Skeptics Guide #1085

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1085 April 23rd 2026 Segment #1. What’s the Word Cryptomnesia Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Belief in Unproven Health Claims https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01285-2 News Item #2 – Regenerating Limbs https://theness.com/neurologicablog/the-prospect-of-regenerating-limbs/ News Item #3 – Suicide Hotline Seems to Work https://www.sciencenews.org/article/suicide-lifeline-988-teens-young-adults News Item #4 – Why Is Rubber So Strong https://scitechdaily.com/what-makes-rubber-so-strong-scientists-finally-solve-100-year-old-mystery/ Segment 3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Mythos Follow Up Question #2: American knowledge of Mexico The very brief comment about not knowing there is a place in Mexico called Chihuahua (a city and a state that borders Texas. Famously Juarez is in that state) brought to my attention a subject that I find interesting and frustrating. Having lived in Mexico for most of my life, I noticed how American media (movies, shows, news) tend to completely ignore Mexico. It’s also very striking the level of ignorance in America regarding Mexico. Simple stuff, like the capital, population, size, political system, etc. Despite there being a very large Mexican population in the U.S. I don’t know if this is a subject for the SGU, but I feel like there is something there regarding education and how media affects a person’s worldview. Keep up the good work! 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. Theme: Black Holes Item 1: Einstein predicted the existence of singularities (only later called black holes), but the first one was not identified until 1971, sixteen years after his death. Item 2: Astronomers estimate that there are about 100 million stellar mass black holes in the Milky Way galaxy, but only about 100 have been confirmed. Item 3: Only two black holes have ever been directly imaged: Sagittarius A* at the center of our own galaxy, and M87*, the largest known black hole at 6.5 billion solar masses. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "Absolute certainty is a privilege of uneducated minds-and fanatics. It is, for scientific folk, an unattainable ideal." - Cassius J. Keyser