The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe

The Skeptics Guide #985 - May 25 2024

May 25, 2024

Key Takeaways Copied to clipboard!

  • The hosts opened **The Skeptics Guide #985 - May 25 2024** with Jay Novella recounting a dramatic kitchen cabinet failure caused by cheap contractor-grade particle board construction. 
  • The 'What's the Word' segment defined **Zooxanthellae** as symbiotic, photosynthetic phytoplankton that provide corals with sugars, explaining coral bleaching when they depart. 
  • News segments covered Blue Origin's successful resumption of crewed suborbital flights (NS-25), a study confirming that native Australian marsupials fear humans more than natural predators, and the successful mitigation of a G5 solar storm that caused minimal disruption compared to past events. 
  • Satellite operators and power grids were quiet about the recent geomagnetic storm impacts due to financial concerns, though precautions like rerouting planes and shielding the ISS crew were taken. 
  • Financial astrology, including crypto astrology, exploits human weakness for perceived advantage in wealth generation, despite technical analysis (which it often mirrors) and astrology having poor predictive track records. 
  • The potential for a Carrington-level solar event remains a significant, inevitable threat to modern infrastructure, for which current preparations are likely insufficient. 

Segments

Jay’s Kitchen Cabinet Disaster
Copied to clipboard!
(00:00:41)
  • Key Takeaway: High-quality kitchen cabinets cost significantly more than the cheap, contractor-grade particle board/MDF typically installed by home builders.
  • Summary: Jay Novella experienced a high-mounted kitchen cabinet made of particle board (MDF) suddenly failing and crashing down, scattering porcelain dishware. The hosts noted that real hardwood cabinets can cost upwards of $50,000 for a standard kitchen. This incident highlighted the low quality of materials often used in spec-built homes.
Starlink Internet Installation
Copied to clipboard!
(00:10:18)
  • Key Takeaway: Starlink provides impressive, portable internet service (tested at 50 Mbps down/25 Mbps up in Connecticut) that can be easily paused monthly, making it ideal for remote summer cottages.
  • Summary: Jay installed Starlink at a summer cottage in New Hampshire where no other internet options exist, achieving speeds sufficient for uploading the podcast. The receiver is a flat, cookie-pan-sized unit, and the service costs between $90 and $120 monthly with no contract commitment. This technology is highly valued for servicing rural areas previously lacking connectivity.
What’s the Word: Zooxanthellae
Copied to clipboard!
(00:13:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Zooxanthellae are dinoflagellate phytoplankton living symbiotically with marine invertebrates like coral, providing them sugars via photosynthesis in exchange for protection and sunlight.
  • Summary: The word for this episode of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe is Zooxanthellae, derived from Greek roots meaning ‘animal’ and ‘yellow.’ These organisms are responsible for the color of corals, and their expulsion leads to the phenomenon known as coral bleaching. They utilize chlorophyll A and B to photosynthesize, supplying the coral with necessary sugars and fats.
Blue Origin NS-25 Mission Update
Copied to clipboard!
(00:17:44)
  • Key Takeaway: Blue Origin successfully resumed crewed suborbital flights with mission NS-25 after a 22-month hiatus caused by a 2022 engine nozzle failure, demonstrating robust capsule recovery systems.
  • Summary: The NS-25 mission carried six passengers, including Ed Dwight, the first Black astronaut candidate selected in the 1960s. The flight reached an altitude of 65.7 miles in under 10 minutes, confirming the safety of the New Shepard system after an investigation into a thermostructural failure in the engine nozzle. While suborbital flights cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Blue Origin is developing the orbital New Glenn rocket and the Orbital Reef space station.
Human Fear Response in Marsupials
Copied to clipboard!
(00:25:44)
  • Key Takeaway: Native Australian marsupials exhibit a stronger anti-predator response (fleeing 2.4 times more often) to the sound of human voices than to natural predators like dogs.
  • Summary: A study on Tasmanian wildlife showed that kangaroos, wallabies, possums, and pademelons reacted more strongly to human vocalizations than to sounds from dogs or even Tasmanian devils. This fear response persisted even though Australian fauna generally lacks a history of apex predators, suggesting an innate or rapidly learned recognition of humans as the ultimate threat. Fallow deer, an introduced species, showed a less pronounced fear response, possibly due to historical human interaction through hunting.
GMO Canola in the Wild
Copied to clipboard!
(00:35:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Feral canola populations exist, but non-GMO varieties are overrepresented, and transgenic genes are being selected against, suggesting GMO traits do not confer a competitive advantage in the wild.
  • Summary: Researchers studied feral canola in North Dakota and found that while the plants survive long-term, the incidence of feral canola has decreased since 2010. Crucially, the proportion of transgenic (GMO) canola in the wild was lower than on farms, and the transgenic genes appeared to be lost over time. This suggests that the traits engineered into GMO crops, often for herbicide resistance, do not provide a fitness advantage in natural environments.
Success in Mitigating Solar Storms
Copied to clipboard!
(00:50:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Humanity successfully mitigated the potential catastrophic effects of the May 2024 G5 geomagnetic storm through proactive hardening of power grids and rerouting air traffic, marking a ‘success story’ in space weather preparedness.
  • Summary: The May 10, 2024, event was the strongest geomagnetic storm in 20 years, categorized as G5 (extreme), capable of causing widespread blackouts. Precautionary measures included rerouting aircraft away from polar regions due to solar radiation and New Zealand preemptively switching off grid circuits. Despite the storm’s intensity, major infrastructure failures were largely avoided due to mitigation strategies implemented since the last major G5 event in 2003.
Geomagnetic Storm Aftermath
Copied to clipboard!
(00:57:57)
  • Key Takeaway: The Hubble Space Telescope’s orbital decay rate doubled due to atmospheric swelling caused by the recent G5 geomagnetic storm.
  • Summary: Satellite operators were tight-lipped about geomagnetic storm damage to avoid increased insurance premiums. Airplanes were rerouted to avoid polar radiation spikes, and the ISS crew moved to the most shielded quarters as a precaution. The storm caused atmospheric swelling, doubling the Hubble Space Telescope’s daily orbital decay from 40 meters to 80 meters, potentially shortening its operational life.
Crypto Astrology and Financial Pseudoscience
Copied to clipboard!
(01:05:30)
  • Key Takeaway: Financial astrology, or astroeconomics, attempts to predict cryptocurrency price movements based on planetary alignments, often mirroring the flawed logic of technical analysis.
  • Summary: Financial astrology is a market exploiting human weakness for perceived advantage in wealth management. Technical analysis in finance is functionally equivalent to astrology, relying on pattern recognition in random noise rather than fundamentals. Stock market experts using technical analysis often show accuracy rates below random chance (around 47%), demonstrating the lack of predictive power.
Who’s That Noisy Reveal
Copied to clipboard!
(01:19:23)
  • Key Takeaway: The sound identified in the ‘Who’s That Noisy’ segment was the battery-powered sprayer wand from a Roundup weed killer product.
  • Summary: No listener correctly identified the sound from the previous week, which was intentionally chosen to be difficult. The sound was captured by a listener while using their battery-powered sprayer wand for yard work. Despite sounding like a space laser to the submitter’s brain, it was confirmed to be from a common household gardening tool.
Show Announcements and Future Plans
Copied to clipboard!
(01:22:58)
  • Key Takeaway: The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe will host three live shows in Chicago during the third weekend of August, including the recording of the 1000th SGU live private episode.
  • Summary: Tickets are available for the Chicago shows on August 17th and 18th, featuring The Extravaganza and the five-hour 1000th episode recording. Planning is underway for a ‘Con 2025’ event, likely in White Plains around April or May of next year, with suggestions welcome. The 2024 conference will focus heavily on Kara, potentially featuring a repeat of the popular live cooking show.
AI Update Clarifications
Copied to clipboard!
(01:25:56)
  • Key Takeaway: The recent OpenAI updates focus on integrating existing capabilities like function calling and image recognition into the new GPT-4o model, rather than increasing core intelligence.
  • Summary: Function calling and voice chat features have existed in beta or older versions for over a year, contrary to recent announcements suggesting they are entirely new. The GPT-4o (Omni) model integrates text, image, video, and voice into a single experience but does not inherently increase the model’s theoretical intelligence. The rapid, incremental improvements in LLMs are expected to continue, driving competition and innovation among AI providers.
Science or Fiction: Armor Facts
Copied to clipboard!
(01:35:18)
  • Key Takeaway: The common misconception that medieval knights required a hoist to mount their horses is false; full suits of plate armor weighed approximately 55 pounds and were highly maneuverable.
  • Summary: Graphene-based body armor has been shown in testing to have twice the stopping power of Kevlar and ten times that of steel. The oldest known example of functional metal plate armor dates back 3,500 years to the Mycenaean Dendra armor, which was confirmed to be functional after modern replicas were tested by Greek military personnel. Full suits of peak European plate armor weighed around 55 pounds, allowing knights to mount their horses unassisted.
Yogi Berra Quotes
Copied to clipboard!
(01:53:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Yogi Berra’s famous aphorisms, though seemingly nonsensical, often contain a hidden, sideways logic derived from his unique thought process.
  • Summary: Yogi Berra, a New York Yankees baseball player, holds the record for most All-Star selections (18) and World Series Championships (10). His quotes, like “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s always too crowded,” are not intentional jokes but reflections of his genuine thought process. His famous statement, “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical,” exemplifies this blend of apparent absurdity and underlying truth.