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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 213 - 8/18/2009
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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, LLC - dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science through online and other media. The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.
SGU Podcasting Awards: SGU on XM: You can listen to the SGU on America's Talk XM 166 every Saturday night from 8-9pm Eastern.
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Podcast
213
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August 18, 2009
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News Items: Battery Update, Super Planetary Nebulae, Adopt a Star, UFO Spikes
Your Questions and E-mails: Aquatic Ape, Caffeine Tolerance
Science or Fiction
Who's That Noisy
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Segment: News Items
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Segment: Science Headline of the Week
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Segment: Questions and E-mails
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Question # 1 - Aquatic Ape
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Hi SGU,
Love the show. My only complaint is that it only comes out once a week!
I was wondering what you all thought about the aquatic ape theory - the theory that humans in their past have an ancestor that spent time in the water as a way to explain our subcutaneous fat layer, our hairlessness, our ability to control our breathing, etc. all of which differentiate us from other apes. Is it pseudoscience? If not, why doesn't it have broader acceptance and/or inquiry?
Thanks,
Coire (pronounced like "Cory")
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Scientific Aquatic Ape Resource: http://www.aquaticape.org/
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Question # 2 - Caffeine Tolerance
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I was hoping that Steve could clear up a discussion some fellow skeptics and I were having on twitter. Can you build up an immunity to caffeine over time?
I am 23 and have been drinking coffee/tea for 10 years and I now don't have any trouble getting to sleep after having a late night coffee, whereas when I was younger I could have considerable trouble. Is this just a factor of age or a build up of resistance to the affects?
Cheers,
Rhiannon McKeon
Sydney
P.S Why is American coffee so bitter compared to the superior Australian baristas product?
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Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
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Segment: Who's That Noisy
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Whos That Noisy
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Answer to last week: Dara O'Briain
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Segment: Quote of the Week
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Quote of the Week
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There is no other species on Earth that does science. It is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works. It is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything.
- Carl Sagan
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