Skeptics Guide #1001

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The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1001 September 11th 2024 Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 – Embryo Models https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-02915-3 News Item #2 – Carbon Fiber Battery https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202409725 News Item #3 – Zeta Class Supercomputer https://www.livescience.com/technology/computing/japan-to-start-building-1st-zeta-class-supercomputer-in-2025-1000-times-more-powerful-than-todays-fastest-machines’ News Item #4 – UFOs A Societal Problem https://theconversation.com/belief-in-alien-visits-to-earth-is-spiralling-out-of-control-heres-why-thats-so-dangerous-237789 Segment #2. Who’s That Noisy Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Net Metering I was a little disappointed with discussion regarding net metering on this week’s show. I feel you were unfair in your portrayal of those evil power companies and their poor net metering policies. Full disclosure I am director for a rural electric power cooperative and I’m also an electrical engineer. I’m also obligated to say I’m emailing as an individual not as a representative of my cooperative. The part you left out of the net metering discussion is the consumer is asking the power company to act as their battery. When they have excess power they “charge” the battery by pushing the power to the grid. When they need power they “discharge” the battery by pulling from the grid. And if the battery is exhausted then they purchase power from the “battery”. Acting as a battery costs the power company money. So now the electric rates of your neighbors must go up to cover this cost. It’s easy to say that these are big companies and that little bit from a person here or there shouldn’t matter. But at scale it does matter. I’d also like to point out that when the solar panels are over producing and pushing power back to the grid this is generally “junk” power. It’s power that is not needed and push around until its sold at a very low rate. Net metering policies also encourage consumers to over size their solar panels which has its own set of issues. Using more materials that are necessary and all that. Long story short, I feel net metering was over promoted. It’s not a good thing for states to force policies on companies. My state, ND, is mostly ran by electric cooperatives not big investor owned utilities (IOUs). We are trying to get the best product we can to our members without policies like net metering artificially running up the rates. Thank you for hearing me out. Love the show, long time listener (since 2008), first time emailer. Best Regards, Kalvin 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: Extinction Item 1: A recent genetic analysis concludes that the Rapanui population was not in decline prior to contact with Europeans in 1722. Item 2: New evidence pegs the Y-chromosomal most recent common ancestor in humans to just 20,000 years ago. Item 3: A new DNA analysis of a 45,000 year old Neanderthal specimen finds that they were genetically isolated from other Neanderthal groups for about 60,000 years, a fact that may have contributed to their extinction. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "You must be ready to give up even the most attractive ideas when experiment shows them to be wrong." Alessandro Volta, - 1745 –1827, the inventor of the electric battery -