SGU Episode 543
|
This episode needs: transcription, time stamps, formatting, links, 'Today I Learned' list, categories, segment redirects. Please help out by contributing! |
How to Contribute |
| SGU Episode 543 |
|---|
| December 5th 2015 |
 |
| (brief caption for the episode icon) |
| Skeptical Rogues |
| S: Steven Novella |
B: Bob Novella |
C: Cara Santa Maria |
J: Jay Novella |
E: Evan Bernstein |
| Quote of the Week |
Slippery slope arguments are intuitively tempting but they need strong gravity and weak friction. |
| Links |
| Download Podcast |
| Show Notes |
| Forum Discussion |
Introduction
You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.
What's the Word ()
- Hysteresis
News Items
Male and Female Brains ()
Bird and Human Voices ()
Driverless Cars ()
Deep Nonsense ()
A Ring for Mars ()
Who's That Noisy ()
- Answer to last week: Seizure
Questions and Emails
Question #1: Tardigrade Follow Up ()
hi guys, I'm a genome scientist and one of my areas of interest is horizontal gene transfer, which was the subject of last week's SorF, when you discussed the new PNAS paper on the tardigrade genome. That paper made the incredible claim that 17% of the animal's genome had been laterally transferred, mostly from bacteria. I was very skeptical, having published papers before debunking such claims (the PNAS paper actually referenced my work), so I read the paper right away. I'm working with a few colleagues to see if we can confirm or debunk their claims. But meanwhile, another group was nearly done sequencing another tardigrade genome, and they just published a preprint on biorXiv *today* (http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/12/01/033464), in which they repudiate the claim of the PNAS paper. Their abstract says 'We compare our assembly to a recently published one for the same species and do not find support for massive horizontal gene transfer.' One reason I was so skeptical of the PNAS paper is that the assembly of the genome is terrible - it's in many thousands of small pieces. This means many of those pieces could be contaminants - there's no sequence connecting them to the rest. In addition, the genome they describe is too big, at 200 megabases. The same group published a paper in 2007 estimating the genome size as much smaller, and this new biorXiv paper reports a genome of 130 Mb. I think you should update the SorF segment to correct this - I seriously doubt that this claim will hold up. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) involving animals is extremely rare and this new paper isn't going to change that paradigm. I think they were looking for a headline to get their paper into PNAS, as often happens. That didn't take long! Steven Salzberg, PhD Baltimore, MD
Science or Fiction ()
Item #1: In Iceland they have 13 Yule Lads instead of one Santa Claus, whose mother, Gryla, kidnaps naughty children and cooks them in a cauldron. Item #2: The modern look of Santa Claus was essentially invented by Coca Cola in the 1930’s; prior to that Saint Nick was most often portrayed as tall and thin. Item #3: Due to a wildly successful marketing campaign in 1974, KFC is the most popular meal for Christmas dinner in Japan.
Skeptical Quote of the Week ()
'Slippery slope arguments are intuitively tempting but they need strong gravity and weak friction.' -Sean Welsh
S: The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, dedicated to promoting science and critical thinking. For more information on this and other episodes, please visit our website at theskepticsguide.org, where you will find the show notes as well as links to our blogs, videos, online forum, and other content. You can send us feedback or questions to info@theskepticsguide.org. Also, please consider supporting the SGU by visiting the store page on our website, where you will find merchandise, premium content, and subscription information. Our listeners are what make SGU possible.
References
|
|
|