SGU Episode 246

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

Special Guest: Eugenie Scott

 * Update from the National Center for Science Education

Fighting Cancer with Nanoparticles

 * http://gizmodo.com/5501103/this-is-the-future-of-the-fight-against-cancer

Prison Psychics

 * http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/7521139/Dutch-prisons-use-psychics-to-help-prisoners-contact-the-dead.html

Changing Morality with Magnets

 * http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=1792

Who's That Noisy

 * Answer to last week: Julius Sumner Miller

Question # 1 - Skeptics and Atheists
"Question #3 – The Sacred Cow of Atheism Message: Hello, I was inspired by Bill's email last week to ask something that has been really bugging me. I love your show and I have been listening for the last two years. Something that comes up over and over and I don't think I have heard it addressed is how the skeptical movement is somehow married to atheism (this opinion comes from the numerous guests and conversations you have had on the show). Atheism is an actual belief in something that has no proof. This doesn't seem internally consistent with a skeptical outlook. It would seem to me being agnostic would be the natural outflow of being a skeptic, but this in general does not seem to be the case (yes I have a limited sampling size:). I think this is a major aspect of the movement that inhibits its growth and acceptance. I'm sure you guys have thought through this and I would love to hear this discussed. Do you guys think it damages the movement's ability to reach people? Is it internally consistent with skepticism, if so how Mike"

Science or Fiction
Item # 1: Geologists have resolved a decades old mystery as to why the earth was not in a permanent ice age for its first 3 billion years - the answer is that there were far fewer clouds to reflect sunlight. Item # 2: New evidence supports the theory that the Younger Dryas, a 1400 year mini-ice age beginning 12,800 years ago, was caused by falling atmospheric CO2 levels. Item # 3: New research reveals that dinosaur skull shapes may change radically as dinosaurs mature.

Quote of the Week
"'To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.' - Jules Henri Poincare"