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This is Space Time series 26 episode 148 for broadcast on the
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11th of December 2023. Coming up on SpaceTime, a possible new
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explanation for the Hubble tension that little Moon
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discovered by the Lucy Mission orbiting the asteroid Dinkins
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finally gets the name and SpaceX 's Starship second flight
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explodes in mid air, all that and more coming up on Space
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Time.
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Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary.
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Ever since the creation of the Big Bang 13.82 billion years
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ago, the universe has been expanding. However, that rate of
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expansion has been an ongoing area of debate with different
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measurement techniques, giving contradictory values and
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different results by knowing how fast the universe is expanding.
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Scientists not only have a better picture of what the
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universe is doing but also where it's going and what our ultimate
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fate will be. At first. The discrepancy in the rate of the
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cosmic expansion known as the Hubble Lamare constant was put
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down to simply a lack of accuracy in the actual
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measurements.
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And it was assumed that as scientists received more and
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more accurate observational data, the differences would
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gradually disappear however, that's not what's happened.
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Instead, the discrepancy known as Hubble tension has actually
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gotten bigger.
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Now, a new study reported in the monthly notices of the Royal
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Astronomical Society is proposing a new solution to the
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problem using an alternative theory of gravity called Mond
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modified Newtonian dynamics.
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Cosmologists have found that this discrepancy in the measured
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values of the Hubble constant can easily be explained and the
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Hubble tension disappears. Ok. So what are we actually dealing
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with here? Well, the expansion of the universe causes the
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Galaxies to move away from each other. And the speed at which
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they move is proportional to the distance between them.
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In other words, the further away from us a galaxy seems to be the
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faster it's moving. For instance, if one galaxy is twice
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as far away from the earth as another galaxy, its distance
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from us also grows twice as fast.
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It was us astronomer Edwin Hubble who first recognized this
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connection in order to calculate just how fast the Galaxies are
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moving away from each other, it 's therefore necessary to know
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how far apart they are. However, to do this, you need a constant
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by which the distance can be multiplied.
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And this is what we call the Hubble La Mare constant. A
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fundamental parameter of cosmology. Its value can be
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determined, for example, by looking at the very distant
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regions of the universe. And this gives us a speed of almost
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244 kilometers per hour per mega parse with one mega par se
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being a little bit more than 3 million light years.
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Now, one way of measuring cosmic distances involves looking for
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specific kinds of exploding stars known as type one, a
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supernovae. These are really great cosmic distance markers.
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Because when these stars explode, they all explode at
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about the same mass.
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And consequently, they explode with about the same amount of
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luminosity. And because astronomers know how bright they
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are, they can determine how far away they are by their apparent
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brightness. Using a formula called the inverse square law.
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It's a little bit like looking at a row of identical street
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lights along a road, the nearest one will be the brightest, but
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they'll look progressively fainter the further away they
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are in the same way, these type one a supernovae act like
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standard candles providing a sort of cosmic distance ladder.
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Say you look at a galaxy and if you're lucky, you'll see a type
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one, a supernova explode in that galaxy. And then you can work
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out just how far away it is. Another way of measuring cosmic
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distances across the universe is to look at the cosmic microwave
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background radiation.
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The leftover heat from the Big Bang, which provides a snapshot
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of the early universe is 300 years after creation and which
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is now cooled to just three degrees above absolute zero.
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Here, astronomers examine the spectral signatures of different
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elements observed in the light of the electromagnetic spectrum,
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see each element and molecule has its own unique spectral
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signature. A sort of celestial fingerprint and laboratory tests
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here on earth. Let scientists know exactly where on the
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spectrum that signature usually sits.
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However, as celestial bodies move through space, their
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selector signatures shift to different positions on the
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spectrum depending how fast they're moving and therefore how
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far away they are. This Doppler shift effect is exactly the same
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as what you get.
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When an ambulance speeds past with its siren on, you'll notice
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the pitch changes as it comes towards you passes you and then
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moves off into the distance that happens because the approaching
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sound waves coming towards you are being compressed, that
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heightens the pitch we call this blue shifting and the sound
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waves you're hearing as the ambulance moves away from you
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are stretched to a lower pitch and that's called red shifting.
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And it's the same thing with spectral readings. Astronomers
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know where the elemental lines for hydrogen are on the
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spectrum.
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But if these lines are shifted towards the red or blue, then
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the object you're seeing from your viewpoint is moving away or
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towards you. And the faster it moves, the stronger the change.
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Consequently, the further away the object is the trouble is
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these two methods.
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One using the cosmic microwave background, the other using type
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one, a supernovae don't match up. In fact, the value for the
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Hubble constant is around 10% less for the cosmic microwave
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background signatures compared to the type one A s in of a
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standard candle. This report from NASA TV.
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When Hubble was launched, one of its main objectives was to
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measure the Hubble constant expansion rate of the universe.
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He was standing by for a go for release in late OK.
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Charlie flight PDRS. Ok. The telescopes released. Ok. Thank
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you.
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Beginning in the mid two thousands, around 2005. I
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started a project to use what are sort of the gold standard
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tools in astronomy for measuring distances which is to use
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pulsating stars called seid variables and exploding stars
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called type one a supernova.
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And of course, the Hubble space telescope itself and to try to
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make more precise measurements than had ever been made as a
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check on the universe, new observations from the early
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history of the universe, what's called the cosmic microwave
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background. We're beginning to make very precise predictions of
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how fast the universe ought to be expanding today.
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And so we wanted to follow up on that by making comparably
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precise measurements. First, it was the W map cosmic microwave
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background satellite that NASA flew in the early two thousands.
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And then that gave way to plank, the European Space Agency
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Satellite is even more precise.
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So by measuring the cosmic micro background and then using a
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model that we call the standard model of cosmology to then
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extrapolate that to the present time they determined, ultimately
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that the universe ought to be expanding at in funny units that
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we use 67.4 plus or minus 0.5 kilometers per second per mega
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par se, which roughly means the universe will double in about 10
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billion years using the Hubble space telescope.
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And some of these tools, the CED variables and the type one a
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supernovae, we determined the local expansion rate to be about
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73.0 plus or minus 1.0 kilometer per second per mega par, which
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is the most precise local or present measurement of the
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expansion rate.
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But it differs from the expected value expected that is by the
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state of the universe shortly after the Big Bang coupled with
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our understanding of the universe, this cosmological
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model.
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And in fact, those two now sit apart from each other by about
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five times their mutual error bar, which is a phenomenon we
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call now the Hubble tension to give you an analogy would be
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like if you had a small child and you measured their height
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when they were two years old, that would be like the cosmic
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microwave background measurement.
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And then you used a model of how children grow to predict how
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tall they ought to end up at adulthood. And that would give
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you a height and then you would actually measure when they grew
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up how tall they were. And so that's the comparison we're
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making the present state of the measurement versus what is a
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very precise measurement in a younger universe.
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And then a model like the growth curve of a child to predict how
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tall they will be. Except unlike a child, we've seen many
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children grow. We have a very good understanding of that
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growth curve, but we've only ever seen one universe and it's
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full of stuff whose nature we don't deeply understand.
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And so it's not crazy to think that we might be missing
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something in that understanding in order to predict and really
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extrapolate the state of the universe. From the beginning to
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the present day, we have to understand components of the
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universe, particularly two components whose nature is not
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well understood but make up 96% of the universe.
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And that's dark matter and dark energy, dark energy makes up
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about 70%. And dark matter probably makes up about 25 to
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27%. And we don't really understand at a detailed level
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what these are exactly. We don't understand their micro physics.
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So in order to make these predictions, we assume that they
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are their most vanilla or plainest possible forms, we see
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this tension then. And so one possibility, not, the only
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possibility is that they are more complicated that there's a
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more complex story or some other aspect even that we've been
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missing about the universe.
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The Hubble space telescope has more or less been working on
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measuring the Hubble concept for its entire lifetime about 30
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years. So the original goal when it was launched was to measure
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it to 10% uncertainty. And I think that was successfully
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accomplished in the early two thousands.
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We're now on sort of what I would say is the second
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generation of measurements of the Hubble concept that are
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targeting closer to percent level precision. And I think
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Hubble, especially with its new instruments has absolutely come
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through with the capabilities needed Hubble really has
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delivered the quality and caliber of data that's necessary
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to make these measurements.
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And in that report from NASA TV, we heard from Professor Adam
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Rees, a physics Nobel laureate with John Hopkins University.
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Scientists have recently come up with a hypothesis that could
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explain this tension. See the large scale cosmic structure of
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the universe shows that it's built like a giant web with
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filaments and nodes of Galaxies, galaxy clusters and super
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clusters.
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And these surround vast empty voids over the last few years.
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There's been some evidence suggesting that the milky way
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galaxy could be near one of these voids. One of the study's
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authors, Pavel Kruer from the University Of Bonn says the new
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idea is that our galaxy is located in a region of space
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where there's relatively little matter comparable to say an air
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bubble in a cake.
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The density of matter is much higher around the bubble than
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what it is inside the bubble. Gravitational forces emanate
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from the surrounding matter which then pulls any Galaxies in
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the bubble towards the edge of the cavity.
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That's why they're moving away from us faster than would
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actually be expected. So these deviations could therefore
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simply be explained by a local under density. Another research
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group recently measured the average speed of a large number
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of Galaxies that are some 600 million light years away from
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us.
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And they found that these Galaxies are actually moving
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away from us four times faster than what the standard model of
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cosmology allows. And that's because the standard model
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doesn't provide for such under densities or bubbles, they
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should not actually exist, instead matter should be evenly
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distributed through space. And we know from the large scale
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structure of the universe, that 's simply not the case.
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Our standard model of cosmology known as LAMBDA coal dark matter
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is based on a theory of the nature of gravity first put
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forward by Albert Einstein. However, Cooper says
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gravitational forces may be behaving differently on certain
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scales compared to what Einstein expected. So instead, Cooper and
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colleagues used a modified theory of gravity in their
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computer simulations.
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This modified theory known as Mond or modified Newtonian
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dynamics was first proposed four decades ago by Israeli physicist
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Mora Milgram Mon was originally proposed to explain anomalies
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set in the rotational speeds of Galaxies.
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Those anomalies eventually led to the suggestion of an
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invisible substance called dark matter GIS were spinning around
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faster than they should for the amount of matter, they contained
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something else was holding them together. And that led to the
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suggestion of some invisible substance called dark matter.
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Mon instead suggests that the anomalies put down to extra
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unseen mass or dark matter could just as easily be explained by
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Newton's law of gravity breaking down when the gravitational pull
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is very weak as is the case with the outer regions of Galaxies.
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Now, don't get me wrong. Mo is still considered an outsider
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theory today. But Rufus says that in his calculations, one
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does actually predict the existence of such bubbles.
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He says that if one were to assume that gravity actually
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behaves according to Milgram's assumptions, then the Hubble
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tension would disappear. There would then actually only be one
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constant for the expansion of the universe and the observed
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deviations would simply be due to irregularities in the
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distribution of matter.
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It's just the latest pebble in a growing mountain of evidence
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supporting Mo I guess any time will tell this Space Time still
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to come. A little Moon discovered by the Lucy Mission
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orbiting the asteroid Dinkins has finally got a name and
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SpaceX's Starship second flight explodes in mid air all that and
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more still to come on Space Time.
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The satellite discovered during the first asteroid encounter of
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NASA's Lucy Mission is now being given an official name Salam
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which means peace in the Ethiopian language, Marek.
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The tiny Moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid Dinkins
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during Lucy's flyby last month. Dinkin Esh is the Ethiopian name
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for the Australopithecus fossil named Lucy, after which the Lucy
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spacecrafts be named Australopithecus are considered
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to be an early branch of the Hamid family tree.
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The same tree that Homo sapiens belong to Mission scientist
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Raphael Marshall from the Blue Coast Observatory in nice, who
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originally identified Danesh as a potential target for the Lucy
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Mission says it seemed appropriate to name the
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satellite in honor of another fossil that was called Lucy's
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baby. The fossil Sam was discovered in the year 2000 in
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DKA Ethiopia.
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It belonged to a three year old girl of the same
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Australopithecus species as Lucy. Although in actual fact,
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the baby lived some 100 years before Lucy as the Lucy
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spacecraft was flying towards Danesh observations leading up
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to the encounter hinted that there was something interesting
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going on in this system.
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And as Lucy sped past Mission managers discovered that not
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only did Dinkins have a satellite, but that satellite
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was a contact binary. The first contact binary satellite ever
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observed. The Dinkins encounter was added in January as an in
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flight test of the spacecraft systems and instruments and all
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systems performed well.
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The tools and techniques that were refined with the data from
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the encounter will help Mission managers prepare the Mission's
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main targets. The never before explored Jovian Trojan
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asteroids. In addition to the images taken by Lucy's high
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resolution camera at its terminal tracking cameras. Lucy
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's other science instruments also collected data that will
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help scientists better understand these puzzling
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asteroids.
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The spacecraft successfully scanned the two asteroids from a
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variety of vantage points around closest approach, studying their
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surface and obtaining detailed spectra. Scientists were also
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able to detect and measure the temperature of the system for
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about nine minutes as the spacecraft flew by on its
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closest approach.
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Phil Christensen from Arizona State says different size
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particles such as sand pebbles and boulders all heat up
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differently as the asteroid rotates. And the temperature
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measurements will allow scientists to state of the size
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and physical properties of the materials on the asteroid
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surface.
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The data will help scientists better understand the
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composition of the asteroids allowing them to compare the
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make up of Dinkins and Sam and understand how these two bodies
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may be compositionally linked to other asteroids. Lucy is
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expected to visit nine more asteroids over the next decade
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in six separate encounters.
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After an earth gravity assist this time next year, the
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spacecraft will return to the main asteroid belt where it will
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encounter the asteroid Donald Johansson in April 2025 Lucy
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will pass through the main asteroid belt and reach the
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Mission's primary targets. The Jovian Trojan asteroids in 2027.
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This report from NASA TV on November.
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1st 2023 NASA'S Lucy Mission was scheduled to fly by an image its
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first main belt asteroid Dinkins.
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However, when the team downloaded the spacecraft
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imagery, it made an unexpected discovery asteroid Dinkins has a
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satellite making it a binary asteroid system. In the first
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image from the Lucy long range reconnaissance imager. The team
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observed the Moon rise of a satellite of its first asteroid
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Dinkins.
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This image was taken at 1255 eastern within a minute of
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closest approach from a range of approximately 200 70 miles from
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the asteroid Danes. In the Ethiopian language means you are
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marvelous and the asteroid truly did live up to its name Lucy
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observations in the weeks leading up to the encounter
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suggested that Dinkins might hold some surprises.
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Sure enough imagery from the terminal tracking camera T two
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cam on the Lucy spacecraft shows Din Andes's satellite as the
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team downloaded more images that had been taken before and after
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closest approach, they were in for another surprise that
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satellite was actually a contact binary.
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It was two objects stuck together. This small satellite
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has been named Salom which means peace. The team will continue to
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study the data from this first encounter as they prepare for
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their next rendezvous with the main belt asteroid Donald
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Johanson in 2025.
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This is Space Time still to come. SpaceX's Starship. Second
00:19:27
flight explodes in mid air. And later in the science report, the
00:19:31
World Meteorological Organization confirms that 2023
00:19:35
will be the hottest year since records began all that and more
00:19:39
still to come on Space Time.
00:19:57
SpaceX are describing the second test flight of its Starship
00:20:01
super heavy rocket as a success. Even though both stages suffered
00:20:05
catastrophic failures during the flight. The 121 m tall vehicle
00:20:10
is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, producing
00:20:14
some £16.7 million of thrust. That's more than double that of
00:20:18
the Saturn five Apollo Moon rockets.
00:20:21
The fully reusable Starship super heavy is designed as an
00:20:24
interplanetary colonial transport vehicle capable of
00:20:28
launching more than 100 tons of cargo and people on deep space
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missions to the Moon Mars and beyond and eventually allowing
00:20:35
humanity to establish colonies on other worlds.
00:20:39
The second test flight was launched from SpaceX's star base
00:20:42
at Boca Chica on the southern Texas Gulf Of Mexico coastline.
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The euphemistically described rapid unscheduled disassembly of
00:20:50
both the booster and the spacecraft stages occurred
00:20:53
shortly after completing a successful stage separation.
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SpaceX says lessons will be learnt from the flight which
00:21:00
will improve the next launch attempt. Starships first
00:21:03
integrated flight test back in April also ended in failure with
00:21:07
a spacecraft disintegrating about four minutes after launch
00:21:11
on that occasion, the super heavy booster core stage
00:21:14
suffered multiple engine failures during the ascent and
00:21:17
failed to jettison from the Starship upper stage.
00:21:20
It seems massive distraction to the base of the launch pad
00:21:23
during lift off may have flung debris onto several of the 33
00:21:27
core stage Raptor engines, damaging them and resulting
00:21:30
their malfunction during flight this time. All 33 booster
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engines kept firing for the full length of their flight cycle.
00:21:39
9187654321.
00:21:55
We are two plus 40 seconds into the flight. Start up 33 Raptor
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engines, power and telemetry nominal. We've heard power and
00:22:06
telemetry nominal cut out. We're heading down range over the Gulf
00:22:09
Of Mexico and that call out tells us Starship is through the
00:22:14
period of greater stress on the way to space.
00:22:17
Now, the next major event is hot staging in just over 90 seconds
00:22:21
from now to get ready. The booster will shut down all but
00:22:24
three of the Raptor engines holding the two stages together
00:22:28
will release and the Starships second stage will ignite its
00:22:31
engines. Starship will then separate from the super heavy
00:22:34
booster and head to space.
00:22:35
And at the same time, the three engines that are still firing on
00:22:38
super heavy will flip the booster the back burn. Putting
00:22:45
the first stage on path for a flash down in the Gulf Of Mexico
00:22:48
engine. Power continues to look. Nomen on 33 Raptor engines,
00:22:52
we're about to shut down the first stage and perform staging.
00:22:55
Main engine cut off or Miko up a stage engine and then hot stage
00:23:00
separation all proceeded seamlessly at an altitude of 148
00:23:04
kilometers.
00:23:05
Approximately two minutes and 49 seconds after liftoff just as
00:23:08
designed and acquisition of signal Houston and New Orleans
00:23:12
booster engine cut off stage separation should the first ever
00:23:20
successful for a space.
00:23:24
However, the co stage then suddenly exploded during the
00:23:27
flip back maneuver about three minutes and 20 seconds into the
00:23:30
flight. But by that stage, its primary job was already done
00:23:34
and.
00:23:35
The super heavy booster has just experienced a rapid unscheduled
00:23:39
disassembly. However, our ship is still underway with all six
00:23:46
and we just heard there ship avionics, power and teet
00:23:48
nominal, all six engines are lit.
00:23:49
Now, we did know that the the hot staging was going to be
00:23:55
incredibly dynamic. We knew that there was a chance that the
00:23:58
booster would not survive. But we're going to take that data
00:24:00
and figure out how we can make the booster better for the next
00:24:03
hot stage.
00:24:04
Yeah, that hot staging, put a lot of load on the top of the
00:24:07
booster and of course, it flipped around there. A lot of
00:24:10
dynamic stuff happening.
00:24:13
The ship is still going strong.
00:24:15
And it's doing great right now. The ship, the second stage is on
00:24:20
its way. The next major milestone for the ship will be
00:24:24
the shutdown of those engines or SECO second engine cut off,
00:24:28
which if you follow our Falcon Nine launches, familiar
00:24:31
terminology there. So far today has been incredibly successful
00:24:35
even with the r of the super heavy booster.
00:24:38
Primary objective of the booster today to get to hot staging, to
00:24:42
get ship on its way to orbit. It did that admirably.
00:24:45
Yeah, we definitely asked trajectory nominal. All right,
00:24:47
great news there. That trajectory trajectory for ship
00:24:50
is nominal. Once again, Starships, second stage firing
00:24:54
those engines.
00:24:55
And as you just heard, everything is looking good now
00:24:58
for the ship, we wanted it to survive hot staging, which is
00:25:01
did we also want to basically demonstrate that the successful
00:25:05
start up of that of those engines demonstrating controlled
00:25:09
ascent, which is what it's doing right now and eventually orbital
00:25:12
insertion.
00:25:13
Like all of that sounds great secondary objectives for ship
00:25:16
again continuing to gather engine data and about its health
00:25:20
performance.
00:25:21
Meanwhile, Starship six upper stage Raptor engines kept firing
00:25:25
as planned. But the flight came to an explosive sudden end just
00:25:29
as Starships engines were almost done firing to place the
00:25:32
spacecraft into a 240 kilometer high sub orbital flight path
00:25:36
that would have seen Starships splash down in the Pacific Ocean
00:25:39
near Hawaii 90 minutes later, chamber pressures.
00:25:43
Great news there that tells us that the chamber pressures
00:25:46
inside of the Starship. Basically the propellant
00:25:49
pressure in the ship are looking good. So they're at.
00:25:52
The pressures that we expect to try to get into our target
00:25:56
trajectory today. And we're not targeting orbit today. We're
00:26:00
targeting almost orbit today. That's very intentional as part
00:26:03
of the Mission design. The goal is to get to a thrust profile
00:26:08
similar to what we would need for orbit, but also to get to
00:26:12
the energy levels.
00:26:14
The Starship program has been closely monitored by NASA who've
00:26:17
contracted a version of Starship called the HLS to operate as a
00:26:21
reusable lunar lander for its manned Artemis Moon program to
00:26:24
return astronauts to the lunar surface. In 2025 cruise will
00:26:29
travel to lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft which is
00:26:32
launched by NASA'S SLS rocket.
00:26:34
They'll then transfer to the Starship HLS and journey down to
00:26:38
the lunar surface and back again. Once the lunar gateway
00:26:41
space station is built towards the end of the decade, it'll be
00:26:44
used as a jumping off point for missions to the lunar surface.
00:26:48
Starship will then shuttle between it and the Moon
00:26:51
transporting people and supplies.
00:26:53
SpaceX also plans to eventually use Starship to replace the
00:26:57
company's existing dragon spacecraft and its current
00:27:00
Falcon Nine and Falcon heavy launch vehicles. Other versions
00:27:04
of Starship will operate as satellite delivery systems,
00:27:07
orbital Refueler tankers, cargo transports and to provide point
00:27:11
to point flights around the earth, allowing people to reach
00:27:14
any destination on the planet in just 90 minutes.
00:27:17
Now, if they can only keep the thing flying, this is Space Time
00:27:37
and time now to take a brief look at some of the other
00:27:39
stories making news in science this week. With a science
00:27:42
report, scientists have confirmed that 2023 will be the
00:27:47
warmest year since records began.
00:27:50
The findings by the World Meteorological Organisation's
00:27:52
provisional state of the global climate report shows that data
00:27:56
up to October indicates 2023 has already been about 1.4 degrees
00:28:02
above pre industrial temperatures. So far, the report
00:28:05
shows carbon dioxide levels are now 50 per cent higher than at
00:28:09
pre industrial levels. And sea level rise for 2013 to 2022 is
00:28:14
more than twice the rate recorded for 1993 to the year
00:28:18
2002.
00:28:20
Meanwhile, the Australasian Fire authorities council is warning
00:28:24
that most of Queensland New South Wales and the southern
00:28:26
part of the northern territory will be at increased risk of
00:28:30
fire this summer along with some locations in Tasmania, Victoria,
00:28:34
South Australia and Western Australia.
00:28:36
The organization which is the National Council For Fire And
00:28:39
Emergency Services says vegetation growth fueled by la
00:28:43
nina driven heavy rainfalls in recent years is combining with
00:28:46
record breaking dry conditions and temperatures this spring to
00:28:49
create higher fuel loads even in areas that were heavily burnt
00:28:53
during the 2019, 2020 black summer fire season.
00:28:58
A new study has found that organ donations from older people may
00:29:02
be accelerating the aging process. In younger recipients,
00:29:06
aging cells can become Seni a condition in which they start
00:29:10
multiplying and secrete chemicals that negatively affect
00:29:13
neighboring cells, sentence cells accumulate in older donor
00:29:17
organs and have the potential to compromise transplant outcomes.
00:29:22
Now, a report in the American journal of transplantation has
00:29:25
found that transplanting older organs can trigger sentence in
00:29:29
younger recipients.
00:29:30
Scientists observed that young and middle aged recipients that
00:29:33
received heart transplants from older donors had impaired
00:29:36
physical capacity and reduced running times and grip strength
00:29:40
and middle aged recipients who received older hearts also
00:29:43
showed increased anxiety related behavior, impaired memory and
00:29:47
poorer learning performances.
00:29:49
The authors found that these accelerated aging effects in
00:29:52
younger recipients were driven by the release of sentences
00:29:55
associated factors and mitochondrial DNA from older
00:29:59
transplants.
00:30:01
A new study suggests that Australia's magic mushrooms
00:30:04
could help breed tomorrow's designer rooms. The findings
00:30:08
reported in the journal current biology claim Australia's magic
00:30:12
mushroom population contains greater genetic diversity than
00:30:15
the rest of the world's commercially available. Shrooms.
00:30:18
Scientists say this diversity could be harnessed to breed
00:30:21
designer mushrooms as a potential mental health
00:30:24
treatment. Scientists secret the genes of 38 types of magic
00:30:28
mushrooms from Australia and 86 commercially available types.
00:30:32
Finding that while the Aussie Rooms were genetically diverse,
00:30:35
the commercially available ones were sorely lacking in
00:30:37
diversity.
00:30:38
After decades of selective breeding, the researchers say
00:30:42
some of the Aussie genetic diversity relates to the genes
00:30:45
controlling the production of psilocin, the psychedelic
00:30:47
substance with potential as the mental health treatment. This
00:30:51
means they may be able to use the Aussie mushrooms to better
00:30:54
understand and control psilocin in newly cultivated types of
00:30:58
shrooms.
00:31:00
Well, it seems spiritual pseudoscience is everywhere on
00:31:03
the social media these days with an ever growing number of faith
00:31:06
healers promising all sorts of miraculous cures and it's not
00:31:10
just a case of a fool and his money. It may well be costing
00:31:13
lives. Tim Mendham from Australian skeptics warns people
00:31:17
believing in faith healers and wacky cures are stopping vital
00:31:20
cancer treatments in the vain hope of an easy cure. Yeah, this
00:31:24
is.
00:31:25
A weird story which I had to read through the entire thing
00:31:28
which is so long, it's more anecdotal, literally ran through
00:31:31
page after page after page. Faiths have been dealt with by
00:31:33
the skeptics. A number of times actually, over the years,
00:31:36
obviously, faiths have been around a long time. People who
00:31:38
come to you and say, Zapp, I put my hand on your head and your
00:31:41
illness is gone.
00:31:42
Whatever, the ones that pull bits of chicken guts out of you,
00:31:45
aren't they? Allegedly?
00:31:46
That's the psychic surgery.
00:31:49
Not really faith healing so much. That's, they've got a
00:31:51
physical thing that they pull out of you, but it's not you and
00:31:54
it's not a real thing. It's just to give you then it gets into
00:31:57
the area because it gives people the idea of being cured. And the
00:32:00
same thing happens with these faith healers who are religious
00:32:02
ceremonies, charismatic sort of things where people saying
00:32:05
hallelujah ring or even when they're non religious.
00:32:08
Well, it's very short placebo effect. People often think
00:32:13
they're cured and then a few days later, they're not. Now it
00:32:15
's one thing to feel good after the initial treatment. But then
00:32:19
if you're not cured, you not cure it. And therefore there
00:32:21
might be f but there's not a lot of healing involved.
00:32:23
And certainly there is a particular case, a particular
00:32:26
article that I was reading recently about a fellow who's a
00:32:28
former chiropractor who allows himself to be called a
00:32:31
neuroscientist by many of the alternative medicine platforms
00:32:34
that he appears on named Joe Dispenser, which is interesting,
00:32:38
but Joe Dispenza is a chiropractor former, but he
00:32:41
regards himself as a scientist and he likes to use all sorts of
00:32:44
scientific terms and sort of words like in one particular
00:32:48
thing he says, and this is a classic, classic sort of words
00:32:52
if you can combine a little quantum physics with a little
00:32:55
neuroscience, neuro, endocrinology and
00:32:59
psychoneuroimmunology, the mind body connection, epigenetics,
00:33:03
all of those sciences point to the finger at possibility.
00:33:06
Well, they don't, they form a lot of words, they don't
00:33:08
necessarily work word that it is a word and it doesn't mean
00:33:13
anything but it convinces people that this is not religion, this
00:33:16
is science, this is medical science and therefore it must be
00:33:19
working but it doesn't.
00:33:20
So what happens is that people believe it, they spend their
00:33:23
money on it, they give their faith to it, they stop other
00:33:26
medical treatments that they probably need, that might be
00:33:28
having some beneficial effect. And they turn to the faith and
00:33:31
you will find that most times the faith does not in the long
00:33:35
run. And you then wonder about the faith healers. Are they pure
00:33:38
shocks?
00:33:39
And classic case of James Randi, the art skeptic who recorded
00:33:44
radio transmissions between a faith healer and his wife, who
00:33:47
was at the back of the hall, who knew about a number of the
00:33:49
people in the audience and told him they were the radio
00:33:52
earpiece.
00:33:52
There is so and so in the hall, he has this particular disease
00:33:55
and he lives at so and so address and blah, blah, blah and
00:33:58
so the person of the faith, he says, I get this message from
00:34:00
God or wherever there is a bill blogs in the audience, you're
00:34:04
suffering from back pain and you live on 33 Labia Avenue,
00:34:07
whatever. Ok.
00:34:08
And the person who is stunned, the audience is stunned, how
00:34:10
would he know all this and he can cure him well, he knew it
00:34:13
because they were cheating and he didn't cure them and he was
00:34:17
found out and revealed by Randy and he lost his very lucrative
00:34:21
activities, but he's back as they always do and convincing
00:34:24
people that he can still cure them over again. And it's like
00:34:26
these things have an amazing ability to bounce back and.
00:34:30
Really thick skins. Let's face it. You've got to be a con
00:34:34
artist.
00:34:34
Yeah, they're so, I mean, you don't expect sort of morality
00:34:37
and ethics from a con artist. They're con artist, they don't
00:34:40
have it to start with. So you're not going to suddenly have a
00:34:42
road to Damascus conversion by some of them. But the trouble is
00:34:45
they're ripping people off in various ways, emotionally,
00:34:47
financially, health wise, whatever there is no cure
00:34:50
through faith healing, there's an apparent cure.
00:34:52
You might feel good for a while because you're convinced in the
00:34:54
excitement of the ceremony. But 10 times that attempt, you go
00:34:57
back and after a while, your illness reappears. Not that it
00:35:01
ever went away, but you are still aware of it.
00:35:03
And there's classic cases, sad cases of people who think
00:35:06
they're cured, give up their cancer treatment and die within
00:35:09
weeks or months of the evil of the whole thing, isn't it? That
00:35:13
is the, this is not a fun little thing, right? This is evil and
00:35:18
people taking advantage of people and killing them. This is
00:35:20
the serious end of the skeptical scale.
00:35:23
That's Tim Ham from Australian skeptics and that's the show for
00:35:42
now. SpaceTime is available every Monday, Wednesday and
00:35:46
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