Skeptics Guide #1083

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1083 April 9th 2026 Segment #1. Dumbest Thing of the Week https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2026/04/03/fema-offical-teleportation-waffle-house/1731775261629/ Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Artemis II Heat Shield https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/theres-an-issue-with-the-artemis-ii-heat-shield-but-nasa-isnt-worried-heres-why News Item #2 – Fairness in the Brain https://neurosciencenews.com/ethics-fairness-brain-imaging-30470/ News Item #3 – Genetic Engineering Humans https://theness.com/neurologicablog/are-genetically-engineered-humans-coming/ News Item #4 – Self-Healing Composite https://newatlas.com/materials/self-healing-fiber-reinforced-polymer/ Segment 3. Who’s That Noisy 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. Item 1: Despite diverging over 600 million years ago, before the evolution of eyes, insect and mammal vision not only use the same protein family, opsins, but tune their red color sensitivity at the same exact amino acid location. Item 2: A new study finds that a single nucleotide change in a non-coding regulatory region was able to cause XX mice to develop as fully male. Item 3: Researchers describe the oldest fossil egg of an early mammal relative, Lystrosaurus, indicating they laid small hard-shelled eggs and likely fed their young through lactation. Segment #5. Skeptical Quote of the Week “It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign of order in nature and to find the causes governing this order. And this refers in equal measure to the relations of man - social and political - and to the entire universe as a whole.” ― Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev


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