SGU Episode 925

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SGU Episode 925
April 1st 2023
"A mammoth meatball has been created by a cultivated meat company, resurrecting the flesh of the long-extinct animals. The project aims to demonstrate the potential of meat grown from cells, without the slaughter of animals, and to highlight the link between large-scale livestock production and the destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis."
SGU 924                      SGU 926
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
C: Cara Santa Maria
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Guest
BL: Blake Lemoine, software engineer
Quote of the Week
The best science communication invites you to consider the complexity of the world, and the worst invites you to ignore the complexity.
Michael Hobbes, journalist & podcaster
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction, Steve's senate committee hearing

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

Quickie with Steve (8:08)

• [url_from_show_notes _article_title_] 

Quick News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

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

Mammoth Meatball (10:49)

• Meatball from long-extinct mammoth created by food firm

meatball

Lunar Ice (17:03)

• Water is trapped in glass beads on the moon’s surface, lunar samples show 

First Blitzar Observed (19:15)

• Did we already observe our first “blitzar”? 

England Allows Gene-Edited Crops (27:35)

• England Allows Gene-Edited Crops 

Who's That Noisy? (31:24)

Answer to previous Noisy:

First recorded sound

New Noisy (35:21)

[Grinding background with a light clanging in the foreground ]

short_text_from_transcript

Announcements (36:00)

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Interview with Blake Lemoine (40:05)

• Talking about LaMDA, Lemoine's firing by Google and AI sentience

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Science or Fiction (1:33:09)

Item #1: A large survey of life on Earth finds that total biomass remains fairly consistent (within one order of magnitude) across the entire range of body size for all living things. Item #2: Researchers find that plants under stress emit recordable sound, about as loud as a normal speaking voice. Item #3: Researchers created intracellular sensors that use nanodiamond quantum sensing.

Answer	Item
Fiction	Total biomass consistent
Science	Plants emit sound
Science	Intracellular sensors

Host	Result
Steve	swept

Rogue	Guess
Bob	Total biomass consistent
Cara	Total biomass consistent
Evan	Total biomass consistent
Jay	Total biomass consistent

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

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:44:45)

The best science communication invites you to consider the complexity of the world, and the worst invites you to ignore the complexity.  – Michael Hobbes, journalist & podcaster

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