Skeptics Guide #892

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #892 August 9th 2022 Segment #1. Special Report First Climate Change Legislation https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/a-good-start-on-climate-change/ Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – The Physics of meteors https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.13892 News Item #2 – New Kind of Motion https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220808161528.htm News Item #3 – Structured Water https://www.sciencealert.com/structured-water-is-not-what-people-claim-don-t-believe-the-hype-scientist-says News Item #4 – Cryonic Horror Stories https://bigthink.com/the-future/cryonics-horror-stories/ Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Photons and Momentum Hey all, this is Armando, your friendly pathologist recently featured on your livestream (I am one of the twins that was on). Just wanted to comment on something Jay said during Science or Fiction. He said "...it can't be that the photons are pushing anything because they're massless..." True, but light has momentum! And surprisingly you CAN move small objects and even whole cells. Look up optical tweezers on youtube, or look at this paper out of the lab in which I did my PhD "Manipulating CD4+ T cells by optical tweezers for the initiation of cell-cell transfer of HIV-1." We did experiments where we wanted to film HIV+ T cells directly infecting other T cells, but instead of waiting around for these cells to come into contact, we moved uninfected cells with optical tweezers to place them next to an HIV+ cell. Love the show Armando 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. Theme: Robots #1) Robot assisted lobectomy for lung cancer had better outcomes than video-assisted lobectomy in a recent double-blinded clinical trial. #2) A University of New Hampshire team has developed a robot that can independently take care of a demented patient’s entire daily needs. #3) A robot armed with a new AI algorithm was able to map its own body without any outside help or input, and use that information to plan its own movements. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week “Death might appear to destroy the meaning in our lives, but in fact it is the very source of our creativity. As Kafka said, “The meaning of life is that it ends.” Death is the engine that keeps us running, giving us the motivation to achieve, learn, love, and create.” ― Caitlin Doughty, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory


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