SGU Episode 870
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| SGU Episode 870 |
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| March 12th 2022 |
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| (brief caption for the episode icon) |
| Skeptical Rogues |
| S: Steven Novella |
B: Bob Novella |
C: Cara Santa Maria |
J: Jay Novella |
| Guest |
BW: Brian Wecht, American theoretical physicist |
| Quote of the Week |
Our Richie? The world’s smartest man? God help us! |
Richard Feynman's mom |
| Links |
| Download Podcast |
| Show Notes |
| Forum Discussion |
Introduction
Voice-over: 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 Tuesday, March 8th, 2022, and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella...
B: Hey, everybody!
S: Cara Santa Maria...
C: Howdy.
S: Jay Novella...
J: Hey guys.
S: ...and we have a special guest rogue this week Brian Wecht. Brian, welcome back to the SGU man.
BW: Hi, I'm happy to be here.
S: Evan is literally busy doing some Ukrainian man's taxes. He wrote his email saying my friend like this whole horrible situation about somebody who has to go to Ukraine to get their family out or whatever and like he has to do his taxes tonight before he leaves for Ukraine.
BW: Oh poor guy.
S: Yeah so Evan's like I can't not do this I have to miss the recording yeah and we're not flexible unfortunately this week, this is the only night we can record. So no Evan, but we got Brian. Brian's visiting us in Connecticut.
BW: I'm live from Steve's basement.
C: Really?
BW: Yeah, yep.
C: Oh, awesome.
BW: Yep.
S: Not that you could tell, we're all just in front of computers. But yeah he's physically here and he was visiting because we were we're testing our new fully live version of the boomer versus zoomer game show that he's helping us develop.
C: Oh fun.
BW: Yeah it was, the set, so Jay and Ian constructed this set and it looks, it just looks so great. I'm staring at it right now, and it really is like when, when this thing, the first time we're gonna do it live is that the the no-show on, what's the day, is it April 23rd?
S: April 23rd.
BW: Right. In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And it's gonna be so much fun to have this thing actually go live. We've done it online a few times but this is like definitely a level up from from that.
S: Yeah it's a lot of fun, you know, the bit the core of the show is we pit the four generations against each other. Boomers, gen z, millennials and zoomers. We have different categories of questions. And the questions are kind of balanced so there are some questions that you know the older generation should have a little bit of an edge on and then there's other questions that the young kids will definitely have an edge, on you know what I mean? So it's like who knows more about the other person's generation. It's a lot of fun and yeah we've play tested it several times and the winners have pretty much spanned across the age range, so I think we're you know, George is mostly writing the questions, I think he's doing a great job of sourcing them, you know.
BW: The last couple times it's been the zoomer because yeah we're trying to make sure it's not just trivia, but there's also like other you know kind of mental challenge brain games kind of stuff so it is accessible to really anybody.
Ukraine Invasion Updates (2:45)
News Items
Solid State Batteries (14:06)
Are Coronal Loops Real? (24:56)
COVID Anosmia (34:25)
Alcohol and the Brain (43:48)
Special Report: Update on String Theory (57:23)
Quickie with Bob (1:14:49)
Who's That Noisy? (1:17:16)
New Noisy (1:22:05)
[two things in a jungle setting making horror movie-style cries/calls]
J: ... If you think you know what it is or if you heard something really cool this week, you know what to do. You have to email me at WTN@theskepticsguide.org.
Announcements (1:23:26)
J: Now, Steve?
Science or Fiction (1:24:28)
Item #1: A new study calculates that the addition of lead to gasoline in the 20th century resulted in the loss of 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today.[6]
Item #2: The oldest Vampyropod squid fossil discovered, 328 million years old, indicates that the common ancestors between squid and octopuses had only two arms.[7]
Item #3: A study of linguistic convergence finds that people imitate speech they hear, even parts of speech they do not hear but anticipate, such as imitating parts of a Southern American accent they were not exposed to in the experiment.[8]
| Answer | Item |
|---|---|
| Fiction | Two-armed ancestors |
| Science | IQ points lost to lead |
| Science | Imitating anticipated speech |
| Host | Result |
|---|---|
| Steve | swept |
| Rogue | Guess |
|---|---|
Brian | Two-armed ancestors |
Bob | Two-armed ancestors |
Jay | Two-armed ancestors |
Cara | Two-armed ancestors |
Voice-over: It's time for Science or Fiction.
Brian's Response
Bob's Response
Jay's Response
Cara's Response
Steve Explains Item #1
Steve Explains Item #2
Steve Explains Item #3
Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:49:08)
Our Richie? The world's smartest man? God help us!
– Richard Feynman's mom
Signoff/Announcements (1:50:55)
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.
Today I Learned
- Fact/Description, possibly with an article reference[9]
- Fact/Description
- Fact/Description
Notes
References
- ↑ Neurologica: Solid State Li-ion Batteries
- ↑ ScienceDaily: A solar illusion: Coronal loops may not be what they seem
- ↑ NYT: How the Coronavirus Steals the Sense of Smell
- ↑ Neurologica: Alcohol Is Bad for the Brain
- ↑ SciTech Daily: 3D-Printed “Nano-Skyscrapers” Help Bacteria Convert Sunlight Into Electricity
- ↑ Duke Institute for Brain Sciences: Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrunk IQ Scores of Half of Americans
- ↑ ScienceDaily: New species of extinct vampire-squid-like cephalopod is the first of its kind with 10 functional arms
- ↑ ScienceDaily: Anticipation and accents: Talking like a southerner even if you're not
- ↑ [url_for_TIL publication: title]
Vocabulary
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