SGU Episode 294

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

This Day in Skepticism

 * March 5, 1830: limelight as a form of lighting was presented before scientists at the Tower of London, in a trial with two other lamp designs.Invented by Thomas Drummond in 1816,limelight used jets of oxygen to assist heating lime to incandescence. More brilliant light was formed than by a flame alone. Limelight was adopted in lighthouses and for theatre stages. However, because it required constant tending, it was willingly superceded by newer inventions.

Predicting Earthquakes

 * http://www.3news.co.nz/Ken-Ring-I-predicted-the-Christchurch-quake-/tabid/817/articleID/200226/Default.aspx

Growing Fuel

 * http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110227/ap_on_bi_ge/us_growing_fuel

Neutron Star Superfluidity

 * http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/02/neutron-star-provides-direct-evi.html?ref=hp

Heidi Follow Up

 * http://oscars.movies.yahoo.com/news/2623-german-celebrity-opossum-misses-one-oscar-pick-reuters

Who's That Noisy

 * Answer to last week: Maxwell Smart's shoe phone

Question #1 - Lost Information follow up
"Follow up discussion on destroying vs losing information"

Question #2 - 10,000 Years in the Future
"With you guys being forward thinkers and having imaginative and open minds, I would like to know what your opinions are on what the world e.g human society and basically(or not) everything in general will be/look like in 10,000 years. Will we have destroyed ourselves? split into different sub-species? be totally dependent on technology? I ask this because so often you hear about future advances/problems in the next 20 or 30 years, running out of oil etc. I would like to know ultimately, what you guys think some of our(society's) long term problems/achievements might be? Love your show btw. Thanks for reading Teenager with way too much time on hands :) Isaac Waby GB"

Interview with Eric-Jan Wagenmakers

 * Department of Psychology University of Amsterdam The Netherlands http://www.ejwagenmakers.com/

Science or Fiction
Item #1: Chinese researchers have designed a working tractor beam - a laser beam that pulls rather than pushes. Item #2: Researchers have developed a new kind of optical fiber, with a zinc selenide rather than glass core, that has potentially 1000 times the bandwidth of existing optical fibers. Item #3: Scientists have developed a working nanoscope - an optical nanoscale microscope that can image objects even beyond the limits of diffraction.

Skeptical Quote of the Week
"'We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.' - T.S. Elliot 'God give me the wisdom to see the truth however contrary to my established beliefs.' - Robert Quillen"