International Skeptics United

The second of three episodes of Little Atoms in association with the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. This week Neil Denny talks with David Adam, and there’s a repeat of our interview with Gaia Vince from August 2014. This show also marks the 10th anniversary of Little Atoms. We first broadcast on […]

History doesn't always record the accomplishments of women in science as thoroughly as it does for men. This episode helps straighten the record.

Climate change - and concerns about rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - are often in the headlines. However, looking back in the history of the earth, it's clear that this isn't the first time carbon dioxide levels have risen. So why should we worry now? We delve into the past to explore the effects climate change can have on the oceans and how that, in turn, can impact the climate. Plus, in the news, a new species of early human ancestor, the scientist who's jumping the Hubble queue with a helium balloon, and why humans are hard-wired for laziness...

0:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders   0:04:10 Dragon*Con report We chat to Angie Mattke who reports on the Skeptrack at the recent Dragon*Con in Atlanta.    0:18:35 A Week in Science The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to bring science to people and people to science.   0:21:40 Tell me this, you Skeptic! An overview of some of the questions and comments put to skeptics at the Paranormal and Spiritual Expo.    0:31:35 The Atheist Hour - Podcast Timothy Graham fills us in on a new podcast from Sydney.

Three interesting segments this week.  First, Cristina addresses a listener email ‘aboot’ cultural stereotypes and subjective judgments based on people’s accents. Next, the gang is once again joined by Dina Tsirlin who looks into some shocking facts about electroconvulsive therapy.  Lastly, Adam takes aim at recent headlines suggesting that a cat ‘took’ a bullet for a kid.  

Forgotten Superheroes of Science:Fritz Haber; News Items: Night Skies, Thinking Style and Paranormal Belief, Psychic Detectives; Special Report: Time Travel; What's the Word; Science or Fiction

There's an old adage which says you cannot fit a model which has more parameters than you have data. While this is often the case, it's not a universal truth. Today's guest Jake VanderPlas explains this topic in detail and provides some excellent examples of when it holds and doesn't. Some excellent visuals articulating the points can be found on Jake's blog Pythonic Perambulations, specifically on his post The Model Complexity Myth. We also touch on Jake's work as an astronomer, his noteworthy open source contributions, and forthcoming book (currently available in an Early Edition) Python Data Science Handbook.

Slippers, collagen, football, and boiled eggs. Plus mincing proteins, bleeding deer, and what happened in Amsterdam. Standing on the Devil, it’s Skeptics with a K.

The first of three episodes of Little Atoms in association with the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. This week Neil Denny talks with shortlisted authors Jim Al-Khalili & Johnjoe Mcfadden, and Jon Butterworth. Professor Jim Al-Khalili, OBE is an academic, author and broadcaster. He is a leading theoretical physicist based at the […]

These important scientists are virtually unknown, even though their accomplishments are among the greatest in science. Let's see if we can fix that.

This week we're asking whether scientists and technologists are in short supply, and how the way that we teach science in schools is changing: some classrooms are pumping out published papers! Plus, in the news, a 2 metre-long scorpion, seabirds with stomachs stuffed with plastic, and the facts behind fat - is butter really all that bad for you?

0:00:00 Introduction Richard Saunders   0:05:40 Maynard's Spooky Action..  Maynard chats to pubbers at Sydney Skeptics in the pub including Ken McLeod and Dr Elena Kupriyanova.    0:32:20 A Week in Science The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) is a national scientific not-for-profit organisation with a mission to bring science to people and people to science.   0:36:10 Evidence Please... with Jo Alabaster Jo visits the Australian  Paranormal and Spiritual Expo and interviews some of colourful charaters at their stalls.    0:54:37 Signe's Stories Guest reporter Signe Dean at the expo asking everyday people why they attend. 

  The Reality Check celebrates its 7th birthday! This week we’re bringin’ the science and the sci-fi with two fact-filled segments. First, Darren kicks things off with an analysis of the Reproducibility Project which looks at experimental and correlational studies published in the field of Psychological Science. Adam dives head first into recent DNA studies on octopuses and the resulting headlines suggesting they come from an alien world.

In Memoriam - Oliver Sacks; Forgotten Superheroes of Science: Granville Woods; News Items: Reproduction in Psychology, Brain Booster Drug, Defying the Standard Model, Rock Art Pterodactyl Debunked; Who's That Noisy; Science or Fiction

There are many occasions in which one might want to know the distance or similarity between two things, for which the means of calculating that distance is not necessarily clear. The distance between two points in Euclidean space is generally straightforward, but what about the distance between the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the ocean? What about the distance between two sentences? This mini-episode summarizes some of the considerations and a few of the means of calculating distance. We touch on Jaccard Similarity, Manhattan Distance, and a few others.

Or specifically, one clerk in particular named Kim Davis, who refuses to perform the basic duty of issuing marriage licenses because she’s a bigot. Bereft of any legal grounds, out of appeals, and in direct violation of the specific court order of a federal judge, she continues to refuse, citing “God’s authority” and ends up […]

Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University and the University of Zimbabwe. Her debut story collection, An Elegy for Easterly, won the Guardian First Book Prize in 2009. Her debut novel is The Book of Memory.

This episode Derek digs into a recording which he conducted out in California at the Skeptic Society "I The Year 2525" conference. It is a recording Derek did with Dr. Donald Prothero not long after he finished his talk which was about the current state of the climate, how we know that humans are causing massive change, and what we might be able to do to help mitigate and, possibly, improve things going forward as a global society.

The fate of Franklin's Lost Expedition provides a unique lesson in the value of different types of evidence.

This week is a very special, edition of the Naked Scientists as we dedicate a whole hour to the world's favourite dwarf planet - Pluto. But how did it get there in the first place? What has the New Horizons probe uncovered? And what's beyond Pluto? Graihagh Jackson puts the mission under the microscope, talking some of the leading scientists from the New Horizons operation and taking a trip to the edge of our solar system...