Dr. Steven (Steve) Novella

speaker

1,490 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 27 Jun

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

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

Appearances

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The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe · The Skeptics Guide #872 - Mar 26 2022 podcast

You should keep your, you know, it's like a name that logical fallacy kind of thing. voice-verified

It's very, very common to say what like the study is not showing when it's not relevant to what the study was looking at. voice-verified

Or like saying, well, random mutation can't, this is a very common creationist sort of talking point, like natural selection can't create increased information and mutations are unguided. voice-verified

So therefore, evolution can't happen. voice-verified

It's like, well, yeah, but it's the natural selection that's guiding it and the mutations that are causing the increase in variation. voice-verified

No, it's exactly like saying, well, an engine can't steer the car and the steering wheel can't propel the car, so cars don't work. voice-verified

That's exactly what that is doing. voice-verified

Screw that. voice-verified

Anyway, what they found was, here's a quote now from the article, the RNA diversifies into multiple coexisting host and parasite lineages whose frequencies in the population initially fluctuate and gradually stabilize. voice-verified

The final population comprising five RNA lineages forms a replicator network with diverse interactions, including cooperation to help the replication of all other members. voice-verified

Nice. voice-verified

And that just spontaneously happens? voice-verified

That is very interesting. voice-verified

Yeah. voice-verified

So, again, is this proof that this is how life evolved? voice-verified

Of course not. voice-verified

It's looking at one tiny slice of a very complicated multi-step process. voice-verified

But it shows that multiple RNA lineages can coexist, that they can form a network where they're sort of working off of each other, cooperating in a way. voice-verified

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