Skeptics Guide #1049

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1049 August 13th 2025 Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 – Jim Lovell Dies at 97 https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/acting-nasa-administrator-reflects-on-legacy-of-astronaut-jim-lovell/ News Item #2 – Music Anhedonia https://neurosciencenews.com/music-anhedonia-auditory-neuroscience-29546/ News Item #3 – Lithium and Alzheimer’s https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/lithium-and-alzheimers-disease/ News Item #4 – Chat GPT-5 https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/openai-launches-chatgpt5-sam-altman-smartest-ai-chatbot/ News Item #5 – Dangerous Worm Cleanse https://www.medpagetoday.com/popmedicine/cultureclinic/116845 Segment #2 Who’s That Noisy Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: MiniNuclear Plants https://theness.com/neurologicablog/mini-nuclear-reactors/ Segment #4. Who Am I 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: A new study finds that when Europeans move to more walkable cities, they walk more, but the same is not true for Americans, who do not change their total average walking. Item 2: Researchers report the first clinical tests of an mRNA based treatment that demonstrates protection against all viruses. Item 3: Researchers find that the retina synchronizes the signals from different receptors before they get to the optic nerve to minimize temporal distortion. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week “I heartily beg that what I have here done may be read with candour; and that the defects in a subject so difficult be not so much reprehended as kindly supplied, and investigated by new endeavors of my readers.” Issac Newton Cambridge, Trinity College May 8, 1688