Skeptics Guide #939

The Skeptics Guide To The Universe

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #939 July 5th 2023 Segment #1. Quickie with Bob The Planet that Shouldn’t Exist https://phys.org/news/2023-06-astronomers-planet-shouldnt.html Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Activity Good for Quality of Life https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230704110923.htm News Item #2 – Hominid Cannibals https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/01/science/archaeology-hominids-cannibalism.html News Item #3 – Aspartame and Cancer https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aspartame-and-cancer/ News Item #4 – FAA Approves Flying Car https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/tech/flying-car-faa/index.html News Item #5 – Neutrino Image of Milky Way https://physicsworld.com/a/icecube-detects-high-energy-neutrinos-from-within-the-milky-way/ Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Homelessness Question #2: Titan Failure Question #3: Canada and Forest Management 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. #1) A recent review of data finds that maternal mortality rate more than doubled in the US between 1999 and 2019 in every racial and ethnic group. #2) Astronomers observing distant quasars find that time in the early universe flowed 5 times slower than it does today. #3) A study involving bacterial cells with a minimized genome, in which every gene is deemed essential, revealed a dramatically reduced rate of evolutionary adaptation to stressed environments. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "It is a bad plan that admits of no modification." Publilius Syrus