Episode #827
News Items
- Brain Implant Interprets Writing
- SARS-CoV 2 May Enter the Genome
- Hypersonic Jets
- Sequestering Carbon
Who's That Noisy
- Answer to last week: The Doctor
Interview with Julia Galef
- https://juliagalef.com/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555240/the-scout-mindset-by-julia-galef/
Question #1: Energy Density
- Love the show, I sometimes like to contact the show and add my thoughts on topics you have discussed. One area that was discussed last week was on electric planes, I had to add to something that was mentioned. I think Steve compared the energy density of jet fuel to batteries and it got me thinking. Do electrically powered vehicles of any kind ever have to reach the same energy density in their batteries as their dinosaur fueled counter parts to travel the same distance, or carry the same loads? I ask this for the simple fact that electrically powered vehicles don’t need to carry the same amount of energy because they are more efficient, far less of the energy will be lost as heat. While jet fuel is more energy dense, far more of that energy is just wasted. Is there a better term we can use than ‘energy density’ that takes into account efficiency? It would interesting to hear your thoughts on this because I have heard you guys talk about energy density before and this element has just occurred to me, I think Evan mentioned something briefly about efficiency and I think it’s really important. Thanks Adam
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Fiction
There are over 2,000 known artificial or constructed languages. https://www.lingualinx.com/blog/12-interesting-facts-about-languages
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Item #2
Science
Nearly 30% of English words are of French origin. https://medium.com/@andreas_simons/the-english-language-is-a-lot-more-french-than-we-thought-heres-why-4db2db3542b3
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Item #3
Science
A language or dialect goes extinct every two weeks. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/saving-dying-disappearing-languages-wikitongues-culture?loggedin=true
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
“What we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.” ― Thomas Henry Huxley