Episode #622

Episode #622

News Items

• Dinosaur Proteins Questioned
• Another Gravitational Wave
• Bigelow on Aliens
• Don’t Put Wasps Nests in your Vagina

Who's That Noisy

• Answer to last week: Piano strings

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Science

  Plants use three different types of photosynthesis: C3, C4, and CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism), but almost all trees use the less efficient C3 cycle. https://u.osu.edu/bhanr/2016/08/22/what-there-are-three-different-types-of-photosynthesis/

• Item #2 Science

  A 206 acre stand of aspen trees in Utah is actually a single organism weighing 6 million kilograms and estimated to be 80,000 years old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_%28tree%29

• Item #3 Fiction

  The Dragon’s Blood tree has deep red sap that has been used for centuries as a medicinal and a varnish, and contains a powerful hallucinogen similar in chemistry and effect to LSD. http://globaltrees.org/threatened-trees/trees/socotra-dragon-tree/

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

“Innumeracy and pseudoscience are often associated, in part because of the ease with which mathematical certainty can be invoked, to bludgeon the innumerate into a dumb acquiescence.” - John Allen Paulos