SGU Episode 364

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Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

This Day in Skepticism (0:29)

• 1712 - Newcomen Steam Engine

News Items

Water on The Moon and Mars (5:51)

Space.com: Water Ice in Moon's Shackleton Crater Identified
Phys.org: Extensive water in Mars' interior

Swiss Report on Homeopathy (13:59)

Science-Based Medicine: The Swiss Report on Homeopathy

Twisted Light (25:56)

BBC News: 'Twisted light' carries 2.5 terabits of data per second

Embodied Cognition (32:17)

io9.com: What Finger-counting Says About You and Your Brain

Who's That Noisy? (41:23)

Answer to last week: gamma ray burst

News Update - Causeway Cannibal (44:17)

Neurologica: Causeway Killer Mystery

R: Hey guys, I have some interesting breaking news for you related to a previous news item we discussed.

E: I love breaking news, Rebecca!

R: Don't we all? Well, a couple weeks ago, we talked about the "Causeway Cannibal", which is the guy who was suspected to be high on all sorts of drugs, including bath salts or-- I think it was assumed that maybe synthetic marijuana, a bunch of different drugs-- attacked a homeless man and ripped his face off, basically; chewed off pieces of his face. And we had one update to this, I think, didn't we? Am I mis-remembering?

S: We did. We had email-- an email where we said yes it was speculation; we're waiting for the toxicology.

R: Right. Well, the coroner's report is now in, as of just-- the day that we're recording this, which is Wednesday, June 27th, and according to the autopsy, the man, named Rudy Eugene, was not high on bath salts or synthetic marijuana or any drug that could be detected in his system. It was understood that he had smoked marijuana-- regular marijuana-- earlier in the day, but that was unable to be detected, I guess, with the limits of the test that they were running.

S: No, I think that they did detect marijuana, but they can't say how recently he ingested it because it stays in the system for so long.

R: Ah, OK. Thank you. Yes. They did confirm the absence of bath salts, synthetic marijuana and LSD.

S: Yeah. Although, this does make the story more interesting. So, I think there's two possibilities here. Something either-- so, if he had only marijuana in his system, which really couldn't account for this behavior, then we have no way to account for this rather extreme behavior, although he does have some history of mental illness, nothing like this. I don't know what another possibility would be; there's no neurological condition that causes people to behave this way. The other possibility is that he was under the influence of some drug but it just wasn't one that they tested for. Toxicology doesn't test for any possible drug, but only for specific known drugs that you're looking for. That still is an open possibility, and it'll be interesting to see if further information comes to light. We may never have the final answer in this case if it wasn't a drug that can be tested for or that was tested for.

Interview with Jann Bellamy (46:45)

• Campaign for Science-Based Healthcare
• jbellamy@sciencebasedhealthcare.org
• http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-19350-wireless_waste.html

Science or Fiction (1:01:12)

Item number one. An international team of scientists have discovered that super-sized space tornadoes may explain why the sun's atmosphere is much hotter than its surface. Item number two. Astronomers have detected what they believe to be the first trinary planetary system - three exoplanets sharing the same orbit. And item number three. Astronomers have developed a new method for both accurately weighing exoplanets and detecting the composition of their atmosphere, even those that are non-transiting.

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:16:48)

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

J: Prof. Stephen Hawking!

References