Skeptics Guide #953

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #953 October 11th 2023 Segment #1. Quickie with Bob https://phys.org/news/2023-10-solar-panels-proxima-centauri.html Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Oldest Evidence of Humans in Americas https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/oldest-evidence-of-humans-in-americas/ News Item #2 – Addictive Foods https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/health/food-and-nutrition/addictive-foods/ News Item #3 – Using CRISPR To Make Chickens Resistant https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41476-3 News Item #4 – Superheavy Elements and Ultradense Asteroids https://phys.org/news/2023-10-periodic-table-superheavy-elements-ultradense.amp News Item #5 – Prehistoric Solar Storms https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2022.0206 Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Question and E-mails Question #1: Nobel Peace Prize I was literally screaming at y'all on the podcast as I listened to it in my car yesterday during Science or Fiction, as you considered whether four Nobel laureates won their awards while they were imprisoned. Hello!! Like the one who literally just won, Narges Mohammadi, who sits at this moment in an Iranian prison. I realize now that I have the benefit of the podcast time delay, and that at the time you recorded episode #952, the 2023 Peace prize winner hadn't yet been announced. How ironic that events in just the few days between when you recorded the podcast and when it was released actually invalidated your "science" item and made it fiction. You should announce a correction (or maybe "acknowledgement" is more appropriate, in fairness to you) that there are now five Nobel laureates who won their award while imprisoned. All the best, Tom Segment #5. Interview with Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes Knowledge Fight podcast Segment #6. 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) Astronomers have spotted the first exoplanet collision, which happened in a system 1,800 light years away. #2) Scientists have developed a new method of error correction in quantum computers that is 10 times as effective as previous methods, reaching fidelities of 0.999. #3) The NIH has announced a $150 million grant to develop a Digital Twin Brain – an open-source platform to virtually duplicate human brain function. Segment #7. Skeptical Quote of the Week “Sciences provide an understanding of a universal experience, Arts are a universal understanding of personal experience. The arts and sciences are avatars of human creativity” Mae Jemison, First African American woman astronaut in space.