Skeptics Guide #1040

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1040 June 11th 2025 Segment #1. Dumbest Thing of the Week Premium Water https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/dining/fine-water-mineral-sommeliers.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Nk8.N-6X.DQISJdAFR79V&smid=url-share Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – NASA Budget https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87jq0djw00o News Item #2 – RFK Jr. Sacks Vaccine Panel https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/rfk-jr-sacks-entire-cdc-vaccine-committee/ News Item #3 – Digital Life After Death https://theconversation.com/do-you-know-how-to-prepare-for-your-digital-life-after-death-cu-boulders-student-run-clinic-has-some-advice-257867 News Item #4 – Light out of Nothing https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/06/250608072527.htm News Item #5 – Possible New Treatment for HIV https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/05/breakthrough-in-search-for-hiv-cure-leaves-researchers-overwhelmed Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Proving the Earth is Round I wanted to bring the experiment that SciManDan is organizing to A:disprove flat earth but B:have a massive, possibly largest replication of Eratosthenes. On June 21, the summer solstice in the norther hemisphere he wants as many people to measure the angle of the sun at noon as possible and send photographic or better yet video evidence of the measurements. Seemed like something up you're ally. Have a good one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mwDIAqm-hs Jay, Boston 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. Item 1: Researchers have demonstrated a brain-machine interface system that allows a subject with ALS who cannot physically speak to speak in real time and with 97% accuracy. Item 2: A new genetic analysis finds that Florida alligators are actual two distinct species, which may have resulted from interbreeding with introduced Asian alligators. Item 3: For the first time engineers have built a working computer entirely of 2- dimensional material without any silicon. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week “The progress of science depends less on the accumulation of facts than on the emergence of new ways of thinking about them, often by specialists deeply immersed in a problem.” ― Stephen Jay Gould (Paleontologist and evolutionary biologist)