Skeptics Guide #1050

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1050 August 20th 2025 Segment #1. Quickie with Steve Fusion to Make Gold https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13461 Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Older Americans Using AI https://theconversation.com/older-americans-are-using-ai-study-shows-how-and-what-they-think-of-it-262411 News Item #2 – Semi-Solid State EV https://electrek.co/2025/08/13/first-ev-with-semi-solid-state-battery-cleared-for-sale/?utm_source=chatgpt.com News Item #3 – Ad Hominem Attacks Online https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0328550 News Item #4 – Non-Surgical LASIK https://newatlas.com/medical-devices/emr-vision-cornea-lasik/ News Item #5 – Now 3I-Atlas is Glowing https://futurism.com/interstellar-object-light Segment #3 Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Elemental Drugs Hi Steve and team, I’m probably not the only one to point out that there are many elemental drugs apart from Li. While many indications are for replacement in physiological deficiency, for example Fe2/3+, these have pharmacodynamic properties used to treat a distinct disorder: Mg2+ in eclampsia, cardiac rhythm disturbances such as VT/“Tousades de Pointe”, hypertension, asthma. Ca2+ in haemorrhage and massive transfusion (granted that it is counteracting the citrate effect from RBC infusion), hyperkalaemia and hypercalcaemia. Pt in chemotherapy. Arsenic is also used in chemo. Au in rheumatoid arthritis, granted is now rarely used. Ph in bowel prep for colonoscopy. Ag in burns as antimicrobial, and as cautery agent. Iodine in thyroid disease, for radioactive ablation or protection in radiation exposure. Others that are mainly used for their properties as a salt: Na, K, Se, Bi, Sb, Zn. Hope this provides some additional information for listeners. I use many in my work as an anaesthetist (anaesthesiologist in your parlance). Kind Regards Simon. 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: Astrophysicists have published exact solutions to Einstein’s gravity relativity equations that allow for pre-Big Bang cosmology. Item 2: Scientists observe a unique supernova that observationally confirms, for the first time, the layers of different elements that make up the deep internal structure of massive stars. Item 3: Researchers have created a protein qubit that can function inside biological systems and potentially be used for imaging inside living cells. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week The human understanding is unquiet; it cannot stop or rest, and still presses onward, but in vain. Therefore it is that we cannot conceive of any end or limit to the world, but always as of necessity it occurs to us that there is something beyond. Francis Bacon