Skeptics Guide #929

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #929 April 27th 2023 Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 – Starship Launch News Item #2 – False Belief Systems https://neurosciencenews.com/false-belief-system-23098/ News Item#3 – Ashwagandha https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/ashwagandha-an-herbal-tiktok-sensation/ News Item #4 – The Evolution of Eukaryotes https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20230424/Exploring-metabolic-compatibility-as-a-possible-limiting-factor-to-prokayrotic-endosymbioses.aspx News Item #5 – Blue Holes https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/surprise-discovery-of-worlds-2nd-deepest-blue-hole-could-provide-window-into-earths-history Segment #2. Who’s That Noisy Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: P-Values When you all where talking about the full moon and suicide study last week kara said that “p-values as we know are pretty mean goes as they tell us a little bit more about the analysis than the actual (pause). That’s why effect sizes matter”. Could you please elaborate on this and the sentence kara stop herself from finishing accidentally? How are p values better for understanding the analysis and what are then effect sizes better for? This seems like a really important statistical concept to grasp for us skeptics so I wanted to ask this. All the best -Antoni Segment #4. 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: AI #1) Chat GPT-4 was able to pass the Uniform Bar Exam, scoring in the 90th percentile. #2) The US Copyright Office has issued guidance that registrants must disclose any AI-generated material in their work and it will not issue copyrights for content created using artificial intelligence software. #3) An amateur Go player, without any computer assistance, beat the best Go-playing AI in 14 out of 15 matches. Segment #5. Skeptical Quote of the Week "It would be useful if the concept of the umwelt were embedded in the public lexicon. It neatly captures that idea of limited knowledge, of unobtainable information, of unimagined possibilities." David Eagleman, neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine


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