Episode #944

Episode #944

News Items

• Depression Does Not Cause Cancer
• Hidden Undersea World
• AI vs Robo Calls
• Cement Supercapacitor

Who's That Noisy

• Answer to last week:

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Science

  The oldest extant branch of life is the ctenophores, which go back 700 million years. https://www.earth.com/news/oldest-living-creature-on-earth-identified-emerging-700-million-years-ago/

• Item #2 Fiction

  Polypodiophyta, a type of fern, is the oldest extant plant genus at 380 million years. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/998112, https://uwaterloo.ca/earth-sciences-museum/resources/fern-fossils

• Item #3 Science

  The record for the slowest evolving vertebrate goes to the elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii) which has changed little in 450 million years. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature12826

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

‘It is hard to tell which is worse; the wide diffusion of things that are not true, or the suppression of things that are true.’ ~ Harriet Martineau