SGU Episode 767

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SGU Episode 767
March 21th 2020
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 766                      SGU 768
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
C: Cara Santa Maria
J: Jay Novella
Quote of the Week
What you learn from a life in science is the vastness of our ignorance.
David Eagleman, American neuroscientist and science communicator
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction

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

"5 to 10 Years" ()

• Arsenic Based Life: National Geographic: Arsenic-Life Discovery Debunked—But "Alien" Organism Still Odd

News Items

S:

B:

C:

J:

E:

(laughs) (laughter) (applause) [inaudible]

Hoarders of the Pandemic ()

• Discover Magazine: Why Coronavirus Is Turning People Into Hoarders: A Q&A on the Psychology of Pandemics

Evolution of Anxiety ()

• National Geographic: Coronavirus is spreading panic. Here’s the science behind why.

Extreme Depth of Focus Lens ()

• Neurologica: Extreme Depth of Focus Lens

Predicting the Present ()

• Medical Xpress: What you're seeing right now is the past, so your brain is predicting the present

Who's That Noisy? ()

• Answer to last week’s Noisy: _brief_description_perhaps_with_link_

New Noisy ()

[_short_vague_description_of_Noisy]

Questions/Emails/Corrections/Follow-ups ()

Question #1: Vitamin K for Newborns ()

Thought this would be a good topic. New York Review of Books: Among the Vitamin K ‘Anti-Vaxxers’ Didn’t know about this craziness.
– Mark Gregor-Pearse, Chicago

Science or Fiction ()

Answer	Item
Fiction	More cholera
Science	Bubonic plague
Science	Bacterial infections

Host	Result
Steve	win

Rogue	Guess
Bob	Bacterial infections
Jay	More cholera
Cara	More cholera

Voice-over: It's time for Science or Fiction.

Theme: Pandemics
Item #1: Although the flu strain that caused the 1918 pandemic was particularly virulent, it was likely secondary bacterial infections that caused most deaths, not the virus itself.
Item #2: The Bubonic Plague is still the deadliest in history, with between 75 and 200 million deaths.
Item #3: There have been more cholera pandemics than any other type of organism.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ()

What you learn from a life in science is the vastness of our ignorance.
– David Eagleman, American neuroscientist, author, and science communicator

Signoff/Announcements ()

S: —and until next week, this is your Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.

S: Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, dedicated to promoting science and critical thinking. For more information, visit us at theskepticsguide.org. Send your questions to info@theskepticsguide.org. And, if you would like to support the show and all the work that we do, go to patreon.com/SkepticsGuide and consider becoming a patron and becoming part of the SGU community. Our listeners and supporters are what make SGU possible.

Today I Learned

• Fact/Description, possibly with an article reference
• Fact/Description
• Fact/Description

References

Vocabulary