Episode #1091

News Items

        Quickie with Bob

        https://phys.org/news/2026-06-meteor-heavy-elephant-widespread-speculation.html

        The Science of Survivor

        with Christian Hubicki

        Science or Fiction

        • Item #1 Science

          HitchBOT was a 2014 experiment in which a friendly chatting robot successfully hitchhiked across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, but then was destroyed three weeks into hitching across the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitchBOT

        • Item #2 Science

          Credit for the first mechanical robot in science fiction is given to the 1826 short story The Sandman in which the protagonist mistakes the robot for a live woman and falls in love. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_(short_story)

        • Item #3 Fiction

          The word “robot” was introduced in the 1920 play R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots) in which mechanical robot workers rise up against their human masters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.

        Skeptical Quote of the Week.

        “If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.” ― Groucho Marx