SGU Episode 878

This episode is in the middle of being transcribed by Hearmepurr (talk) as of 2022-07-18. To help avoid duplication, please do not transcribe this episode while this message is displayed.

Template:Editing required (w/links) You can use this outline to help structure the transcription. Click "Edit" above to begin.

SGU Episode 878
May 7th 2022
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 877                      SGU 879
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
C: Cara Santa Maria
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Quote of the Week
You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts; they alter the facts to fit their views.
1977 Doctor Who, fictional British TV Time Lord
Links
Download Podcast
Show Notes
Forum Discussion

Introduction, SGU turns 17, Favorite Memories

Voice-over: You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. Today is Wednesday, May the 4^th, 2022, and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella...

B: Hey, everybody!

S: Cara Santa Maria...

C: Howdy.

S: Jay Novella...

J: Hey guys.

S: ...and Evan Bernstein.

E: So this is the day when we're reminded that "sand is coarse and it gets everywhere."

C: May the 4^th be with you.

S: Star Wars day. Which is, which coincidentally is one day prior to the anniversary of the SGU.

B: Oh boy.

S: This episode completes 17 years of the SGU. Heading into year 18, can you guys believe it?

E: Oh my gosh.

B: What the hell man.

E: 17 years.

J: That's been like the majority of my higher thinking life.

S: Sure.

J: You know what I mean?

S: Adult life.

J: Yeah. That's, that's amazing guys. We should really all be proud of ourselves.

C: That's nuts.

J: Except you Cara, I mean you've only been here...

C: How many years have I been here? Now when did I join?

E: 2015.

C: What?

S: Seven years.

C: Seven whole years!?

E: I know.

J: Oh my god, wait a minute, doesn't it seem a lot shorter than that?

C: It does, it's because covid interrupted all of our time understanding.

J: Oh my god.

S: Podcastus interruptus.

C: Oh gosh.

S: We have over 140 million lifetime downloads. 140 million. Wow.

E: Gee whiz.

J: That's good work boys. (Cara laughs)

S: I mean yeah, we haven't missed an episode.

B: Damn.

S: Every, every week, every single week for almost 17 years. At the very beginning there was a couple of weeks that we skipped but then.

E: Yes we were getting our foot.

S: Yeah we got into a weekly schedule and we haven't missed an episode since.

E: Nope. And 17 years by the way is 536 million 112 000 seconds.

B: How very Bob-esked.

S: This is episode 878. 878. So yeah, we're going to be like, we're only two and a half years away from a thousand episodes.

B: A big round number. Yeah, wow.

E: And and I hope we have big big big plans for that.

S: Yeah, but we got a couple years to make them.

E: Yeah, I know exactly.

J: So after 17 years of making these podcasts, if you enjoy this show, if you feel like if you feel like you've gotten something out of listening to this show, please consider becoming a patron of ours, because that allows us to do a lot of, you know, a lot of things that that everybody enjoys. Like you know extended shows, conferences, live events. It allows me to work for the company and do all the behind the scenes stuff that I do to make everything work. You can go to patreon.com/SkepticsGuide. And if not, you could continue listening to the show and you could give us a good review on whatever podcast player you're using. And I'd like to thank you Steve for being an incredible leader and you know and guide and to me you've been you know, you're someone that I look up to and I really appreciate everything that you you do that allows us to make this show.

S: Well thank you Jay, I mean it's one of the things that makes this show fun, I mean I know that I couldn't have done this if I was working by myself for 17 years. I look forward to recording the show every week, it's just a lot of fun hanging out with you guys, for a couple hours, you know?

C: Yeah.

S: And that carries, carries over, you know? To the podcast itself.

E: Absolutely.

J: That's the [inaudible] potatoes man right there, that is, that is why we're all here I think because if we didn't love each other and enjoy doing this work together it would not be here. But sometimes we all get pissed at Bob, you know? Sometimes we get angry with Bob and Bob's, you know, he talks about us behind our backs to the other people and you know, it's the drama, but we all put up with it because you're in the end it's all good. (Cara laughs)

B: Tank you. I think?

J: Do any of you guys have a favorite memory? From the entire ride?

C: There's too many!

E: Yes oh my gosh.

J: I think one of them was when we were all in the van in Scotland.

E: Okay.

J: And the the driver pulled over to ask for directions.

B: Oh god.

J: Now I will remind you that the driver was born and bred in Scotland. Asked, ask this man walking down the street, you know, hey we're looking for this tomb. And the guy answers her and she goes okay thank you, we drive away and she goes: "I have no idea what that guy just said".

C: None of us did either. She could at least understand it.

B: That was thick.

J: I was able to detect that he was using language.

C: Yeah.

J: I just had what the language was it. The fact that she didn't understand him like made everything that happened in Scotland better to me.

E: It was like Scottish Gaelic or something.

S: You remember what she said, what she actually said after he finished?

J: What did she say?

S: She said magic.

J: Oh yeah.

C: Magic, oh yeah. And no he wasn't actually speaking Gaelic, he was just speaking with a really broad accent. Like, that's, so you just said it was really thick, so in Scotland they say broad. So if somebody's super broad, they've got such a thick accent. Yeah.

E: Like that kid stuck on the roof.

C: Like the kid on the roof, yeah. (laughs)

J: And that, that same day some of us had haggis.

C: That's true. I think we all tasted it.

E: I tasted the haggis.

S: Surprisingly enjoyed the haggis it was very good.

E: Yeah they spice it up for the tourists, you know?

B: Yeah I suspect it was tourist haggis.

J: I know right?

E: Bring out the "haggis".

C: Do you know that what you ate is I think illegal in parts of the US?

B: Whaaat?

E: Oh it wouldn't meet the safety codes?

C: Well it's not that that it's, you can't import, okay, yeah in '71 it became illegal to import haggis into the US from the UK because we have a ban on food containing sheep lung. And 10 to 15 of haggis is made out of sheep lung. So we we can't have that here.

J: I don't know where the idea got into my head. But I thought that haggis was like the organ, the internal organs are cooked inside of the of a stomach and then like they literally cut the stomach open and the organs come piling out onto the table. It's minced meat, it's minced meat.

C: It's minced meat, it's just there's a lot of meat is organ meat.

S: It's organ meat, yeah. But the thing is if when you're in Scotland you got to try the haggis, right? You just got to do that.

C: And they do, they do package it in the stomach Jay. So you're, that's why you have that idea. Sometimes generic haggis is like a a casing that's fake.

E: Casing, like these intestines are casings.

C: But the casing is is traditionally stomach.

E: That's all it is.

S: Although I have to say yeah you know, I'm usually like whenever I'm in a location I will try whatever like the most iconic culinary dishes of that region. But I completely went out on the Vegemite, sorry I just.

C: Really? You went out you went haggis but not Vegemite?

B: I tried it.

E: Did you, you didn't, huh?

S: Vegemite is exactly the kind of thing I find disgusting.

C: It is gross. But it's still, it's just yeast extract.

S: I know, that yeasty fermented, bleh, no I can't. (laughter)

B: I tried it. I remember I ate it. I ate it and I'll, I'll describe it in the way that my friend described it when I brought some home and had her tasted at work. She said it tastes like feet. It was you know, it was horrible, absolutely horrible. But you know whatever a lot of people hate peanut butter. But it was just like not for me, oh boy. (Cara laughs) I can't even imagine.

S: Have any of you guys had kimchi?

C: Oh yeah.

E: Oh sour, yeah.

S: It's like fermented.

C: It's just fermented cabbage, fermented vegetables. Korean food.

E: Yeah, stick it in the ground for a year.

S: Not gonna happen, not gonna happen.

E: No kimchi for you Steve?

C: That's so funny. So you don't like sauerkraut either? Do you like pickles?

S: I love pickles, I could eat, and I like sauerkraut that's not, that's a different flavor.

C: Yeah that's true but it's a similar process.

S: Yeah well it's the, I think it's that long duration of fermenting that you know gives it that rotten flavor, it's like rotting vegetable matter, why would I eat it?

C: I feel you, I don't like it either but it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not as visceral, no pun intended, to me the way that haggis is. Like, ugh, yeah.

S: When I was in Vienna i did have the wiener schnitzel and it was awesome.

J: What's that made out of?

S: Well wiener just means like Viennese, you know, and then the schnitzel is...

C: It's usually veal, right?

S: It's veal, it's veal.

C: I think that's one of the main meats.

Jay's receives Critical Thinking Award (8:50)

• 2022 Critical Thinker Award

J: Hey can I tell you guys something cool?

B: No.

J: So Bob emails me and says Jay, are you gonna respond to this email? And then Cara emailed me Jay are you gonna respond to this email? And it turns out I won an award.

C: Oh yeah. And you, and you took a really long time to respond to the email. Well that's that is a sign that I have so many SGU emails to go through that sometimes you know I can't get to every single email every day.

E: Jay won the 2014, what was it now? (laughter)

J: No so this is from the curiosity foundation and they, you know awarded me the critical thinking award.

B: All right Jay.

J: And I am completely blown away, I really, I don't like to to brag in any way but this happened and I really wanted everyone to know that this this foundation exists, their goal is to promote evidence-based education and teaching critical thinking. They also want to connect with educators or anyone who's interested in developing tools and materials to promote evidence-based education practices and teaching critical thinking. So this is a really, you know, really valuable foundation that they created. And I'm just you know, I told Steve when I was talking to him about this like I never in a thousand years would have thought I was going to win an award, a critical thinking award. So it means the world to me.

B: Deserved jay.

S: Was that for one of your rants that you gave on our live stream or was that for something else? (laughter)

J: Well there was an episode, so the person that I was talking to.

S: I know they mentioned your passion as being one of those.

J: There was an episode that we were talking about, where I gave like a kind of impromptu talk afterwards, you know, on the show about you know how important science is and how you know wonderful it is and that you know the the feeling of discovery. All that stuff. I just said something moderately inspirational. But, you know, I mean I say a lot more on the live stream to be honest with you, right? Like livestream is where it all comes out. But no, I am, I am after 17 years. Like I science to me is way more meaningful right now than it was 17 years ago.

S: Oh yeah. No it's a, you know, it's a lifesaver.

J: It really is I mean it's a big big part of my life and it inspires me, you know, it's one of the things that keeps me interested in our reality and teaching kids critical thinking, and teaching them the love of science I think is is one of the best things you could ever do with your time if you have children. Start with magic and then you know then get them asking questions. Why is it that people like magic? And why is it you know how do you fool people? And why are people able to be fooled? And then you just start rolling it out from there you know that's what that's what I'm doing with my nine-year-old.

C: Nine years old?

J: Yes.

C: Wow. Really he's nine?

J: My son, yeah he's not, I know, he's going by fast, right? He is, he is absorbing critical thinking like you know, I was asking Steve like what's something I could teach him about logic? Like how do you teach someone about logic that's nine year old? So I said, I looked up logic and I looked up reason and they both use each other in their definitions. And I'm trying to like you know give him like the foundation you know the bottom level, like what does he need to understand, so I can start teaching him things out of our book. Logic I thought was one of the key things and I'm like Steve, what can I, how do, how can I possibly teach a nine-year-old who has no concept of logic, what logic is? And Steve's like, well just do the a equals b equals c. See if he could figure that puzzle out and understand, get him to wrap his head around that and then at least you have the idea that you know there's thinking is a process that brings you to a conclusion. And I gotta tell you guys, I said Dylan, let's say that a is equal to b and b is equal to c. So what does that mean about a and c? And he goes dad they're they, they're, equal to each other, it's like they're all apples. I was like oh my god, I was so proud of him. That felt so freaking good, oh my god.

B: But he should have said meatballs but yeah that was good.

E: I got the same question wrong when Jay asked me. (laughter)

S: All right, good work boys.

Quickie with Bob (13:12)

• Solar Gravitational Lens update

S: All right let's go on. Bob you're going to get us started with a quickie. Quickie with Bob.

B: Yes thank you, insert name here, this is your quickie with Bob, gird your loins everyone. (laughter) If you watched Episode 812 from early 2021, I entertainingly discussed the possibility of using the Sun as a solar gravitational lens.

E: I called you mad. Mad!

B: The idea is that a modest telescope or telescopes far far far from the Sun could directly image the light from a distant exoplanet that's distorted into an Einstein ring around the Sun and also by the way magnified potentially up to 100 billion times, hello. So with such magnification we could potentially create million pixel images of exoplanets and actually see on their surfaces the continents, oceans, air chemistry, we could map their orbits, we could see the weather we could even make out vegetation in desert and even maybe lights on the night side. And all from a planet that could be a hundred light years away for example. So that's kind of the the possibility of solar gravitational lens, which bends the light from that distance planet and magnifies it tremendously. Now the tech involved is, it's absolutely feasible, there's no nothing crazy that they're talking about to pull this off. A lot of it we have, we have right now or it's actually at least on the drawing board or something like that. It's nothing that's really, really crazy tech that's far far distant future. But one complexity to such a mission is imaging that Einstein ring, that bent light of from the from the distant object around the limb of the Sun. Now each, each image that that these satellites could take that are there would basically be like one image per pixel, right? So they would need to take many many thousands of pictures to build up this image to get to get good resolution. And that's kind of what people have been talking about for years, about how this would be pulled off. And this also includes requiring the lens to move laterally to the trajectory of this of this lens, that's flying through space far from the Sun. You would need to to move the lens laterally, you know, left, right, up, down, whatever. To essentially get an image of this Einstein ring of light around the Sun from different vantage points to create your image. So now recent theoretical advancements however have allowed for much more precise modeling of solar gravitational lenses showing, as the paper says, the reconstruction of the light ring does not require multiple laterally offset observations of the Einstein ring, enabling continuous monitoring of the atmospheric composition and dynamics of other planets. That's, that's amazing that continuous monitoring, that's just, that just blows my mind. So in fact they claim that the entire Einstein ring can be imaged at once and then undistorted. That's a hell of an advancement if that really really pans out. And they have done studies to show, they've done simulations where they, they took an Einstein ring of sorts of the Earth and were able to recreate the image an accurate image of the Earth. So, at some point in the future when such an amazing mission is eventually lost in the decades to come. Doing it, pulling it off will be a lot easier with an advancement like this and of course the many more advancements that will come in the meantime. So, loins ungirded, this has been your Quickie with Bob, I hope it was good for you too. Steve do you have anything to add, I know you blogged about it.

S: Well it's still not going to happen any anytime in in this century. This is a next century project, at best.

B: And you're going to need and you're going to need definitely chemical rockets, would, like it could take centuries, because we're talking about in a distance of say 14 times the distance to Pluto. That's amazingly far away, where you would have to go to find that focal line, that line, that pathway where you can, where you can get that image. So we would definitely need some you know nuclear thermal rockets and that could greatly cut down the travel.

S: Well solar sails, solar sails.

B: Solar sails, yeah that, that's a possibility too but yeah, we're gonna need some advanced rocketry to get that far in a in a period of time that's not like, you know ridiculous. You know decades instead of a century or more. But yeah, but this is the way, I mean we're talking about a lens that would, that would have to be 20 times the diameter of the Earth to replicate. So this is, this is something that we're never going to see unless it's something like this. I mean, to do much better you'd have to get the gravitational lensing effect from something like a nearby black hole or something.

News Items

Sustainable Jet Fuel (17:41)

• Sustainable Jet Fuels

S: All right guys let's talk about sustainable jet fuel. Jet fuel is one of those things where that's going to be very difficult to replace the fossil fuel component of it, because all electric jets won't have the range that we really need because all the electronic components are extremely heavy and you know the battery, batteries would have to be extremely, extremely massive and so, like we're nowhere near having the you know electronic and battery technology we would need for long-distance electronic jets, electrical, you know, all-electric jets to be viable.

E: We don't have an extension cord that long.

S: Yeah so you have to burn some high energy fuel, right? The other thing you might think is, well why not just burn hydrogen, right? You can burn hydrogen with oxygen, make water, no fossil fuel. That may also be like a short to medium range kind of option. But the thing is, even the most energy dense form of hydrogen, like liquid hydrogen, is nowhere near as energy dense as fuel, as like jet fuel or gasoline. So, it also just doesn't work, the numbers don't add up. So the best we may be able to do is biofuel for jet fuel. And I'm not a big fan of biofuel because I think─

B: Takes up too much land right?

S: ─takes up a lot of land, it's not very efficient, all the reasons you know of why agriculture uses up a lot of resources. The net energy you get out of it, I mean there was a while, you know, back when we first started doing this podcast, the question was is it even a net energy producer? Or do you put in more energy than the biofuel you get out of it, right? But at some point we did cross the line in terms of just efficiency and making bio feel like a gallon of biofuel uses less than that in energy to make, so there is, it is a net producer of energy but still not by a whole hell of a lot. So the bottom line is we're not going to run our civilization on biofuel, right? And I don't think it's really a tremendously good option in terms of like if you can if you compare it to hydrogen fuel cells or just electric like battery electric vehicles. So I just don't think it's going to be like the solution to reducing the carbon output of the transportation industry. But jet fuel is the one niche where I think we need the high energy density of actual fuel and that you could burn and biofuel probably is the best that we can do. Although even there we may not be able to get to a 100% biofuel. But anything we could do to reduce the fossil fuel component would be tremendous. And, I learned something else recently. Again, this is one of those situations where you know how like there's a problem you didn't know exist and you learn about it when the solution to the problem is being proposed.

B: Yeah I love that.

S: Yeah it's like, you know that problem you didn't know was there? Well here's a solution to it. But the thing is actually that people don't talk about the problems until they have a solution. Like oftentimes we talk about this, when we, when we're reporting technology news, it's so common to just gloss over the deal killers and not even mention them, you know?

B: Yeah.

S: They want, anyway, so we always have to go searching for that so with, with jet fuel, jet fuel requires something called aromatics as an additive to the jet fuel.

E: So it smells nice.

S: Yeah well the aromatics exist for a very specific reason. And that is to swell the o-rings which seal the different metal on metal components of the combustion chamber for example, that were for the, for the jet engine. Again not, not, again unless you're a jet engineer why would you know about this thing? But you know just something you don't hear about.

B: Yeah I never heard about that.

E: I haven't heard of the o-rings since the Challenger.

S: Yeah it's the same thing, it's the same thing it's with their o-rings, right?

J: But think about the engineering behind that, without just that you know I don't know, I wouldn't say discovery but they had to come up with a way to make those seals function. And you know the the gases that are in those tanks actually transforms those seals to to expand to make them function, you know that that's a feat of engineering that had to be created in order for this system to work.

S: But, there's a downside to the aromatics that they add to the jet fuel and that is that they produce a lot of the carbon and pollution. In fact they're a major component of the contrails, a major component. And, did you know that you know by some estimates the contrails that are produced by jets contribute more to global warming than the CO₂ released by burning the jet fuel.

E: We may, we're not going to call them chemtrails because of that, okay, good good okay.

S: Contrails, they're not chemtrails. All right so now here's the solution to this problem you didn't know existed, right? So lignin-based jet fuel LJF lignin-based jet fuel, you guys remember what lignin is l-i-g-n-i-n?

B: Is that like this part of a tree?

S: Yeah it's part of wood.

B: Yeah baby. (Evan laughs)

S: And so they harvest the lignin from agricultural matter you know and again this is like one of the the only time where I think biofuel is really plausible, is if you're getting it like, if you're growing corn to make biofuel, you know that's a waste of land. But if you're just using the parts that you would otherwise throw away or the waste, like wastage, agricultural waste then that becomes more plausible. And or if you're like growing it in vats somewhere, where you're not using arable land, you know, that's okay. So this is using agricultural waste you know they, they harvest the lignin and they make an additive to the jet fuel. And it does a couple of nice things. One is that it has the same effect as the aromatics so it can completely replace them. Which would reduce the pollution and the global warming effects of the the the jets. And two it increases the energy density of the jet fuel.

B: Whoa.

E: Oh you get more bang for your buck.

S: Get more bang for your buck.

B: How the hell does it do that?

S: It's just high energy, high energy chemicals, you know?

E: What's the downside?

B: Causes cancer if you look at it?

S: You have to carry less fuel which again, when you're flying it's all about weight, right? So if you're carrying less weight in fuel then you have to, you burn less fuel because you're not carrying as much weight.

E: Jay we don't have to pay a hundred dollars for that second bag of gear anymore.

S: Yeah anything, yeah, I mean not only is it good for the environment, anything that makes the commercial jet industry more efficient is good for ticket prices of course.

E: Definitely.

S: They recently did a test at 10% lignin based jet fuel.

B: Damn, 10%.

S: 10% blend. But they are, they think think they can get up to 50%.

B: What.

E: Whoa, half? Half? That's exciting.

S: So they're going to continue, they're going to continue testing and do higher and higher blends and again they're planning on testing up to 50%.

E: How abundance is is lignin?

S: It's very abundant, it's just in plants.

E: Okay so, we're not gonna have a shortage someday of that.

S: It's a high amount in wood but it's in lots of plants, it basically gives it like its structure.

B: How could it be, how could they even entertain the thought of 50%? Wouldn't that just eviscerate the power, I mean the energy, the energy density. I mean I would, I mean why not make it 100% then? I mean if if the lignin is so energy dense, can we use that as a fuel for maybe other things? I mean...

E: What kind of corrosion and stuff is this doing to the engine?

S: I don't think that's, I don't think that's a problem but again from my reading Bob, the, they're looking for a jet fuel that could be used in existing jet engines. You probably could redesign the engine to fly entirely off of lignin-based jet fuel. But if you want to use it in existing─

B: Gotcha.

S: ─you gotta do a blend. And of course that would be massive, you can't just say okay we're gonna replace all the engines on all the you know all the jets that are out there in order to use this new thing.

B: Maybe they will some day.

S: Right it's like if you're using a like a corn, an ethanol blend in your car you want it, it wants to be usable in regular cars. Like if you have to have a car, can only use ethanol, I mean they exist, right? There are there, you can make engines that burn pure, pure ethanol.

E: Or propane like a propane engine that you can make.

S: But they're but not your regular car but if you wanted to be to fit cleanly into the existing infrastructure yeah you don't you want to be able to function that way. So I think that's why they want to go with a blend. And they're just seeing well how high can we push this and have it still efficiently. So yeah, so it's this, it's a nice little incremental advance you know and it kind of solves. It has these two effects in one where it's replacing the aromatics which is good and it and also increasing the energy density of jet fuel which is good. And it's replacing up to 50% of the fossil fuel you know in the jet fuel, which is good. So that's more sustainable you know, because you're, yes, it's releasing CO₂ and you burn this but that CO₂ was captured recently, you know, in the plant that you're making the fuel out of rather than being previously sequestered fossil fuels that were digging up out of the ground and then releasing into the atmosphere.

C: Are there, are they concerned about anything unintended?

S: I didn't see anything you know.

C: Okay.

S: Again as we said.

E: High arsenic levels getting dropped everywhere.

S: For biofuels I think the the big variable is your feedstock. What do you what's the raw material that you are turning into biofuel? Again like if you are using a─

B: Truffles.

S: ─agriculturally intensive crop on arable land and using fossil fuel as your fertilizer base, then that eats away all the advantages of it. But if you're using agricultural waste or if you're farming more sustainably or if you're using a very you know a very efficient crop in terms of land and water use and all that stuff. So it's, I think it really, the big variable is the feed stock.

C: Yes you really have to look at the entire cycle, you can't just look at the sliver and say this is better.

S: Exactly, you have to do a total, total life cycle evaluation. So the other thing with biofuels of course is how you're getting from the feedstock to the fuel. That could be an energy intensive process also. If you have to use very high temperatures or whatever and yes if you're like burning coal to make your biofuel, again, it doesn't really help you. But that's why they're focusing a lot on enzymes and you know and bacteria and things that can do it efficiently and at lower temperatures and without having to to burn a lot of energy. And so that's what they're working on here as well. So yeah you have to look at the total life cycle because again very very quickly your right could turn into a net loser if you're not looking at the whole life cycle carbon efficiency, energy efficiency. So but this looks very promising and again something hopefully we'll hear about this again. You know, I'd like to see how this develops. And it would if it all works out and they do it well it'd be great for just hey let's whack back the fossil fuel footprint of the commercial jet industry by 50%. And get rid of another source of pollution, the aromatics that you didn't even know about.

C: Right.

S: But we'll see how it goes.

Dog Personality (29:14)

• Massive study of pet dogs shows breed does not predict behaviour

COVID and Cognitive Aging (44:19)

• Cognitive Impairment From Severe COVID-19 Equivalent to 20 Years of Aging

Fertilizer Shortage (54:42)

• Can the World Feed Itself? Historic Fertilizer Crunch Threatens Food Security

Cosmic Expansion (1:04:13)

• The universe could stop expanding 'remarkably soon', study suggests

Who's That Noisy? (1:13:12)

Answer to previous Noisy:

Yellow-cheeked gibbons

New Noisy (1:18:12)

[machinery sounds, as of a jet engine or train rolling]

J: ... So if you think you know what this Noisy is, or if you heard something cool this week, email me at WTN@theskepticsguide.org.

Announcements (1:18:51)

J: Steve, a few things to talk about.

Questions/Emails/Corrections/Follow-ups (1:21:32)

Email #1: Lemuria

_consider_using_block_quotes_for_emails_read_aloud_in_this_segment_
with_reduced_spacing_for_long_chunks –

Science or Fiction (1:27:10)

Hearmepurr: check out the cool "tooltip" link (hover mouse and pause when you see the ?) I made that links to the follow-up discussion in 879

Theme: Critical Thinking Item #1: A recent systematic review of belief in the paranormal finds a robust correlation with intuitive thinking, increased confirmation bias, and reduced conditional reasoning. Item #2: A recent study finds that the more certain subjects were about the future course of the pandemic the more likely they were to follow recommended preventive protocols. Item #3: Research consistently finds that people have an action bias – they will favor doing something over doing nothing even if it worsens outcomes.

Answer	Item
Fiction	More certain, more likely
Science	Paranormal beliefs
Science	people have an action bias

Host	Result
Steve	win

Rogue	Guess
Bob	People have an action bias
Evan	More certain, more likely
Jay	More certain, more likely
Cara	More certain, more likely

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

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:42:34)

You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They don’t alter their views to fit the facts; they alter the facts to fit their views.
– 1977 Doctor Who, fictional British TV Time Lord

Signoff

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.

[top]                        

Today I Learned

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

References

Vocabulary