Episode #311

Episode #311

News Items

• Tau Day
• Body Temperature of Dinosaurs Measured
• Magnets and Blood Flow
• Guru in Sweat Lodge Deaths Convicted
• Close Call for Space Station

Who's That Noisy

• Answer to last week: Brian May

Interview with Eugenie Scott

• Director of the National Center for Science Education

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Fiction

  A recent extensive DNA analysis of coconuts indicates that all modern cultivated coconuts derive from a single ancestral variety located in Indonesia. http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/22438.aspx

• Item #2 Science

  Paleontologists have discovered fossilized eyes 515 million years old – they are surprisingly complex compound eyes with about 3,000 lenses. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-06-fossils-powerful-eyes-evolved-twinkling.html

• Item #3 Science

  A new study finds that wars have been increasing steadily over the last century by 2% per year on average. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/wars_steadily_increase

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

‘If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another, and science will do for them all they wish and more than they can dream.’ - Winston Churchill