Episode #1054
News Items
- Conspiracy
- Cancer Misinformation
- Improved Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
- Oldest Mummies
- Not the Screwworms
Question #1: Ethics in Research
- Hi folks, on your show of 19th July 2025 (sorry I’m a bit behind) the opening discussion was flu vaccines and in that discussion it was mentioned that no study could ever be done which gave a placebo to participants because we know the flu vaccine works. Would a way around this be to invite participants who wouldn’t normally get the vaccine, due to personal choice, but who wouldn’t mind either way if they did or did not get it. Surely there would be enough people who fall into this category. The question I suppose can be applied on a wider basis than just the flu vaccine. Alex
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Fiction
For the first time astronomers have discovered a 5 pointed Einstein cross, which modeling suggests is due to intergalactic dark matter. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adf204
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Item #2
Science
A recent study of the two most common anti-phishing training campaigns found no significant benefit or reduced susceptibility to phishing attempts.https://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~grantho/papers/oakland2025_phishing-training.pdf
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Item #3
Science
A recent analysis finds that current vertical lettuce farming has 20 times the yield per area and only one eighth the water use as traditional farming, but still has a significantly higher carbon footprint. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fes3.70117