Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: We get off to a rough start on this science packed episode. Once things are back on track, Steven explains how much he hates traveling. Devon used to think that was lame but is starting to come around. Devon’s wife is baffled that he ever had the motivation to study abroad. Steven tells us about his upcoming trip to Hawaii. Devon then tells how much New Zealand accents make him laugh.

This Week In Space: a new dwarf planet, Dee Dee, makes us question the definition of plant even more. This resurrects the argument of whether Pluto is a planet. We look at the technical definition of what makes a planet a planet and why it’s flawed. Steven explains why people take offence to calling planets’ dwarfs, Devon thinks it’s more about changing a fact most people learned as a kid. Steven proposes “world sphere A” and “world sphere B” to define the objects in our solar system.  

https://www.seeker.com/space/planets/distant-dwarf-planet-deedee-stirs-up-the-pluto-planethood-debate 

Brain Matters: Multitasking overloads the brain. We discuss how “multitasking” is mostly BS. Now a study using movie clips proves this. Our concentration switches between the tasks and ends up making you less efficient at each task. This studies shows multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%. We then go on a tangent to talk about an email we got about the coastline paradox and how this can also apply to the surface area of land. Going back to the topic, Devon admits he lost track of the episode while recording a few weeks ago because he was watching baseball.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170425092429.htm

Sci-Fi: Devon read Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson, writer of the Spin trilogy (great trilogy). This book is very different. People from our near future make a stable link to the late 1800s and set up a city for tourism. “It’s like Jurassic Park but instead of dinosaurs, it’s time travel.” Devon is now reading the new Star Wars: Thrawn book. So far, so good. Devon also talks about the quality of the audio production of the audio book. We then talk about the show: Colony. Also so far, so good. May need to be a little grittier. Devon also mentions The Left Overs, which he will not continue to watch since he learned it was created by David Lindelof (Lost, Prometheus). Devon also won’t watch the new Alien movie because of David Lindelof, even though he didn’t write this one.

This episode contains: We’re recording this episode the day before 4/20… so we talk about that for some reason, even though we’re not potheads. Devon then asks if he can wait to give his wife an anniversary gift when they aren’t celebrating on the actual day. Steven thinks he should. Anyway, we get all this crap out of the way so we can talk to Alex Damon the man behind Star Wars Explained!

https://www.youtube.com/user/starwarsminute

We talk to him about why he started making these awesome videos, how he makes so many videos, how he comes up with topics, if he’ll ever run out of material, how they can use the old EU in the new canon, the reintroduction of Thrawn, how he felt about Disney taking over Star Wars, The Last Jedi trailer, more ways to use the Force, possible leaks for new movies, Rogue One v. The Force Awakens, the prequels, the Han Solo movie, a possible Obi Wan movie, Netflix type Star Wars TV show, Rebels and Clone Wars, Battlefront II and where you can watch his videos.

This episode contains: We had a crazy weekend! We start off with the story of going out in SLO, including the strange drinks we had a total hipster bar. We then try to figure out why alcohol makes you forget.

Go to Health!: Modified virus was used a Trojan horse to deliver genes to cells to help hearing. We learn that there are a lot of genetic defects than can lead to hearing issues. This technique has been used to treat a specific, common genetic issue that causes congenital hearing loss. So far this has only been tested on mice.

 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170406152203.htm

Biological Imperative: Scientists are trying to replicate conditions that could lead to self-replication. Scientists are trying to use self-replicating chemicals to study natural selection. We discuss the difference between evolution and the genesis of life. They are also studying using two amino acids to create binary DNA.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170406171912.htm

Bonus Science: Steven talks about a new way to program chat-bots using neural networks. The network tests their response to a data set that is made using movie scripts. The process creates some interesting sound bites…

Sci-Fi: Devon tells us about the movie Life with minimal spoilers. It’s like Gravity with aliens. Devon gives it a strong three out of five, but says it was “slightly lacking.” We then take a look at the new Thor trailer and are pleased to see a lot of it will not take place on Earth. We also like that most Marvel movies have a lot of cross-over even with the solo movies. We talk about Youtuber ThorSkywalker. We talk about Timothy Zahn coming back to write Thrawn in the new cannon. Devon is reading John Scalzi’s new book: The Collapsing Empire, which is kind of the authors attempt to write a Foundation/Dune/Culture type book. It’s good but not great.

This episode contains: Devon is excited that baseball season is back! Devon tries to find the science in baseball to justify talking about it on the show. In other news, the first episode of season 3 of Rick and Morty dropped, which we get to more in the second half.

Drinking Our Future: Graphene sieve turns seawater into drinking water.  Graphene has been used to filter out nano-particles, molecules and other size stuff. Because of climate change, clean water will become harder to come by, so this may be a cheaper way to filter water.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170403193120.htm

WTF?: Magnetic brain stimulation may cases weight loss by making gut bacteria healthier. We are instantly skeptical whenever magnets are claimed to have health benefits. Those who received the modality lost weight and their gut bacteria changed to that more associated with healthy people. We question the cause and effect and why this was even thought of in the first place.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170403123508.htm

Rick and Morty: a new episode dropped on April Fool’s Day. We break down the new ep with tons of spoilers. The ep picks up right where the last ep left off. It was so good. Forget our show, go watch Rick and Morty now!

The Wolf Road: Steven is reading a post-apocalyptic book with an old west feel.

Mort(e): Devon read a crazy new book about our pets becoming sentient and waging war against us… which was recommended to him by a ghost lady.

This episode contains: We start the show off by existing, which pretty much all we do. We then introduce the interview that you won’t hear until the second half of the show. Devon recaps his Star Wars: Armada playin’ including the Corellian Conflict Campaign and a tournament.

Biological Imperative: Scientists have demonstrated a method of turning a spinach leaf into heart tissue. This helps provide veins in the tissue, which are difficult to replicate otherwise. This can be done by using the cellulose structure of the leaf.

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-demonstrate-method-of-turning-spinach-leaves-1793653077

This Week in Space: The sands of Titan are electrically charged. Titan’s non-silicate granules are blown by wind, collide, then become frictionally charged. The frictional threshold is thus increased and the sand sticks together. This would make building a sand castle on Titan really easy but would cause problems for a ship or probe that lands on Titan. This was tested by simulating the atmosphere on Titan and tumbling sand together in a tube.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170327131253.htm

Mike Troup of “The Earth Collective”: We have an interview with Mike Troup of the podcast/radio show drama “The Earth Collective.” He describes the premise of The Earth Collective, where you can listen to the show, and the other media related to the podcast. Season one is being re-issued now and season two is coming soon!

https://www.theearthcollectivestory.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Collective-Protective-Domingues-dangerous-ebook/dp/B01B5EA022

Science: We have guest host Miles Greb back on the show! He’s here to tell us about The March for Science, which is set to take place all over the country on April 22nd. It’s a nonpartisan march to show the administration that science needs to be supported and defended. We talk about specific issues such as research, the environment, funding, and more.  We then discuss how to evaluate science reporting without having personal/expert knowledge of the disciplines involved. Then, we talk about what we would want to learn the most if we could download information straight into our brain, like in the Matrix. We ask why science based governing is so rare. Is it because scientists don’t like being in the spot light and/or they’re not interested in politics? Maybe we should just try to get politicians more interested in science.

https://www.marchforscience.com/

Fiction: Devon goes through puberty again. We talk about bees for a little bit. We then get back to our guest who is the author of a few comic books. He has written the comics: After the Gold Rush, Clovis, and an unauthorized but awesome Dune comic. We discuss the process of making a comic book and how you can help Miles make more. Hint, go to his Patreon page:

https://www.patreon.com/milesgreb

We then talk about how Miles puts real science in his books, with some examples. Lastly, we find out what Miles is planning for the future!

http://www.afterthegoldrush.space/

This episode contains: Before the science Devon laments just how outrageously expensive it is to buy a house in San Jose. Steven, meanwhile, spent the last week in the mountains under an insane amount of snow. He tells us about spending time with his wife’s family in “juvenile hall.”

Biological Imperative: Spiders eat an astronomical number of insects. We first ask what is an astronomical number. There are about 25 million metric tons of spiders. Turns out spiders eat between 400 and 800 million tons of insects (annually?). Steven then tells us how afraid of spiders his wife is and Devon tells a story of finding a spider in car… while driving.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170314111251.htm

Run Forest Run: Whole body vibration (WBV) may have the same affect as regular exercise. Scientists tested this on two groups of mice, one group was normal and the other was obese. They then split each group into thirds and made each third either do nothing, use a treadmill, or WBV. The obese mice had a similar benefit from the WBV as they did from the treadmill. There’s still a long way to go to see whether this translates to people.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170315143836.htm

Sci-Fi: A new Matrix movie was just announced. Who’s going to be in it? What’s it going to be about? Why are they making it now? We know the answers to none of these questions. That doesn’t stop us from droning on about it. Apparently Michael “Basketball” Jordon will be in it (not the basketball player). Devon then stumbles onto some photos from the set of Ready Player One. Devon also saw Hacksaw Ridge and it was good. More importantly, it had Agent Smith in it. This leads to a discussion of Cloud Atlas (mostly the movie). We examine why the same actors played differed characters throughout time and if this was part of the book. Devon then reveals that he sometimes pretends some movies are episodes of Black Mirror. This works particularly well with Get Out.

The Last Jedi: Frank Oz would not confirm or deny being involved in Episode VIII. We then discuss whether there will be Force Ghosts in the new movie and how they could be used. Also, who are the weird people in masks in Clone Wars and Rebels that are always around in Force hallucinations? We then discuss who Benicio Del Toro might be in The Last Jedi. Ezra maybe? Also, Devon reminds us of his accent in the Usual Suspects and says that Benicio came up with it on his own. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/30/benicio-del-toro-accent_n_6580574.html) Devon then asks why everyone is so obsessed with who Ray’s father is when her mother probably did more to care for her and raise her (at least until she was dumped on Jakku). Steven reminds us that there haven’t been that many women in Star Wars so there’s less of a chance of her mother being a known character. Lastly, Star Wars: Armada is going to have Hammerhead ship in it soon!  

Q&A: Do all the ants in the would outweigh all the humans in the world?

This episode contains: We start off talking about taxes… stay with us, it gets better. We also find out just how lazy Devon really is. Steven then tells us about his upcoming trip to the middle of nowhere. This happens to be the same middle of nowhere where Devon was offered a job after law school.

Get Physical!: Scientists have created a new form of matter: a time crystal. We discuss what a crystal is and how these are the same, but with time.

 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170308131228.htm

Biologically Speaking: Computer operating system and more stored on DNA. Scientists coded an algorithm for video streaming into a code that can be stored as nucleotides in DNA. This was then actually made into DNA and then read off the DNA by a computer. We then consider whether you can put messages into “junk DNA.”

 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170302143947.htm

Night at the Movies: (Actually, we first find out that there are dog fiction books… lots of them. And they’re mostly religious.) We saw Logan! SPOILERS. We discuss what was more emotional, the death of Han or Logan? We then talk about just how rated R this movie was. We look at some of the back story eluded to but never fully explained in the movie. Also, comic books in a comic book movie? Interesting. We also look at what could happen next. R rated comic book movies seem to be working out but we still don’t want to see R rated Marvel movies.

Devon also saw The Girl With All the Gifts, which we both read awhile ago. Devon felt the same way about the movie as he did about the book: good for a zombie story (he doesn’t really like zombie stories.) It was a well done movie, and he didn’t realize, or care, about the changing the race of some of the characters. He also saw Get Out. An awesome movie, which, as a white guy, Devon has trouble explaining.

Q&A: Does adamantium actually exist?

This episode contains: Devon played some more Armada and lost, again. But he had fun, and isn’t that all that matters?

Robot Overlords:  Google tests AI’s “killer instinct.” Deep Mind, the same network that beat the Go champion, was tested to see if it would compete or cooperate. Eventually they might teach Deep Mind to play StarCraft II.

 http://gizmodo.com/google-test-of-ais-killer-instinct-shows-we-should-be-v-1792256809

This Week in Space: Elon Musk is sending two people around the moon! He’s a little over optimistic about the timeline but it sounds doable. There are two private, unnamed, individuals who have already put down a significant deposit on the trip. There is a little discussion of space law. We then question what you would do on such a long trip in a small ship after the novelty wore off. Also, sex in space?

 http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/27/14754404/spacex-moon-mission-2018-elon-musk-announces-private-citizen-passengers

Bill Paxton: Only actor killed by an Alien, Predator and a Terminator. RIP.

Sci-Fi: Elite Dangerous by chance had a system similar to the Trappist system (where the seven Earth-like planets were found that everyone was talking about last week) which is now going to be edited to more like the Trappist system. In other news, Devon read Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer, and liked it more than his last couple books. The book deals with nature of consciousness, psychopaths, and quantum mechanics. Steven is taking a break from The Expanse (books). Devon assures him it keeps up the quality. Steven is reading The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Devon also read some more Kurt Vonnegut and so gives a quick take on Mother Night and Breakfast of Champions.

This episode contains: Devon drove down to Steven’s house to play Star Wars: Armada over the weekend. It then took him 6 hours to complete a 2.5 hour drive to come home due to the weather in California. We discuss the current flooding in CA then Devon tells the tale of his post-apocalyptic journey home.

Brain Matters: Creative people may have better connected brains. We first dispel the whole right-side, left-side brain thing. We then discuss a study where scientists studied the brains of college students (who else?) in an MRI while they performed “creativity” tasks. We discuss the results and the definition of creativity. What is the connection between creativity and intelligence? Does creativity require intelligence? These questions are leading scientists to study connectivity in the brain and IQ.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170221101125.htm

This Week in Space: Astronomers have discovered a solar system with 7 Earth-sized exo-planets! These are orbiting Trappist 1, which is only 39 light-year from Earth. The star is much dimmer than the Sun and the planets orbit well within the orbit of Mercury. Some of these are in the habitable zone. There may be issues them being tidally locked with their parent star.

http://www.space.com/35790-seven-earth-size-planets-trappist-1-discovery.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=socialfbspc&cmpid=social_spc_514630

Vonnegut: Devon has gotten back into Kurt Vonnegut thanks to the new podcast from Cracked: Kurt Vonneguys. He read Sirens of Titan and Cat’s Cradle and gives us a book report. So get a quick plot recap of books you might have read in high school. And if you really like Vonnegut you must listen to Kurt Vonneguys: 

http://www.cracked.com/blog/we-made-you-kurt-vonnegut-podcast21-heres-why/

Star Wars: We played more Star Wars: Armada this weekend. We recap our battles and follies. And Devon went out and made friends IRL! We also talk about new information about the Battle of Jakku and the book Aftermath: Empire’s End.