Skeptics Guide #1012

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1012 November 30th 2024 Recorded at CSICon 2024 Special guest: Brian Wecht Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 – Near Earth Microquasars https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Near_Earth_Microquasar_found_to_emit_powerful_gamma_radiation_999.html News Item #2 – How To Watch Researcher Misconduct https://retractionwatch.com/2024/10/21/reflecting-on-research-misconduct-whats-next-for-the-watcher-community/ News Item #3 – Genetically Modifying Brains https://health.ucdavis.edu/news/headlines/could-a-new-medical-approach-fix-faulty-genes-before-birth/2024/10 News Item #4 – Largest Prime Number https://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M136279841 News Item #5 – Magic Amulets https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/this-magical-amulet-claims-to-protect-you-from-electromagnetic-radiation-why-are-john-tavares-rj/article_11074054-8c9e-11ef-9b50-b35db3c16997.html News Item #6 – Atlantic Current Climate Tipping Point https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/key-atlantic-current-could-collapse-soon-impacting-the-entire-world-for-centuries-to-come-leading-climate-scientists-warn Segment #2. Interview with Andrea Love https://www.immunologic.org/ Segment #3. 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: 19th Century Pseudoscience Item 1: Although discredited in the late 18th century, mesmerism survived throughout the 19th century, giving rise to hypnosis and even psychology as an academic discipline. Item 2: Hydropathy was the belief that water could cure most diseases, and involved wrapping patients in wet cloth, cold or hot baths, and drinking vast amounts of water. Item 3: A popular movement applied phrenology to the arts of painting and sculpture as a method of understanding and representing the human form, and was a significant early influence of Picasso. Segment #4. Skeptical Quote of the Week "Skepticism is essential to the quest for knowledge, for it is in the seedbed of puzzlement that genuine inquiry takes root. Without skepticism, we may remain mired in unexamined belief systems that are accepted as sacrosanct yet have no factual basis in reality." Paul Kurtz


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