Episode #1068
Best Of SGU
Best Science News Items
Skeptical Hero
Skeptical Jackass
In Memoriam
Joe Nickell Randy Snyder, recently died. He was an influential skeptic in the ex-Mormon community Robert Lee Nadeau (1944 – 2025) American academic and activist against climate denial, known for outspoken criticism of climate change misinformation and deniers. Jane Goodall James Watson Chen Ning Yang – physicist, work in symmetry paved the way for the standard model George Smoot – American astrophysicist, cosmologist, and Nobel laureate. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) with John C. Mather that led to the ‘discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation’ Richard Garwin – physicist, first hydrogen bomb design George Smith – 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics for ‘the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit—the CCD sensor, which has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography’. Mark Norell – first theropod embryo and for the description of feathered dinosaurs Xavier Le Pichon – helped create the field of plate tectonics David Baltimore – Nobel prize – ‘for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell’ John Gurdon – Nobel prize for research into turning mature cells into stem cells Hamilton Smith – Nobel Prize 1978 for discovering restriction enzymes Elizabeth Vrba – developing the turnover-pulse hypothesis, as well as coining the word exaptation with colleague Stephen Jay Gould Darleane Christian Hoffman confirmed the existence of seaborgium, element 106. Jim Lovell Captain Frederick H. Hauck – space shuttle captain Felix Baumgartner Rob Reiner June Lockhart Robert Redford Hulk Hogan Ozzy Osbourne Drew Struzan – iconic movie posters, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/drew-struzan-obituary?pid=210097735 – ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Indiana Jones,’ and ‘Back to the Future,’ ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,’ ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘The Goonies,’ ‘First Blood,’ ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘The Thing,’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.’
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Fiction
An analysis finds that existing policies on use of plastic bags are mostly ineffective, on average reducing plastic bag waste by <10%. https://theness.com/neurologicablog/plastic-bag-policies-have-an-effect/
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Item #2
Science
An extensive genetic and cellular analysis finds that birds evolved the information-carrying neurons in their brain mostly independently from mammals.https://theness.com/neurologicablog/birds-separately-evolved-complex-brains/
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Item #3
Science
Researchers presented a new gene-editing system that is even better than CRISPR, called the TIGR-Tas system. https://theness.com/neurologicablog/the-new-tigr-tas-gene-editing-system/
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
‘Skepticism is an act of doing good in the world.’ - Joe Nickell