Skeptical Science – Page 636 – Promoting Science and Critical Thinking

Supermassive black hole rises and shines

November 10, 2013May 6, 2011 by Dave

Science News reports that Astronomers watch as wake-up call rouses slumbering monster … It’s unclear whether it was a stellar meal or simply gas that woke the sleeping giant. But astronomers say the ongoing outburst recorded by a spacecraft since March 28 is the first time scientists have witnessed the sudden activation of a dormant … Read more

Man kills stepdaughter for not honoring Muslim religion

November 10, 2013May 6, 2011 by Dave

Here is more evidence to illustrate how belief-systems can utterly screw-up and skew the human mind …

WARREN, MI (WDIV/CNN) – A Michigan man shot and killed his stepdaughter because he felt she was not honoring her Muslim religion, according to police.

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Trust Me, I’m a Scientist

March 31, 2024May 5, 2011 by Dave

Great article in the latest Scientific American by Daniel T. Willingham. He is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?”. His article discusses why so many people choose not to believe what scientists say, so is of direct interest to skeptics.

A friend of mine has long held that a vaccination his son received as an infant triggered his child’s autism. He clings to this belief despite a string of scientific studies that show no link between autism and vaccines. When the original paper on such a link was recently discredited as a fraud, my friend’s reaction was that it will now be more difficult to persuade people of the dangers of vaccination. He is not alone: nearly half of all Americans believe in the vaccine-autism link or are unsure about it.

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Vitamin supplements: good for health or a waste of $$

April 14, 2024May 5, 2011 by Dave

We, that’s the collective we, buy an astonishing quantity of Vitamin supplements each year. To give you an idea, here are some numbers (Sorry I only quote UK stats here, but you can probably extrapolate from that for other locations):

In the UK we spend about £364 million each year on Vitamin and mineral supplements
Approx 43% pop these supposed wonder drugs, but as you might expect, its the 55+ folks who are the biggest consumers

Revolutionary new paper computer shows flexible future for smartphones and tablets

January 1, 2015May 4, 2011 by Dave

Queens University press release reports …

KINGSTON, ONTARIO – The world’s first interactive paper computer is set to revolutionize the world of interactive computing.

“This is the future. Everything is going to look and feel like this within five years,” says creator Roel Vertegaal, the director of Queen’s University Human Media Lab,. “This computer looks, feels and operates like a small sheet of interactive paper. You interact with it by bending it into a cell phone, flipping the corner to turn pages, or writing on it with a pen.”

Signs of dark matter from Minnesota mine

November 10, 2013May 4, 2011 by Dave

Ron Cowen reports in ScienceNews that there are Possible evidence for WIMPs reported, supporting claims of Italy-based experiment

An experiment in Minnesota is the first to bolster a long-contested claim that detectors a continent away have found evidence of particles called WIMPs.

WIMPs are theorized particles considered to be leading candidates for dark matter, invisible material believed to make up more than 80 percent of the matter in the universe. In the Minnesota experiment, called COGENT, a hockey puck–sized chunk of germanium deep in a former iron mine attempts to record rare collisions with WIMPS.