The Skeptics Guide #1107 - Sep 26 2026
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What is the opening introduction and who are the hosts of this episode?
Ha ha ha. You're listening to The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. Your escape to reality.
Hello and welcome to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe. Today is Thursday, September 24th, 2026, and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Kara Santa Maria,
Howdy,
and Jay Novella. Hey guys. We have a short crew this week. Yeah, that came on
quick. I was like,
uh. We do have an interview coming up later in the show. W that should be very interesting about what to do with all this stuff we have in orbit. Uh but in the meantime, yeah, it's just gonna be the three of us. Bob is away, he's on vacation this week. I do occasionally let you guys take vacations. Hop is in Disneyland.
Oh yeah, I forgot. He's right around the corner and I'm on a plane today, so I don't need to see him while he's here.
You're swapping coasts. Where are you headed?
Oh no, I'm just headed north. Um, I'm going up to Oregon.
I see. So it's funny. So Bob left Monday uh Tuesday. Bob left two days ago, uh, to go on vacation. But before that, Carol, I don't think you heard about this. There was a bit of a saga with his cat. It's actually li his wife's Liz's cat.
Okay.
So Bob was working in the garage, left the door open, and the cat got out. Uh-huh. This is an indoor cat that has never experienced the outside world. And, you know, we live as Carol likes to say, we live in the woods. We you know, in a in a in a suburban area. The cat was uh so we all went over to help them look for it, look for the cat. You know, when y when indoor animals are lost outside, they panic and go to ground generally. They often do not respond to being called. Often.
Well and cats don't respond to being called anyway.
Yeah, it's true.
Yeah.
They're because they're they've gone to ground and they're hiding, they won't just like go in the house. You know what I mean? They they they basically are panicked. So we looked for this cat, could not find it anywhere. And guess how long the cat was missing for? Until now? Eleven days.
Whoa.
And we were getting more and more confident that the cat was probably dead because Coyote food. Yeah. As time was going by. And and well, we have coyotes and bobcats in the area. Bob actually saw a bobcat in the in the neighborhood in the intervening time. So we were getting very concerned.
Mm-hmm.
And Bob and Liz were going on vacation on Tuesday, right? Now so we're all like, Oh, what the hell are we gonna do when they leave? Are they are they gonna expect us to keep up the hunt for their kids?
Right.
And
we were gonna do it, you know.
But then what happened was like two days before they were scheduled to leave, they sighted the cat. And it was they saw it on their porch, and when they opened the door it ran away. Okay. Which again is like this makes no sense, but that's what the cat's doing. Zombie cat. So now it's like, okay, we can't even say, well, okay, it's probably dead, so we don't have to do anything. So now we know the cat is alive and local. So we're pretty much obligated to continue to try to hunt it down. And they had a um a trap, 'cause that's the best way to get them actually. Yeah, a humane
trap with food in it.
Yeah, they put a trap with food in it. They tr they managed to trap a raccoon and a possum. Oh did not but and they have they had a camera on the trap. And so they their cat was going into the trap for food but would never setting it off.
Yeah, 'cause they're they're so like just too gentle and yeah, smart. Yeah.
So they said, All right, so they ricked it up as we say, wily coyote style. They attached a a string to it and and put the string through the window so and then they had a motion detector on the camera so it would alert their phone when something moved in the in the the view of the camera and then they would manually shut the cage on the cat. And that failed because Liz forgot that she had a do not disturb period of time on her phone. And the cat was in the trap three times and she slept through the whole thing. So me now it's like the day before they're supposed to leave. And with the cat is actively coming t to the house for food.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the opening introduction and who are the hosts of this episode?
0:01–15:17
2
What happened to Bob’s missing cat and how was it eventually rescued?
15:17–31:55
3
What is the etymology of the word “application” and why is it relevant today?
31:55–49:20
4
What is the current status of lab‑grown (cultivated) meat and its challenges?
49:20–1:07:14
5
Is the brain a composite organ and what recent research reveals about its development?
1:07:14–1:24:08
6
How are recent political moves affecting NIH funding and scientific independence?
1:24:08–1:42:32
7
How do KMI’s space‑towing “Lylapse” spacecraft work and what problems do they solve?
1:42:32–1:56:14
8
Which of the three science‑or‑fiction items is real and which is fake?
1:56:14–1:59:30