Skeptics Guide #1086

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1086 April 30th 2026 Segment #1. Back To Basics Pareidolia and Apophenia Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Smart Watch Health Metrics Errors https://www.sciencealert.com/your-smartwatch-may-be-getting-6-key-health-metrics-wrong News Item #2 – Space Debris Hitting the Moon https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/a-stray-spacex-rocket-stage-could-slam-into-the-moon-this-august-amateur-astronomer-says News Item #3 – Evolving AI https://theness.com/neurologicablog/evolving-ai/ News Item #4 – Merging Quazars https://phys.org/news/2026-04-blazing-quasars-caught-waltzing-merger.html News Item #5 – Longevity Escape Velocity https://www.yahoo.com/news/tech/science/articles/scientist-says-humans-backwards-time-165551116.html Segment 3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Stem Cell Hype Hello SGU, I'm a faculty member at the University of Colorado-Anschutz. I'm a new recruit starting my lab 2 years ago. I have been listening to the SGU since 2011 when I was a young technician, and through graduate school and postdoctoral training in stem and developmental biology. My expertise is in stem cell biology and reproductive biology, and my lab generates in vitro models of placental and embryonic development. We study the process of implantation and early placental development. My lab's mission and the goal of my career is to cure preeclampsia with my research. Listening to your show just now on the way to lab, I could not keep myself from shouting "NO YOU ARE WRONG!" in my car like an insane person when Steve said that we're "25-30 years after the stem cell hype, and not that we haven't made a lot of progress in stem cell research, but we don't have ANY of the promised breakthroughs- medical miracles that people were talking about in 2001...." Many embryonic stem cell therapies are currently being developed and are in late stage clinical trials for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, Epilepsy, Type I diabetes, and macular degeneration. The results of these new technologies so far are amazing to say the least! It is too much to write or describe, so I will point you to this official response from the International Society for Stem Cell Research to the request for information released by the NIH regarding continued funding for embryonic stem cell research. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://static1.squarespace.com/static/611faaa8fee682525ee16489/t/69ebb23d15e048446a9b918f/1777054271782/ISSCR_NIH_NOT-OD-26-031_hESC_RFI_signaturecopy.pdf Please read the section on page 7 regarding the latest data from clinical trials with relevant citations. Currently, hESC research is under threat of being defunded by this NIH administration, and opinions like Steve's are exactly what will kill funding and developing the medicine of the future. Dr. Rowan Karvas University of Colorado- Anschutz 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: Canada Item 1: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Item 2: Although the Aztecs ground peanuts into paste, the first modern patent for doing so was held by Marcellus Gilmore Edson of Montreal, which is why Canadians consider him the inventor of peanut butter. Item 3: While it maintains a symbolic connection to British royalty, Canada became fully constitutionally independent in 1867, almost a century after the US. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "Do not confine your children to your own learning for they were born in another time." Rabindranath Tagore, first Asian recipient of a Nobel Prize (literature 1913)