0:03

It's It's time once again for

0:05

round of questions, where students from

0:07

all around the world ask me

0:09

whatever they want to know

0:11

about. And I do my know about.

0:13

And I do figure out what science

0:15

has to say. what It's like

0:17

I'm say. It's things to be

0:20

skeptical about. to be And we're getting

0:22

started today with a particularly

0:24

interesting subject, with a particularly teeth. subject, That's

0:26

coming up right now coming up right

0:28

now on Skeptoid. A

0:33

still sits under a suburban street

0:35

lamp, street three eggs drizzled in

0:38

honey, and it and it still

0:40

smells like incense. Is it Is

0:42

it magic, witchcraft, or

0:44

prayer? Join me as I'm

0:46

Heather Freeman. Join

0:48

me as we meet the everyday

0:50

Americans who've remixed magic, religion,

0:53

and spirituality for over 400 years.

0:55

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0:57

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0:59

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I'm I'm Brian Dunning.com. Student

1:41

questions, exploding teeth, and

1:44

and reproductive rocks.

1:46

Welcome to the show that Welcome

1:48

to the show that separates fact

1:50

from fiction, science from real real

1:52

history from fake history, and

1:54

helps us all make better life decisions

1:56

by knowing what's real by what's not. real

1:58

and student not. among my are

2:00

among my very favorites to record.

2:03

hand, you could On the one hand, you could

2:05

argue that everyone has access to the

2:07

internet, everyone can look up any question and

2:09

have it answered instantaneously. But on

2:11

the other hand, you could you could

2:13

look at where today's young people

2:15

are getting their information, it's often

2:17

coming mostly from TikTok. from TikTok. In

2:19

real life, young people ask me

2:21

questions about weird things they heard,

2:23

they often conspiracy theories or some

2:26

crazy crazy pseudoscience scheme, and they often

2:28

genuinely do not know know been

2:30

exposed to contradictory sources. sources.

2:33

the reason these are my are because

2:35

they are is questions from people

2:37

who questions not know. who genuinely

2:39

do not know. So, get started. started.

2:41

Hi Brian, my My name is

2:44

Luna. I've I've heard before modern

2:46

dense history people's teeth teeth used

2:48

to explode. I

2:50

am very skeptical of that.

2:52

Is it true? Thanks! of it too,

2:54

and it's not I am skeptical of

2:56

it too, and it's not really something you can

2:59

look up on the internet and expect to learn

3:01

the facts. facts. The BBC published an

3:03

article about this on their website back

3:05

in 2016, back in and it seems

3:07

to be the genesis of any other

3:09

stories you'll read today. you'll read article

3:11

was based on the

3:13

original source, on an 1861 an

3:15

-page article in the journal

3:17

in the journal Dental titled, titled, of

3:19

Teeth Teeth with Report. Most

3:23

accounts of this say that it

3:25

happened before about 1920, 1920, when dental

3:27

amalgam used to make tooth fillings

3:29

was standardized. So some

3:31

stories say that weird materials used

3:33

in old fillings may have

3:35

caused chemical reactions. There are are

3:37

also historical accounts of this happening

3:39

to people who hadn't had any

3:41

had any and some modern writers have

3:43

suggested that infections could build up

3:45

pressure inside the tooth, inside the and

3:47

decay could even produce produce either

3:49

of which could cause the tooth

3:52

to break open. open. But would

3:54

be much too dramatic of a

3:56

word to use for things like this.

3:59

this. Considering the

4:01

the limited number of accounts, and that

4:03

they were all verbal stories of

4:05

events without reliable witnesses, probably

4:07

the majority of the

4:09

exploding of phenomenon comes from

4:11

writer's embellishments. There certainly

4:13

are plausible causes for teeth

4:15

breaking from internal pressures. breaking And

4:18

that's probably the seed that

4:20

inspired the 1861 article. inspired the

4:22

1861 article. This next next one

4:24

is not from a student, but it's about

4:26

students, so that's okay, too. okay, too.

4:28

Hi Brian, this is Jim

4:30

Vest from Maysville, Kentucky. I'm I'm calling

4:33

in today because recently,

4:35

my wife and I received a letter

4:37

from our son's that was that was

4:40

requesting we limit the amount of was

4:42

dye that was in the food products,

4:44

we give them as snacks. me look into

4:46

that made me look into this

4:48

a little bit and I was able

4:50

to find that there is apparently some

4:53

evidence that shows

4:56

a link between ADHD

4:58

symptoms and red dye. I I

5:00

wanted to know what your take on

5:02

this was. was. The

5:04

idea that red

5:06

food coloring, specifically allura

5:08

red AC FDNC red 40, causes

5:10

behavioral problems in behavioral problems a

5:13

children, remains a very tenuous and

5:15

speculative one. red In Europe, the

5:17

in a is banned in a

5:19

number of countries. isn't But this

5:21

isn't because there's any proof.

5:23

It's because European regulations often

5:26

tend more toward precaution. precaution. Thus, they

5:28

they ban certain products like pesticides

5:30

and biotech that are widely used

5:32

throughout the rest the world with

5:34

no observable consequences. The

5:37

fear comes from studies that weren't really

5:39

applicable, like one that exposed mice

5:41

to huge amounts of the dye for

5:43

their entire lives, far more than

5:45

a person would ever get, would and

5:47

concluded that they were more likely to

5:49

get to get colitis. far as

5:52

the the in children goes, it's

5:54

been studied many times with only

5:56

inconclusive reports. The FDA

5:58

held a hearing in 2011 to to all

6:00

the evidence. and in the

6:02

end found insufficient reason to either ban

6:04

its use to require a warning label. or require

6:06

a I wouldn't worry about it. So I

6:09

wouldn't worry about it. my name

6:11

is Matthew and my question

6:13

is whether blood is is actually red

6:15

or blue depending on exposure

6:17

to oxygen. Yes

6:20

and no, the color of the blood does

6:22

change significantly as it travels through the

6:24

body through the its oxygen. When

6:26

it leaves the lungs via arteries,

6:28

it is bright it is bright hemoglobin is

6:30

bound to lots of oxygen. lots of When

6:33

it gets back to the lungs back to the lungs

6:35

via is much darker much darker but it's

6:37

never actually purple or blue. or blue.

6:40

That's not to say that it doesn't look

6:42

blue. look When you see veins through the

6:44

skin, skin, they often appear bluish on many

6:46

people. That's the the the blood.

6:48

not the blood. arteries The reason arteries

6:50

don't appear blue is that they're usually

6:52

deeper and not right there under the skin

6:55

like veins. In In addition to the fact the

6:57

lighter blood color blends in more with

6:59

the other tissues. tissues. Hey

7:04

there, Skeptoy Listeners! A huge shout out

7:06

to everyone who donated this this giving

7:08

Thanks to you, you, already halfway to

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our December fundraising goal. goal. the

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your support. Let's keep this

7:43

momentum going. today

7:45

and help us cross the

7:48

finish line. Thank you for

7:50

your support. Let's keep I've got

7:52

a student question for you. Lately

7:55

been looking into

7:57

the into the of of brain

7:59

finger and how it has

8:01

been used in American

8:04

and Indian and Indian courts. Apparently the science

8:06

find behind it has been

8:08

not very well peer reviewed.

8:10

Could you please look into

8:12

it it tell me what

8:15

you think. Thank you.

8:18

This actually really interesting.

8:20

interesting. Brain is a

8:22

fancy name for a neurological response

8:24

to certain stimuli. certain The effect

8:27

has been known since 1965. known

8:29

since 1965. What What happens is that when

8:31

you are shown are shown something, Your EEG

8:33

can actually show certain types of

8:35

neurological responses. There's

8:37

a specific a pattern

8:39

named pattern named P300 that appears

8:41

when you see something that's

8:44

especially relevant in the current

8:46

context. context. So what what they're trying to

8:48

do in the courts courts evidence that

8:50

the suspect, and I'm just I'm up an

8:52

example. up an had the had the P300 when

8:54

he was shown a picture of the murder

8:56

weapon, the and did not have the response

8:58

to pictures of unrelated weapons. So

9:00

it's an attempt to scientifically

9:03

prove that a person knows something

9:05

or doesn't know it. or Very

9:07

Very Star Trek-like. The problem is

9:09

that nearly all all articles on

9:11

the topic are written by topic

9:13

man, Larry man, Larry who

9:15

owns who owns Farwell brain and sells

9:17

the service. sells And nearly

9:19

all of his citations are

9:21

of his own work. are of

9:23

He claims a He claims a success

9:25

rate, rate, 0% 0 % failure

9:27

rate, a and offers a $100

9:29

,000 prize to anyone who

9:32

can develop countermeasures to his

9:34

technique. The

9:36

scant few academic papers I

9:38

could find I by other researchers by

9:40

other came to the opposite

9:42

conclusion opposite The approach is not

9:44

a robust and accurate crime detection

9:46

tool and is not supported by enough

9:48

data to warrant is use in court.

9:51

by enough data to We

9:53

now have a special guest

9:55

question from now have a special guest question

9:57

from Dracula need to

9:59

know. An answer to a question. When

10:02

heads are chopped are chopped

10:04

off conscious they remain

10:06

conscious for a few minutes? very much.

10:08

you very much The

10:11

eternal question, the consensus is no.

10:13

eternal question way to The consensus

10:15

is with zero no way to remain

10:17

conscious with zero blood pressure in

10:19

your brain. the Once the head's

10:21

chopped off, the blood squirts right

10:23

out. and with zero oxygenated

10:25

blood reaching your brain. you you

10:27

lose consciousness immediately. We've

10:31

all heard the old anecdotes about

10:33

people doing quasi doing experiments on

10:35

people scheduled for execution, mainly

10:37

in France during the guillotine era,

10:40

telling the person to blink their eyes

10:42

for as long as they can or

10:44

signal by moving their eyes or mouth. or

10:46

signal These accounts have to be dismissed

10:48

as proof of consciousness, though. of If

10:50

such movements did occur, they

10:53

were likely reflexive or or

10:55

actions and are not proof

10:57

of awareness. awareness. And what

10:59

about all the cases where no

11:01

expected reaction was seen? was There could

11:03

have been could times as many. times We

11:05

don't know those didn't go into

11:07

the history books. history books. Hi, Brian. My

11:09

name is Jeff, and my name is

11:11

Jeff, is and my question is

11:13

about the hypothesis. This posits that Stone Age

11:15

posits that Europe peoples from Europe

11:18

traveled to North America during the

11:20

last Ice Age. The hypothesis

11:22

seems to be based entirely on

11:24

similarities between Flint Tools. found on

11:26

the east coast of North America those

11:28

found in Spain Spain France. Strangely,

11:30

proponents of this hypothesis never seem

11:32

to consider an to migration, eastern

11:34

that is from North America into

11:37

Europe. into Europe. I would any thoughts you

11:39

have on this. Thank you. you. Did

11:41

humans first cross into the Americas from

11:43

the east or from the or from the

11:46

West? The has long been

11:48

from the the West via the the

11:50

land bridge from Siberia during

11:52

the last period. The The

11:54

evidence for the hypothesis is, is,

11:56

as you perceived perceived

11:58

similarities between them clovis,

12:00

lithic technology and

12:02

European Solutrion lithic

12:05

technology, a perception

12:07

that very few anthropologists find

12:09

very persuasive. The The

12:11

evidence against it is at at least

12:13

two very solid lines of evidence. First

12:17

is the the genetic evidence. We

12:19

went into this in detail

12:21

a few episodes ago in

12:23

few episodes ago in episode number 959 the the

12:26

Black Olmec conjecture. In short, comparative

12:28

genomics lets us match up

12:30

the DNA in ancient grave

12:32

sites trace their migration routes

12:34

back in time, in and

12:36

all indigenous Americans trace

12:38

back to Siberian populations. None

12:40

at all has ever come from

12:42

a European population. Second

12:46

is that it was physically impossible

12:48

for all practical purposes. to

12:50

cross the sea ice of the North Atlantic. of the

12:52

North Atlantic. The was dry,

12:54

with plentiful vegetation and game,

12:57

and also relatively short. also The

12:59

Atlantic route, however, was thousands

13:01

of was of thick sea

13:03

ice, devoid of any food

13:05

sources or shelter. or shelter. Some

13:08

they could have gone by gone by

13:10

boat. but boating technology of the

13:12

time was limited to to canoes,

13:14

incapable of either sustaining passengers

13:17

for many months. or of seaworthiness

13:19

in in the North Atlantic seas. The Bering

13:21

Land Bridge, however, however, provided a

13:23

safe and easy way for

13:25

thousands of individuals to to take

13:27

their time time by grading. Hi,

13:30

my name name is Felix. I'd like I'd like

13:32

to know if there's any truth to

13:35

rocks Romania that supposedly move and grow and

13:37

reproduce. even This does not sound possible

13:39

to me. Thank you, to me. is my

13:41

favorite podcast. is my favorite podcast. is

13:43

is of true but also really

13:45

misleading. The rocks you're rocks you're talking

13:47

about are found in only a a few places in

13:49

the world, the and the best known of these is

13:51

in a park in Romania. in Romania. called

13:53

called or trowons. And

13:55

there are there whole bunch of

13:57

these globular looking boulders. anywhere

14:00

from a few centimeters to several

14:02

meters in size. meters in size. Do they

14:04

actually grow? Yes, they do, but they

14:06

do. same way but in the same

14:08

way and at the same speed as

14:10

cave formations. spend a So you could

14:12

spend a lifetime watching them and never

14:14

see any perceptible growth or movement. They

14:18

are great balls of calcium carbonate,

14:20

and when mineral laden rainwater lands

14:22

on them A tiny bit

14:24

is deposited on the stone,

14:26

gradually forming layers, forming thus and do

14:28

grow do grow, the same way

14:31

as cave formations. It's

14:33

estimated they may grow a few grow

14:35

every thousand years. years. Sometimes

14:37

ones will form on the

14:39

surface of bigger ones and then

14:41

break off off. that's how they

14:43

they quote reproduce. If that If that happens, in a

14:45

shift in its of of gravity might cause it

14:47

to roll a bit. And And if

14:50

they ever do move, that's probably how. how. It's

14:52

also been It's also been suggested

14:54

that changes in humidity in

14:56

the sand they're resting on may

14:58

cause them to occasionally shift. shift.

15:00

And while plausible, I couldn't couldn't find any

15:02

record that this had ever been

15:04

reliably observed. observed. So

15:06

they're They're very cool and really

15:08

neat to look at, but But anything

15:10

else you might hear is

15:12

probably exaggerated. exaggerated. And so we conclude

15:15

so we conclude another student questions

15:17

episode. a If you're a student

15:19

anywhere, and you heard something

15:21

dubious online or anywhere else, send

15:23

me a student question. It's

15:26

easy to do. Just come to

15:28

Just.com slash questions and follow

15:30

the easy instructions. Let's

15:32

see if if can compete

15:34

with with Tik Talk. We

15:37

continue with more about the

15:39

question of heads getting chopped off

15:41

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