Skeptics Guide to the Universe

Podcast I've been loving -- each episode is a discussion about recent science news and current events with the lens of scientific skepticism. Skepticism here is in the context of always questioning things and not believing things just because you are told them or because its the popular view; holding beliefs that are based in evidence/facts. I like that they not only talk about interesting topics, but they also educate on examples of misinformation and bad science. It's always the same panel of ~5 hosts, and they are a diverse and knowledgable set of individuals and they have fun with the discussion.

Episode 1095

• Discussion about a research advancement in synthetic cell creation -- project called "spud" -- the researchers created a minimal cell which can build proteins (but can't make its own ribosomes (which are the protein factories) which have to be injected in) and keep itself alive (but needs mechanical assistance to reproduce). Really cool stuff. Reminds me of my past excitement about cell biology and everything required for a cell to be "alive". Also cool that the researchers are going for an open-source vibe. They published a long "tome" publicly about how exactly to reproduce what they've accomplished, so that anyone (well scientists) can iterate on what they accomplished so far. Also brief discussion on the merit of having it public like this, which allows bad actors to see it, but also allows good actors to combat bad actors if bad actors try to do something bad (similar to how in cybersecurity, they publish full details about known exploits online as soon as possible, which hackers can use, but which devs can also guard against). In terms of the aspirational uses for the synthetic cells, they talked briefly about potential uses in medicine or industry, though I'm not fully satisfied, wish they gave more examples. I kind of want to find the research paper or at least more about it because I'm curious about how they created the cell structures and machinery.
• discussion on geothermal energy. Making me want to learn more and see a visual demonstration.

Episode 1087

discussion about an evolutionary biologist who is convinced that LLMs (specifically Claude) have consciousness.

kind of silly study about how haunted houses affect feelings of friendship/boding with the people you go through it with

1:39:00 - discuss reasoning for trusting a licensed medical doctor rather than eg tiktok medical advice, can trust their expertise because they are most likely intending to get it right because their job and license depends on it. Doctor will be held accountable.

1:43:00 - "genetic fallacy." Can not dismiss an argument/evidence due to its origin. Gives an example: an idea comes from a dream obviously not a reliable source of information, however you can not dismiss all of the evidence they gathered after the fact just because the idea came from a dream.