Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1096 July 9th 2026 Special Guest David Kyle Johnson Segment #1. Quickie with Bob Two States of Water phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-molecular-evidence-liquid.html Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Using AI To Detect AI Cheating nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01358-2 News Item #2 – Teens Using AI Chatbots neurosciencenews.com/ai-chatbots-teen-relational-displacement-30971 News Item #3 – NYT Article on Rapid Prompting Method sciencebasedmedicine.org/nyt-article-on-rapid-prompting-method News Item #4 – SETI Partly Explains Fermi iflscience.com/seti-may-have-figured-out-why-we-havent-detected-any-alien-signals-yet-explaining-at-least-part-of-the-infamous-fermi-paradox-83897 Segment #3. Skeptical Philosophy What is “Falsifiability” Segment #4. Who’s That Noisy Segment #5. Science or Fiction Each week our host will come up with three science news items or facts, two genuine, one fictitious. He will challenge our panel of skeptics to sniff out the fake – and you can play along. Item 1: An analysis of the scat of the California Gray Wolf finds a significant contribution of domesticated pets in their diet. Item 2: A recent study finds that individual human neurons have significantly more computational information than rat neurons, which is likely one mechanism for increased human intelligence. Item 3: A new analysis finds that a bilaterally symmetrical species from the Ediacaran fauna shows signs of “handedness”, or one-sided preference. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week “I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.” – Poul Anderson
The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1096 July 9th 2026 Special Guest David Kyle Johnson Segment #1. Quickie with Bob Two States of Water phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-molecular-evidence-liquid.html Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Using AI To Detect AI Cheating nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01358-2 News Item #2 – Teens Using AI Chatbots neurosciencenews.com/ai-chatbots-teen-relational-displacement-30971 News Item #3 – NYT Article on Rapid Prompting Method sciencebasedmedicine.org/nyt-article-on-rapid-prompting-method News Item #4 – SETI Partly Explains Fermi iflscience.com/seti-may-have-figured-out-why-we-havent-detected-any-alien-signals-yet-explaining-at-least-part-of-the-infamous-fermi-paradox-83897 Segment #3. Skeptical Philosophy What is “Falsifiability” Segment #4. Who’s That Noisy Segment #5. Science or Fiction Each week our host will come up with three science news items or facts, two genuine, one fictitious. He will challenge our panel of skeptics to sniff out the fake – and you can play along. Item 1: An analysis of the scat of the California Gray Wolf finds a significant contribution of domesticated pets in their diet. Item 2: A recent study finds that individual human neurons have significantly more computational information than rat neurons, which is likely one mechanism for increased human intelligence. Item 3: A new analysis finds that a bilaterally symmetrical species from the Ediacaran fauna shows signs of “handedness”, or one-sided preference. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week “I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated.” – Poul Anderson
