Oct. 5, 2025

The Universe's Countdown: New Insights into Cosmic Fate and Fungal Origins

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of SpaceTime, we explore the future of our universe, the latest advancements in mapping our Milky Way, and the pivotal role fungi played in the evolution of life on land.
The Universe's Fate: A Big Crunch in 20 Billion Years
A groundbreaking study published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics reveals that the universe is approaching the midpoint of its 33 billion-year lifespan and may end in approximately 20 billion years. Lead author Henry Tighe from Cornell University presents new data suggesting that the universe's cosmological constant may be negative, leading to a contraction and eventual collapse—a phenomenon referred to as the "big crunch." This research, based on observations from the Dark Energy Survey and the dark energy spectroscopic instrument DESI, challenges long-held beliefs about the universe's eternal expansion and opens new avenues for understanding cosmic evolution.
Mapping the Milky Way: Gaia's 3D View
The European Space Agency's Gaia Space Telescope has unveiled the most precise three-dimensional map of star-forming regions within our Milky Way galaxy. By analysing data from 44 million stars, Gaia has provided insights into the obscured molecular clouds where new stars are born. This innovative mapping technique allows astronomers to understand the distribution of ionised gas and the dynamics of star formation, offering a fresh perspective on our galaxy's structure and the processes that shape it.
Fungi: The Pioneers of Terrestrial Life
A recent study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution has identified that fungi played a crucial role in preparing Earth for life on land between 900 million and 1.4 billion years ago—much earlier than previously thought. Researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology utilised a novel gene swap method to trace the evolution of fungi, suggesting that these organisms were instrumental in creating the first ecosystems and nutrient recycling processes that facilitated the emergence of terrestrial life. This discovery reframes our understanding of the timeline for life on Earth and highlights the importance of fungi in shaping our planet's biosphere.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia
Nature Ecology and Evolution
https://www.nature.com/newe
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The Universe's Fate: A Big Crunch in 20 Billion Years
Mapping the Milky Way: Gaia's 3D View
Fungi: The Pioneers of Terrestrial Life

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

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This is Spacetime Series twenty eight, episode one hundred and

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twenty for broadcast on the sixth of October twenty twenty five.

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Coming up on Space Time and You study warns the

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universe will end in twenty billion years from now and

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you three dimensional map of our Milky Way galaxy and

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how fung guys set the stage for life on land

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on planet Earth.

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All that and more Coming up on space Time.

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Welcome to Space Time with Stuart gary.

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Any study claims the universe is now approaching the midpoint

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of its thirty three billion year lifespan and will come

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to an end in around twenty billion years time. A

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report in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics says

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calculations based on new data from dark energy observatories suggests

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that after expanding to its peak size and about eleven

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billion years from now, our universe will begin to contract,

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eventually snapping back like a rubber band to form a

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singularity at the end of time. The study's lead author,

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Henry Tie from Cornell University, says he reached his conclusion

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after adding new data to a model involving Albert Einstein's

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famous cosmological constant, A factor introduced more than a century

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ago by Einstein and still used by cosmologists today to

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predict the future of the universe. Tie says that for

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the last twenty years, scientists to believe the cosmological consonant

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was positive and the universe would therefore expand forever. But

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he claims the new data seems to indicate that in fact,

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the cosmological constant is actually negative and the universe will

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end up in a big crunch. Right now, the universe

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is thirteen point eight billion years old, and it's still

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expanding now. According to current models based on dark energy.

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It's two simplest fates of that either continuous present expansion forever,

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that's if the cosmological constant is positive, or alternatively, if

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the cosmological constant is actually negative, it will reach a

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maximum size before contracting, eventually it collapsing back to zero.

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Tay says this big crunch defines the end of the universe,

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and he says that'll happen in around twenty billion years

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from now. The findings are based on observations by the

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Dark Energy Survey in Chile and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic

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Instrument DESI in Arizona, which are both in good accord

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with each other's data. The whole idea of the dark

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energy survey of these two groups is to see whether

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dark energy, which makes up roughly sixty eight percent of

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the mass energy budget of the universe, really comes from

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a pure cosmological constant. The authors found that the universe

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is not just dominated by a cosmological constant known as

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dark energy. Tying colleagues proposed, there's a hypothetical particle of

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very low mass that behave like a cosmological consper than

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early in the life of the universe.

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But doesn't anymore.

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And it's this simple model which fits the data so

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well and tips the underlying cosmological constant into negative territory,

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ty says. Scientists have said before that if the cosmological

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constant is negative, then the universe would eventually collapse. That's

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not new, However, here the model tells you when the

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universe collapses and how it collapses. Hundreds of astronomers are

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busy measuring dark energy by observing millions of galaxies across

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the cosmos and determining the distance between these galaxies, gathering

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more and more accurate data to feed into the model.

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DESI will continue observations for another year, and observations are

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ongoing or soon begin with several other dark energy observatories,

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including the Zvicki Transient Facility in San Diego, the European

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EUCLID Space Telescope, NASA's recently launched sphere X mission, and

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the Vericea group in Observatory TI says knowing both the

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beginning and the end of the universe provides a great

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or understanding of the cosmos. As to where the universe

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goes once it contracts down into a big crunch, Well,

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the answer is simple.

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The universe goes into the future. This is space time.

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Still to come, a new three dimensional map of our

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Milky Way Galaxy and how fun Guy set the stage

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for life on land on planet Earth.

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All that and more still to come on space time.

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The European Space Agency's Guyas Space Telescope has created the

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most accurate three dimensional map yet of star forming regions

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in our Milky Way Galaxy. This new map will teach

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astronomer's more about these obscure molecular gas and dust clouds

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and the hot young stars born within them and which

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ultimately shape them tooriously difficult to map and steady regions

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of space where stars form because they're usually hidden from

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view by thick clouds whose distances cannot be accurately directly measured.

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Now guy itself doesn't see these clouds, but it can

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measure stillar positions and the so called extinction of stars.

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This means it can see how much light from the

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star is being blocked by dust. From this, astronomers can

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create three dimensional maps showing where the dust is and

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use those maps to figure out how much ionized gas

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is present, a telltale sign of star formation. The new

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three dimensional map of star forming regions in the Milky

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Way is based on guyer observations of some forty four

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million ordinary stars and eighty seven spectroal typezer blue stars.

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The map extends out to a distance of some four

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thousand light years. Spectral type O blue stars are rare.

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They're young, massive, and extremely bright and hot, and they

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shine bright in ultraviolet light. These ultraviolet photons are so

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energetic they can quite literally strip electrons away from hydrogen

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atoms when hitting them. In this way, they ionize the

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hydrogen gas around hot stars mini becomes a mixture of

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charched particles. Astronomers call these ionized hydrogen clouds hydrogen two regions.

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The characteristic signal that can be picked up from these

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regions is the hydrogen alpha or H alpha spectral line

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at a wavelength of six hundred and fifty six point

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three nanometers. This is one way that astronomers can identify

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regions in space where stars are being born. Many telescopes

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have observed these regions, so astronomers have a good idea

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of what they look like, but no one really knew

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what they look like in three dimensions or from an

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outside perspective, and that's where Guy comes in. Geya has

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mapped the positions of velocities and motions across the sky

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of billions of celestial objects, including millions of stars. The

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result is the most accurate multi dimensional map of the

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Milky Way galaxy ever created, and it's giving astronomers the

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data to infer what the galaxy would look like from

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the perspective of someone outside the Milky Way. Guys sky

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maps in all three special coordinates plus three velocities that

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he's moving towards or away from the Earth and moving

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across the sky have revealed the precise merchants and positions

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of millions of nearby stars. With this the telescope's already

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revolutionized sciences view of the soular neighborhood, allowing astronomers to

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comprehensively map the stars and interstellar material near the Sun

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in a way that they were simply unable to do before.

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One of the studies authors, Lewis McCallum from the University

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of s Andrews, says, Guy is providing the first accurate

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view of what our section of the Milky Way galaxy

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really would look like from above. He says, there's simply

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never been a model of the distribution of ionized gas

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in the local Milky Way that matches other telescope's observations

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of the sky so well. That's why astronomers are so

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confident that guys top down view and fly through the

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galaxy are a good approximation of what these clouds would

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really look like in three dimensions. Lewis's new map included

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its three dimensional views of the Gum Nebula, the North

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American Nebula, the California Nebula, and the Orion Eridanus superbubble.

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This data will allow astronomers to learn more about how

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giant spectrotype O stars energize gas and how far out

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their influence can reach. Laws and colleagues already notice that

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some of the clouds in the star forming regions seem

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to have broken open, and streams of gas and dust

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are likely venting into a giant cavity. The map also

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shows how radiation from massive stars ionizes the surrounding interstellar medium,

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and how dust and gas interact with this radiation. The

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three D model provides a detailed look at the processes

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that shape our local galactic environment, and it helps astronomers

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better understand interactions between the warm and cold components of

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the local universe. In the future, this map, which requires

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huge computational power to develop, will expand even further, including

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an even larger area of our home galaxy.

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This report from east.

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What does the Milky Way look like from the outside.

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No spacecraft can travel beyond our galaxy, so we can't

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take a selfie. But during its lifetime, Gaya made three

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trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects, giving

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us the best insight yet of what our home galaxy

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looks like. We can identify the Milky Way's central bar

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and its spiral arms based on Gaya data. Going see

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the galaxy edge on and it can identify its pulg

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and disk. Gaya showed that our galaxy's disc is warped

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in wobbles, possibly caused by a collision with another smaller

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galaxy moving further out. Gaya also studied other galaxies around

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the Milky Way, such as the large and the small

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Midgellanic Clouds and forty other companions. Guya revealed our galaxy's

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turbulent history by tracking the movements of streams of stars.

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Gaya gives a unique view of our milchury, scanning our

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galaxy from the inside out, building a more detailed map

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than ever before, fundamentally changing what we thought we knew

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about our home galaxy, where our sun is embedded among

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billions of stars.

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This is space time still to come, how fungals set

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the stage for life on land on planet Earth. And

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Later in the science report, a new study says people

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whose parents have mental illnesses are more likely to die prematurely.

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All that and more still to come on space time.

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A new study examining life save evolution on planet Earth.

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It's found that fung guy set the stage for life

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on land somewhere between nine hundred million and one point

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four billion years ago, so that's hundreds of millions of

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years earlier than previously thought. The findings were reported in

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the journal Nature of collogen Evolution used a novel gene

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swamp method to shed new light on the timelines and

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pathways for the evolution of fungi. The discovery, but researchers

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from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, provides evidence

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for the evolution of fungi run terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore

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the emergence of life on land. It suggests these ecosystems

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recycled nutrients and possibly partnered with other organisms. Pinning down

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their timelines shows fungi with diversifying long before plants and

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consistent with early partnerships with algae that likely help pave

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the way for terrestrial ecosystems. Complex multicellular life, that is,

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organisms made from many cooperating cells with specialized jobs, evolved

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independently on Earth on at least five major occasions, animals, land, plants, fungi,

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red algae, and brown algae. Understanding when these groups emerged

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is fundamental to piecing together the history of life on Earth.

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See Complex multicelluar life wasn't simply a matter of cells

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clamping together. It was the dawn of organisms, where cells

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took on specialized jobs and were organized into distinct tissues

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and organs. For most of these groups, the fossil record

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acts as a geological calendar, providing anchor points in deep time.

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For example, red algae shows up as early as one

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point six billion years ago in candidate seaweed like fossils

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from India. Animals appeared around six hundred million years ago

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based on idiakron fossils such the quilted pancake like Dickensernia.

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The first land plants took roughly four.

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Hundred and seventy million years ago based on the discovery

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of tiny fossil spores and brown algae such as kelp.

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Diversified tens to hundreds of million years later. Still, and

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based on all this evidence, a chronological picture of life's

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complexity starts to emerge. But the notable exception to this

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fossil based timeline has always been fungi. The fungal kingdom

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has long been an enigma for paleontologists. They are typically soft,

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filamentalist bodies means they really fossilize well and Unlike animals

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or plants, which appear to have a single origin of

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complex multicellularity, it seems fungi evolved that's trait mudiple times

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from the verse unicellular ancestors, making it difficult to pinpoint

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a single origin event in the fossil record. To overcome

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the gaps in the fungal fossil record, scientists are relying

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on the steady rate at which genic mutations accumulate in

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an organism's DNA for generations. By comparing the number of

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genetic differences between two species, scientists can reach an estimate

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of how long ago they diverged from a common ancestor.

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The problem is this molecular clock still uncalibrated. It can

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reveal relative time, but not absolute years. To set the clock,

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scientists need to calibrate it with anchor points from the

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fossil record, and given the scarcity of fungal fossils, this

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has always been a major challenge. The new study addressed

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this incorporating rare gene swaps between different fungal lineages, a

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process known as horizontal gene transfer. While genes are normally

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passed down vertically from parent to child, horizontal gene transfer

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is like a gene jumping sideways from one species to another,

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and if a gene from LINEA J is found to

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have jumped into lineage B, it establishes a clear rule

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the ancestors of linea J must be older than the

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descendants of lineage B. By identifying seventeen such transfers, the

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authors established a series of older than younger than relationships

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at Alongside fossil records have helped to tighten and constrain

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the fungal timeline. The analysis suggests a common ancestor for

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living fungal dating to between roughly nine hundred million a

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one point four billion years ago. That's rule before land plants.

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That timing supports a long prelude of fungal algae interactions,

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fundamentally reframing the story of life's colonization of land. It

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suggests that for hundreds of millions of years before the

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first true plants took root, fungi were already present, likely

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interacting with algae in microbial communities, and this long preparatory

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phase may will have been essential for making Earth's continents

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habitable by breaking down rock and recycling nutrients. These ancient

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fungi may well have been the first true ecosystems engineers,

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creating the first primitive soils and fundamentally altering the terrestrial environment.

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It means plants didn't colonize a barren wasteland, but rather

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a ward that had already been prepared for them over

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eons by the ancient and persistent activity of the fungal kingdom. Meanwhile,

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a report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy

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of Sciences as unearthed new evidence in the ancient rock

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record suggesting that some of the first animals on Earth

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were likely ancestors of the modern day sea sponge. The

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studies authors identified chemical fossils that may have been left

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by ancient sponges in rocks that are almost five hundred

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and forty one million years old. The chemical fossil is

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a remnant of a biomolecule that originated from living organism

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that has since been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment,

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sometimes for hundreds of millions of years. The newly identified

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fossils are special types of sterraines, which are a geologically

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stable form of sterols such as cholesterol, that are found

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in the cell membranes of complex organisms. The sterrains were

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found in rocks formed during the Adiapron period between roughly

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five hundred and forty one and six hundred and thirty

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five million years ago. That's just before the Cambrian Explosion,

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when planet Earth experienced a sudden global explosion of complex,

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multicellular lifeforms. The authors trace these special sterines to class

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of sea sponges known as demosponges. Today, demosponges come in

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a huge variety of sizes and colors, and they lived

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throughout the oceans of the Earth at soft filter feeders.

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The new discovery offers strong evidence that the ancestors of

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demosponges were among the very first animals to have evolved,

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and they likely did so much earlier than the rest

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of Earth's major animal groups. This is space time, and

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time that to take a brief look at some of

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the other stories making news in science this week. With

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a science report, scientists have found a significant link between

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drinking soda beverages and depression. The findings, reported in the

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Journal of the American Medical Association also showed that this

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effect could be significantly mediated by how much of a

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specific bacterium called egophilia existed in a person's intestinal tract.

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The authors looked inside the soft drink habits and microbiomes

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of almost one thousand people, just over four hundred of

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whom had been diagnosed with major depressive conditions. They believe

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that drinking pop may contribute to the condition through microbiome changes,

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especially those involving egothelia in female patients. While this kind

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of study cannot prove it connection between soft drinks and depression,

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the authors are suggesting prevention strategies that reduce consumption of

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these drinks and target the microbiomeing treatment. Scientists say people

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whose parents have mental illnesses are more likely to die

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prematurely up to middle age. The findings, reported in the

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Journal of the American Medical Association, examined medical records for

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more than three and a half million Swedish people, around

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one point two million of whom had parents with mental illnesses.

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They say the link between parental mental illness and premature

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death held true for all mental disorders, and was strongest

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for unnatural deaths, which include suicides, murder, and accidents, and

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if both parents were diagnosed with mental disorders. The findings

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highlight the importance of providing support for families with parents

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with mental disorders. In order to minimize premature deaths among

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their children. One of the oldest people in the world,

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who died just last year at the ripe old age

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of one hundred and seventeen, may have survived so long

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because her body was still working as if she was

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at a much younger biological age. Among signs of a

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healthy body, the journals Cell Reports Medicine found that her

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DNA had markings usually found in younger people that she

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had read gene types linked to long life. They also

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found differences in a microbiome, including having more of a

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type that people typically lose with older age. The researcher

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say this shows that old age doesn't always have to

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be linked with disease. The glittering highlight of the Australian

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skeptical calendar is the annual Skepticon Conference, which this year

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was held in Melbourne. Of course, one of the highlights

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of the event is the highly coveted Bent Spoon Award,

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which is presented annually to the perpetrator of the most

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preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudo scientific piffle. The award

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is rumored to have been fashioned out of a piece

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of go Forward salvaged from Noah's Ark. Upon its sturdy

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base is a fixed a spoon rumored to have been

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used at the Last Supper. The spoon was allegedly bent

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by Yuri Gella using old magic energies unknown to science.

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00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:05.000
Past winners of this elegant trophy for displaying a total

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lack of scientific understanding or an ability to pile the

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00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.240
bull up high have included the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the ABC,

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00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:16.599
demonstrating new lows in journalistic standards with their motto never

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let the facts get in the way of a good story.

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The University of Wollongong for proving once and for all

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that you don't need to be smart, or even right,

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or for that matter, scientifically accurate in order to get

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a doctorate. Then there was the Adelaide psychic and Dankbar

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for her discovery at the Colossus of Rhodes, which created

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something of a media frenzy. Still it was shown to

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be nothing more than modern builder's rubble. The ABC wanted

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00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:41.680
again for their television show's Second Opinion, which promoted so

334
00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:44.839
much unscientific quackery that they really should have gotten a

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00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:48.279
few more opinions Southern across the University was another award

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00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:51.759
winner for offering a degree course in naturopathy. Even the

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00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:55.640
once exalted CSIRO has been awarded, with its chief Larry

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00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:59.119
Marshall getting a special mention for his support of water dividing.

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00:20:59.559 --> 00:21:03.200
The won the award yet again for spending taxpayer money

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00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:07.000
on psychic investigators. Then there was racing driver Peter Brock,

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00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:10.640
whose highly tarted energy polarizer generated more heat from the

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00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:13.880
murdering media than what did energy in his car. A

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00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:17.359
Special Broadcasting Service SPS won the award for their TV

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00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:21.200
program Medicine or Myth. They were promoting alternative medical treatments

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00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:24.400
as if they had some actual scientific credibility, as opposed

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00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:27.759
to being nothing more than an occasional pacebo effect. The

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00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:30.920
Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works won their award for hiring

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00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:36.000
a US psychic archaeologist to help detect nonexistent electromagnetic photo fields.

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00:21:36.599 --> 00:21:39.480
Oh and once again the taxpayer fund that ABC won

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00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:42.440
the award, this time for their television showed the New Inventors,

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00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:46.039
which seriously considered the studio's scientific benefits of an anti

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00:21:46.039 --> 00:21:49.519
biowater conditioning system which probably should have been filtered through

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the kidneys A few more times in case you're wondering,

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00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:55.279
that's more than a billion dollars of austrained taxpayers money

355
00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:59.440
spent by the ABC every year. And of course there

356
00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:02.440
was Pallier Peter Evans for his promotion of the bio Charger,

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00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:06.200
a miraculous device that, according to its manufacturers, has been

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00:22:06.279 --> 00:22:10.799
proven to restore strength, stamina, coordination and mental clarity. Like

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00:22:10.880 --> 00:22:13.880
the ABC, Evans was a modible winner. He previously won

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00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:17.519
the Spoon back in twenty fifteen. Is paleodiet advocacy, which

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00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:21.079
included promoting Burne broth as a formula replacement for babies,

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as well as his campaigns against floridation and vaccination. Se

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mindem from a Strange Skeptic says this year's Exalted winner

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was ban naturopath Barbara O'Neil.

365
00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:34.359
The Beenspoon Award went to a lady named Barbara O'Neill.

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00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:38.839
Barbara O'Neill is a self entitled natural path even though

367
00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:42.359
she doesn't have any qualifications, who was running a retreat

368
00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:45.319
in New South Wales something the sort of forested areas

369
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:47.799
in the north and the area of people, including a

370
00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:50.119
number of skeptics, complained about her activities and what she

371
00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.359
was saying, and then the New South Wales's Healthcare Complaints

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00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:56.279
Commission took actions, looked at what she was saying, realized

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00:22:56.279 --> 00:22:59.799
what she was saying was extremely dangerous, totally unqualified and wrong,

374
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and they actually ban her for life for practicing in

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Australia in any medical capacity at all. So what she's

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00:23:05.640 --> 00:23:08.559
done there, she goes overseas and streams stuff. She's been

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00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:10.960
big in an island, in the UK and in the US.

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00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:15.000
She has a tendency to suggest people rub garlic and

379
00:23:15.079 --> 00:23:18.839
onions and things like that on them to get rid

380
00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:21.400
of vampire. If only it would be very handy to

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00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:25.319
cure all sorts of things, everything from cancer to medical

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00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:28.519
conditions of some sort of other mental conditions. Even we

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00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:31.559
always have the suspicion that because she's recommending so many vegetables,

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she's been paid for by big farmer. But she is

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totally unqualified. Even though she occasionally allows herself to be

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00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:41.759
called doctor, she's not. She's been really active in the

387
00:23:41.799 --> 00:23:44.400
last year. A lot of people see as what she's

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00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:47.440
suggesting as not being dangerous in its own right. Rubbing

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00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:49.240
onions on your foot is not going to call you.

390
00:23:49.319 --> 00:23:52.480
But the trouble is she is staying don't do chemotherapy,

391
00:23:52.519 --> 00:23:54.160
don't do this therapy, don't do that therapy.

392
00:23:54.240 --> 00:23:56.079
It's going to kill your social life.

393
00:23:56.359 --> 00:23:58.480
But it's also it means you're turning away from actually

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medical procedures that do work in favor of this quack

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cures that she promote. And that's the weather dangerous to

396
00:24:04.119 --> 00:24:06.359

The Universe's Countdown: New Insights into Cosmic Fate and Fungal Origins

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