podcast now and go out for a bike ride.
S: Yeah, (inaudible) your life.
E: Should I have said Carpe Podcast?
R: Yeah, that's probably a little better.
E: I'm not sure that was a popular phrase back when, but.
S: Carpe diem tomorrow.
E: (laughs)
J: Carpe manyana.
E: Crape diem.
S: Carpe manyana.
This Day in Skepticism
The Surgeons Photo (0:48)
(April 21, 1934 - Surgeon's Photo of the Loch Ness Monster published)
R: Hey so, happy Loch Ness Monster Day, everybody.
S: Yeah, cool.
J: Thanks.
E: Oh, thanks, what did I win?
R: Uh huh, I bet you didn't know that was a national holiday.
E: What!?
R: It's not.
J: What do people do on that holiday?
R: It's not.
J: Oh.
R: Uh, they take photographs, blurry photographs of toys floating in water. Yes, it's not a national holiday but I'm campaigning to make it one.
J: (laughs)
R: Today is the day in 1934 the famous photograph of quote, unquote "The Loch Ness Monster" was published in a newspaper. Does anybody know what newspaper?
All: uuuh.
J: It was in Scotland wasn't it?
R: I'll give you a hint, the newspaper still exists today and is quite popular in the UK and has also published other similar, maybe hoxes and unbelievable claims.
E: The Sun, the Sun.
R: (laughs) Close, the Daily Mail.
J: Of course!
R: Our good friends, the Daily Mail were the first to publish this particular photo, supposedly taken by a gynaecologist named Robert Kenneth Wilson. Wilson didn't want his name attached to the photo originally and so that's why it is well known as the surgeon's photograph. And it's the famous one, the one you think of when you think of Nessie. It looks like, you know maybe the neck of the monster rising out of the water, however there's absolutely nothing in the photo to give it any sense of scale except for the suspiciously small size of the ripples.
S: Yeah.
E: Oh yeah.
S: I've always thought that it looked like a hand. You know, the head, if you make that shape with your hand it kind of looks exactly like that.
E: Yeah.
R: Yeah I agree.
E: It does.
R: There have been a number of debunkings. I think the one that gained the most traction was published in as early as 1975 or so but it was claimed that this was a plot by the son in law of a big game hunter who was ridiculed by the Daily Mail and so this guy attempted to get revenge on the Daily mail by creating this hoax and by getting the surgeon to offer the pictures to the Daily Mail.
S: Was this Marmaduke Wetherell?
R: Marmaduke is correct, yes.
S: Marmaduke, I love it.
R: Such a great name, Marmaduke Wetherell.
S: Marmaduke!
B: My god, if he had any idea what he was creating with this one little hoax.
E: Quite amazing what, yeah.
B: An entire sub-genre of bullshit.
E: It's iconic.
R: Mmhmm.
E: This photograph.
S: Mmhmm.
R: I should say, Marmaduke Wetherell is the name of the aforementioned big game hunter.
S: Yeah, right.
R: And Christian Spurling is the son-in-law who supposedly built, it was apparently a toy submarine that had a head and neck attached with wood. That had been built by the son-in-law, Christian Spurling. And then the two of them got a few other people involved to get the photos to the Daily Mail.
J: Did you guys ever see the picture and think that it was like an elephant's trunk coming out of the water?
B: (laughs)
R: That was a common claim, mmhmm.
B: How'd an elephant get in there though?
J: Well that kind of thing, it doesn't have to be an elephant, it could be some type of sea creature sticking a tentacle out or whatever. When I look at the picture thinking that it's a dinosaur like they describe, it looks a lot more fake to me. It looks small to me then, it doesn't look... but when I think of it as an elephant's trunk type of appendage then it looks more real.
S: Well have you guys seen the original photo, not the cropped one that we're all familiar with?
J: Sure.
E: Yes, that's right.
B: Oh, I yeah but I forget, what was...
S: You could see how small it is in the loch.
E: Much better scale.
S: Yeah, the scale is much more apparent and you could see that it's a very tiny thing but then you zoom in on it and, I mean there were still anomalies that make you think that it's not a huge thing but you lose the ability to really see the scale.
J: This was one of those topics that we saw on that TV show "In Search Of" in the 70s.
S: Yeah.
E: Hmm.
B: That Spock was the host for.
J: Yeah, Leonard Nimoy hosted it, it's burned into my mind, like when I see that picture I hear his voice talking about it.
E: (laughs) I head that Bilbo Baggins song when I...
S: (laughs)
J: Oh god. I feel so bad for him because of that. Those of you who don't know, Leonard Nimoy recorded this song about Bilbo Baggins and he made a video, it had to be in 70s right? Some point in the 70s.
E: Oh yeah.
J: It's more embarassing than watching William Shatner sing about Mr Tambourine Man. That's how bad it is.
E: Yeah, or Rocket Man, yeah.
B: That's saying something, oh my god.
E: It is that bad, you cringe.
S: That's when Nimoy was trying way too hard to be not-Spock.
R: Yeah.
E: Right.
S: Yeah.
R: He kind of went in the wrong direction there.
E: His artsy phase, yeah. But eventually directed Three Men and a Little Lady, so.
R: Leonard Nimoy directed Three Men and a Little... and a Baby or whatever?
E: Yep. Yeah, Three Men and a Little Lady, is that what it was?
B: Yeah.
R: Wait, that was the second one. Did he do the first one or the second one?
J: Yes, no he did the first one I'm not sure if he did the second.
News Items
Life on Mars (6:03)
http://phys.org/news/2012-04-proof-life-mars.html
S: Well, Bob. Tell us about Life on Mars,
Indian Skeptic Charged with Blasphemy
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/13/indian-skeptic-charged-with.html
Multitasking
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17693737
Monkey's Recognize Words
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17676129
Cosmic Superwind
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2012/04/11/Mystery-of-cosmic-superwinds-solved/UPI-21491334185002/
Who's That Noisy?
Answer to last week: Ice chimes
Questions and Emails
Titanic Correction
Need to be careful believing the official position of white star lines. The Issue relates to PR using language to convey a message to the public that was generally believed before the event.: From snopes: Claim: The Titanic was never advertised using the word "unsinkable." : FALSE ...However, claiming (as White Star did) that although others may have used the word, White Star itself did not describe the Titanicas "unsinkable" in its advertising is a bit disingenuous. The February 1993 issue of The Titanic Commutator unearthed a White Star promotional flyer for the Olympic and Titanic that claimed "as far as it is possible to do, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable." I never trust advertising to be fact ;) Nigel Underhill
Advanced Dinosaurs
Just wondering if you guys had stumbled upon this little gem http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/04/weekend-feature-intelligent-advanced-versions-of-earths-dinosaurs-may-have-evolved-elsewhere-in-univ.html Good example of horrendous journalism. Eric Rosinski Arkansas
Science or Fiction
Item #1 Medical researchers have demonstrated that a form of carbon nanotubes can function as an effective chemotherapeutic agent again several types of solid tumors. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=24842.php Item #2 Researchers have developed a form of carbon nanotubes that form into durable sponges that can float on water and soak up 100 times their weight in oil. http://news.rice.edu/2012/04/13/nanosponges-soak-up-oil-again-and-again/ Item #3 Scientists have successfully created a form of graphene that can act as a semiconductor - previously known forms are either conductors or insulators. http://www..uwm.edu/news/2012/04/13/uwm-discovery-advances-graphene-based-electronics/ Item #4 Researchers have discovered that carbon nanotubes more than double the growth rate of plant cells in culture. http://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/04/04/carbon.nanotubes.can.double.growth.cell.cultures.important.industry
Skeptical Quote
"Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts." --Leo Rosten