Celebrating '2001: A Space Odyssey' And Whales. April 6, 2018, Part 1

Science Friday

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🗓️ 6 April 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

On April 3, 1968, hundreds of audience members walked out of the theatrical premier of a strange, long, dialogue-sparse science fiction film. Now regarded as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was first met with harsh reviews from critics. Writer and filmmaker Michael Benson, author of the new book Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece, reflects on the film’s 50-year legacy, painstaking hand-crafted special effects, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of its making. The endangered North Atlantic right whale population took a big hit last year with a record number of animals killed by fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes. Now, the declining numbers of right whales has sparked a debate about the impact of Maine’s lobster industry on the dwindling numbers. Humpback whales are known for their complex songs and melodies, but bowhead whales are the “jazz singers” of the baleen deep sea singers, according to oceanographer Kate Stafford. She explains why these whales might have such a diverse songbook. Plus, why health and science scams are going undetected on Facebook.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I'm John Dankoski sitting in for Ira Flato. Recently, Facebook has been
0:05.9	under scrutiny for helping to spread political misinformation online. What's receiving less attention
0:11.8	are the health and science scams being conducted on the platform. One especially harmful
0:16.3	practices managed to amass a pretty large following, and no one really seems to know how to put a stop to it.
0:22.1	Here to tell us that story, as well as other short subjects in science, as Niti Suburaman.
0:26.7	Science reporter for BuzzFeed News. Welcome back to Science Friday, Nitty.
0:30.4	Hi, John. Nice to be here.
0:32.1	I'm glad you're here. Why don't you give us the details of this latest case of misinformation on Facebook?
0:36.7	You've been following it pretty closely. Yes. This, among all other, scams on Facebook, seemed spectacularly bizarre.
0:45.1	And so I spent a couple weeks looking into it. Essentially, a woman from Ohio called Gillian
0:51.1	Eppily, with no medical license or scientific background, was proposing a theory
0:56.9	that a fermented concoction of salted cabbage juice made it home could have these amazing,
1:04.9	incredible cure-all properties.
1:08.5	And so she was saying that it could reverse any disease like cancer, or it could arrest
1:14.8	aging, or it could even turn gay people straight.
1:19.0	And rather remarkably, she had gotten about 50,000 people or more on Facebook in a
1:26.2	group, in a private group, to follow her and
1:29.2	follow along to her theory. In parallel, though, as many people as were buying into this,
1:39.0	she had also inspired this movement of people who thought that misinformation like this was had no place on
1:47.2	Facebook and she ought to be shut down. So a group of people reached out and said she needs to go.
1:53.6	Nobody seems to be helping. And so I looked into this Facebook ward that had broken out.
1:57.7	Well, let's get into this treatment. some of the concoctions she talks about.
	...

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