Episode #729
News Items
Who's That Noisy
- Answer to last week: car engine
Interview with Evan Saitta
- https://elifesciences.org/articles/46205
Question #1: Thai Language
- Correction about the language spoken in Thailand
- I’m watching a show on Netflix and someone says something that I can’t understand. I back it up and play it again and I still can’t understand what they are saying. Back it up again and raise the volume. Nope still no good. So I back it up and switch on captions so this time I will at least know what is being said. This time I read the caption but I also hear them say the words. It’s freaky. I back it up and switch off captions and now I hear the words as plain as day. It’s not that I know what they are saying… I HEAR what they are saying. Les Rankins Australia
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Science
A new study finds that elite athletes have a performance-enhancing bacteria in their guts that sedentary people lack. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/06/performance-enhancing-bacteria-found-in-the-human-microbiome/
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Item #2
Fiction
Astronomers have identified long carbon nanofilaments in the interstellar medium. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/soccer-balls-in-space
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Item #3
Science
A recent Harris poll finds that 45% of Americans have doubts about the safety of vaccines. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/45-of-american-adults-doubt-vaccine-safety-according-to-survey-300873495.html
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
“Dinosaurs are the jumper cables to the human mind. Kids can’t curb their enthusiasm when they’re in a hall of dinosaurs and mammoths and mammoth hunters and trilobites and giant fish that could chomp up a shark. These natural objects in motion and context make kids want to read; you can’t stop them from reading and thinking.” Robert T. Bakker