SGU Episode 305

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

This Day in Skepticism

 * May 21, 1916: Daylight Saving Time was introduced in Britain as a war-time measure to save fuel.

Rapture

 * http://skepchick.org/2011/05/ai-its-the-end-of-the-world-again/

Another Cancer Cure

 * http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/another-cure-for-cancer/

Gut Bacteria and Behavior

 * http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517110315.htm

Habitable Exoplanet

 * http://uk.news.yahoo.com/first-habitable-planet-discovered.html

Higgs False Alarm

 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13424231

Who's That Noisy

 * Answer to last week - Jumping Spider

Swindlers List
Swindlers List Bidsell.com

Interview with James Randi

 * www.randi.org

Science or Fiction
Item #1: Imaging studies of ancient Egyptian mummies find an almost complete absence of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), even in the older individuals.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517121824.htm Item #2: Astronomers have detected a new class of planet - Jupiter-sized rogue planets wandering interstellar space, and estimate their number at 400 billion in the Milky Way.http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110518/full/news.2011.303.html Item #3: Researchers find that exposure to cockroach antigen is a significant contributor to childhood asthma.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110517151301.htm

Skeptical Quote of the Week
"'I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.' — Stephen Hawking"