Dr. Steven Novella

speaker

11,445 appearances 18 recordings 2 series first heard Mar 2026 last heard 3d ago

Dr. Steven Novella’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 18 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 5.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe · The Skeptics Guide #1063 - Nov 22 2025 podcast

So what do you think this would be useful for? voice-verified

They didn't mention that as a potential one. voice-verified

Okay. voice-verified

Big thing would be food preservation because it basically prevents anything from oxidizing if you can keep oxygen from getting access to it. voice-verified

So this would be very useful because it also could be a very, very thin coating. voice-verified

So you could put it on – wrap food in it, for example. voice-verified

Also would be useful for – so the reason why I was interested in hydrogen because hydrogen is notoriously hard to contain. voice-verified

Well, yeah. voice-verified

You could line a tank with this film and that would keep the hydrogen from leaking out. voice-verified

So any time when you need to – you need a sealant, it would be useful as a sealant. voice-verified

Okay, that means that South Korean researchers have developed a process for increasing bacterial cellulose production for textiles by over tenfold, approaching cost parity with natural fibers, is the fiction, because the innovation has nothing to do with production, and this is still hella expensive and nowhere near the cost of natural fibers. voice-verified

But what they did was they figured out how to combine two different bacteria in the same vat, voice-verified

One makes the cellulose and the other makes the dye. voice-verified

So they had to get the timing right and everything. voice-verified

So essentially you could do both things at the same time and then you get these vibrant colored cellulose fibers that – voice-verified

to make the textiles out of. voice-verified

And they tested them to show that they would hold on to their color even with the usual test with bleaching or washing or whatever. voice-verified

So it seems like a good method for making textiles of these different colors dyed in the wool, as they say, but in this case, dyed in the cellulose. voice-verified

But it's still super expensive. voice-verified

Well, you can, but cellulose is in—cellulose, I think, is the most—yeah, cellulose is in cotton, so it's just artificial. voice-verified

Showing 761–780 of 11,445 · page 39 of 573