Episode #835
News Items
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Science
The claim that Einstein’s first wife, Mileva Marić, silently collaborated with Einstein in developing the theories of relativity is not supported by any evidence and generally considered by historians to be untrue. https://www.technologyreview.com/2012/04/18/116220/did-einsteins-first-wife-secretly-coauthor-his-1905-relativity-paper/
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Item #2
Science
Despite their legendary status, the Galapagos finches do not appear to have been important to Darwin’s development of his theory, and go unmentioned in On the Origin of Species. http://www.f.waseda.jp/sidoli/Sulloway_1982.pdf
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Item #3
Fiction
While Alexander Fleming is credited with the serendipitous discovery of penicillin, he never considered its therapeutic potential and was not cited in the later work that actually developed penicillin as a drug. https://gizmodo.com/5-historical-myths-about-real-scientific-discoveries-5962937
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
‘I believe scientists have a duty to share the excitement and pleasure of their work with the general public, and I enjoy the challenge of presenting difficult ideas in an understandable way.’ — Antony Hewish, British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars