This week we're asking whether scientists and technologists are in short supply, and how the way that we teach science in schools is changing: some classrooms are pumping out published papers! Plus, in the news, a 2 metre-long scorpion, seabirds with stomachs stuffed with plastic, and the facts behind fat - is butter really all that bad for you?
0:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders 0:05:40 Maynard's Spooky Action.. Maynard chats to pubbers at Sydney Skeptics in the pub including Ken McLeod and Dr Elena Kupriyanova. 0:32:20 A Week in Science The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to bring science to people and people to science. 0:36:10 Evidence Please... with Jo Alabaster Jo visits the Australian Paranormal and Spiritual Expo and interviews some of colourful charat...
The Reality Check celebrates its 7th birthday! This week we’re bringin’ the science and the sci-fi with two fact-filled segments. First, Darren kicks things off with an analysis of the Reproducibility Project which looks at experimental and correlational studies published in the field of Psychological Science. Adam dives head first into recent DNA studies on octopuses and the resulting headlines suggesting they come from an alien world....
In Memoriam - Oliver Sacks; Forgotten Superheroes of Science: Granville Woods; News Items: Reproduction in Psychology, Brain Booster Drug, Defying the Standard Model, Rock Art Pterodactyl Debunked; Who's That Noisy; Science or Fiction
There are many occasions in which one might want to know the distance or similarity between two things, for which the means of calculating that distance is not necessarily clear. The distance between two points in Euclidean space is generally straightforward, but what about the distance between the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the ocean? What about the distance between two sentences? This mini-episode summarizes some of the considerations and a few of the means of calculating distance. ...
Or specifically, one clerk in particular named Kim Davis, who refuses to perform the basic duty of issuing marriage licenses because she’s a bigot. Bereft of any legal grounds, out of appeals, and in direct violation of the specific court order of a federal judge, she continues to refuse, citing “God’s authority” and ends up […]
Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University and the University of Zimbabwe. Her debut story collection, An Elegy for Easterly, won the Guardian First Book Prize in 2009. Her debut novel is The Book of Memory.
This episode Derek digs into a recording which he conducted out in California at the Skeptic Society "I The Year 2525" conference. It is a recording Derek did with Dr. Donald Prothero not long after he finished his talk which was about the current state of the climate, how we know that humans are causing massive change, and what we might be able to do to help mitigate and, possibly, improve things going forward as a global society.
The fate of Franklin's Lost Expedition provides a unique lesson in the value of different types of evidence.
This week is a very special, edition of the Naked Scientists as we dedicate a whole hour to the world's favourite dwarf planet - Pluto. But how did it get there in the first place? What has the New Horizons probe uncovered? And what's beyond Pluto? Graihagh Jackson puts the mission under the microscope, talking some of the leading scientists from the New Horizons operation and taking a trip to the edge of our solar system...
Dr. Stu is back to talk about participating in the New Horizons mission to Pluto and various conspiracies.
0:00:00 Science reports from Oscar and Daph Alabaster... then... Introduction Richard Saunders and Fred the cat. 0:08:30 North to Brisbane! We chat to Ross Balch about the upcoming Australian Skeptics National Convention. 0:22:10 Evidence Please... with Jo Alabaster Jo looks at the case of the seemingly anti-vax cartoonist. 0:33:00 A Week in Science The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to bring science to people and people...
On this week’s show, Cristina rouses the panel with some research that addresses whether we can ever really catch up on lost sleep. Guest Lars Péloquin explains the concept of Trickle-down Economics. Finally, Pat looks into why NASA recently had to address rumours which suggested an impending Asteroid catastrophe....
Interview with Miles Greb; Forgotten Superheros of Science; News Items: Anti-Vax Nonsense, Group Think Lie Detection, WiFi Lawsuit, Universal Flu Vaccine; Who's That Noisy; Science or Fiction
ContentMine is a project which provides the tools and workflow to convert scientific literature into machine readable and machine interpretable data in order to facilitate better and more effective access to the accumulated knowledge of human kind. The program's founder Peter Murray-Rust joins us this week to discuss ContentMine. Our discussion covers the project, the scientific publication process, copywrite, and several other interesting topics.
Lifting weights, grinding corn, what happened in Edinburgh, and the Berenstein Bears. Plus polymers, Sliders, Nelson Mandela, and California Proposition 65. Fully tested for contamination by GMOs, it’s Skeptics with a K.
John Higgs is the author of I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary, The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds, and the novel The Brandy of the Damned. His latest book is Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century.
Many stories tell of Captain Kidd's buried treasure. But is there any reason to believe it exists, or is it more hyping of a character from history for the purpose of sensationalism?
Every once in a while, we post a podcast here. This one is about the movie “Do You Believe?” from the same Pureflix guys who brought us “God’s Not Dead.” Is it amazing? Why yes. Yes it is.
