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Author Topic: Episode # 200  (Read 2494 times)

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jerryo

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #75 on: June 01, 2009, 01:55:49 PM »
Congrats on 200 guys and glad you included Perry.

Was mildly disappointed you didn't discuss the awesome Hubble repair mission......


Quote from: Steven Novella on May 23, 2009, 03:06:14 PM
News Items: SGU 200th Episode, Missing Link Ida, GPS Failure, Stem Cell Quackery in China
Your Questions and E-mails: Candiru, If I Had a Million Dollars
Science or Fiction
Who's That Noisy
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Zytheran

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #76 on: June 21, 2009, 06:52:19 PM »
Congrats on your 200th episode.

One small point with this episode and the article about stem cells and the mother who spent a fortune and thinks her daughter can now see better. Steve mentioned this as an example of the 'confirmation bias' however it's actually an example of the 'sunken cost bias'.

An example of confirmation bias in this example would be if the Chinese scientists used one time it worked (ok, it hasn't) and ignored all the times it didn't work.
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HyenaBoy

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #77 on: March 04, 2010, 03:23:22 PM »
RE: Dating of clay fired ceramics

I'm going backwards through the podcasts and came upon this... It inspired me to email Dr Moira Wilson (who did the research) and ask her about the MicroBalance she's using as different types of balance have very different uncertainties of measurement and could affect her calculations significantly .. (also repeatability has a lot of bearing .. and coefficients of thermal expansion). And also - they must be using very small samples of the ceramic in question. I worked for a Weights and Measures laboratory and the Mass Comparator we had could identify a difference in mass of one millionth of a gram but it's maximum capacity was a sample of 1 gram... Now that was 10 years ago and technology may have moved on a way - but it didn't in the 7 years I worked there! Anyhow - I'll see if she replies to me... and laughs at me!!!

Thanks guys for getting me excited about something so tedious sounding and pedantic!
« Last Edit: March 04, 2010, 03:52:57 PM by HyenaBoy »
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HyenaBoy

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #78 on: March 11, 2010, 03:30:40 PM »
She replied! I need to digest her reply, and paper, throughtly but she does say that she assumes NO ERROR IN MEASUREMENT as the scale weighs to 1/10th of a million of a gram. I believe that that assumption is wrong. All measuring instruments have an uncertainty of measurement. I'm trying to get hold of tech specs on the machine she uses but the manufacturers site is very tight lipped about it...
« Last Edit: March 15, 2010, 08:36:17 AM by HyenaBoy »
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HyenaBoy

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #79 on: March 15, 2010, 08:39:13 AM »
Well - looking at quoted uncertainties on a mass comparator (Mettler) which reports to the same resolution the quoted uncertainty is at around +/- 3.5 microgrammes at the scales maximum load (of 10g). Now I have to try and work out the math in the paper to see what effect in terms of "years" the worst case of 7 microgrammes could make.
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skidoo

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #80 on: March 15, 2010, 09:37:25 AM »
This is the most awesomest discussion forum on the Intertubes, hands-down.
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HyenaBoy

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Re: Episode # 200
« Reply #81 on: March 15, 2010, 03:35:57 PM »
Quote from: skidoo on March 15, 2010, 09:37:25 AM
This is the most awesomest discussion forum on the Intertubes, hands-down.

?
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