SGU Episode 355

Introduction

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

This Day in Skepticism ( )

May 5, 1961 Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space. SGU 7 Year Anniversary

News Items

Capturing Rogue Planets ()

http://phys.org/news/2012-04-stars-capture-rogue-planets.html

Machine Monkey Interface ()

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120419104629.htm

Finding ET with Robots ()

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120418162300.htm

God Spot in the Brain ()

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/god-spot-in-brain-is-not-_n_1440518.html

Special Report

SETI Update

with SETI senior astronomer Seth Shostak

Audience Q&A ( )

The Coming Singularity

Question #1 - Singularity Should we, and how can we, hasten the coming the singularity?

Science or Fiction ( )

Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ] Item #1 Recent phylogenetic analyses suggest an extremely recent common ancestor between two-toed sloths and three-toed sloths, which occupy the same territory, subsist on the same diet, and even have the same number of toes despite the name difference. Item #2 Sloths move so slowly that a blue-green algae grows on them, living symbiotically in their hollow hair and providing sustenance for dozens of varieties of arthropods. Item #3 Despite the fact that they are incapable of walking, sloths climb down from the trees, poop in a small hole at the foot of the tree, and then climb back up. Item #4 Sloths are graceful swimmers who can perform a breast stroke and are descended from an aquatic sloth ancestor.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ( )

Segment: Skeptical Quote of the Week Skeptical Quote of the Week "The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there's no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system. The history of our study of our solar system shows us clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong, and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources." -- Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series