Skeptics Guide #936

The Skeptics Guide To The Universe

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #936 June 15th 2023

Segment #1. News Items

News Item #1 – Schizophrenia and Auto-Immune Disease https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/woman-with-catatonia-for-years-wakes-after-treatment/

News Item #2 – 3D Printing Glass https://bioengineer.org/nanomaterials-3d-printing-of-glass-without-sintering/

News Item #3 – Smoke Blocks Solar Energy https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/12/23757983/wildfire-smoke-solar-energy-generation-power-grid

News Item #4 – Retooling Ribosome Translation https://phys.org/news/2023-06-retooling-ribosomal-machine-chemical-repertoire.html

News Item #5 – Ivory Billed Woodpecker Again https://earthsky.org/earth/ivory-billed-woodpecker-isnt-extinct/

Segment #2. Who’s That Noisy

Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails

Question #1: My UFO Sighting

Been listening since 2006ish, love you guys.

Had feet in hot tub with wife and we noticed a string of lights in the sky. Immediately joked it was a UFO but it was something I’ve never seen in 13 years in Ocean View Norfolk. To me it reminded me of the speed of a slow plane pulling a sign message.

Not sure how how to get images but it would be awesome to share. If you debunk I’ll sign up to patreon!

V/R,

Andrew Albertson

Segment #4. Interview with David Kyle Johnson

Segment #5. Science or Fiction Each week our host will come up with three science news items or facts, two genuine, one fictitious. He will challenge our panel of skeptics to sniff out the fake – and you can play along.

#1) A new study finds that human redistribution of fresh water has caused the Earth’s rotational pole to drift 78.48 cm between 1993 and 2010.

#2) A recent analysis of the Geminids meteoroid stream indicates that it likely originated from the Moon.

#3) Scientists have developed a wireless muometric navigation system that uses muons from cosmic rays as their reference and can work even deep underground.

Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” ― Susan Sontag