Skeptics Guide #1088

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1088 May 14th 2026 Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 – The Interstitium and Acupuncture https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/nyt-epic-fail-on-acupuncture/ News Item #2 – Climate Change Food Insecurity https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/climate-change/food-insecurity-is-no-longer-just-about-low-income-countries-environmental-economist-explains-how-climate-change-is-pushing-agricultural-systems-to-the-brink News Item #3 – Neanderthal Dentistry https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/neanderthals/exceptional-drilled-tooth-reveals-neanderthals-practiced-dentistry-in-siberia-60-000-years-ago News Item #4 – Tiny Robots https://scitechdaily.com/these-tiny-robots-50x-smaller-than-a-hair-can-hunt-and-move-bacteria/ News Item #5 – More UFO Nonsense https://theness.com/neurologicablog/pentagon-releases-more-boring-ufo-videos/ Segment 2. Who’s That Noisy Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Lots of AI Consciousness Feedback 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: Ancient Medicine Item 1: The earliest direct evidence for suturing of wounds dates back 12,000 years in Gobekli Tepe in the region of modern-day Turkey. Item 2: Scientists have reported evidence for a successful surgical amputation of a lower limb 31,000 years ago, with the individual surviving at least 6-9 years afterward. Item 3: As early as 1,000 BCE, Indian and other ancient cultures used ant jaws as surgical staples to close wounds, allowing live ants to bite the wound edges. Segment #5. Skeptical Quote of the Week “Nothing more strikingly betrays the credulity of mankind than medicine. Quackery is a thing universal, and universally successful. In this case it becomes literally true that no imposition is too great for the credulity of men.” - Henry David Thoreau


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