Big Picture Science for 10/01/12 - Skeptic Check: Mysterious Illness

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Mysterious Illness

Stuttering speech and facial tics are among the strange symptoms that swept through a New York high school. Discover what’s behind the odd outbreak, and why one sociologist sees parallels to Salem, Massachusetts 300 years ago.

Also, an update on the cellphone cancer debate, and why one congressman wants warning labels on all new phones.

Plus, the ultimate cleanse: giving up on food to survive on light and air. We investigate the claims of Breatharians.

It’s Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

• Dennis Kucinich – U.S. Representative, Ohio’s 10^th congressional district
• Joshua Muscat – Epidemiologist, professor of public health sciences, Penn State at Hershey College of Medicine
• Michael Wyde – Toxicologist, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
• Robert Bartholomew – Sociologist, Botany College, Auckland, New Zealand, author of Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior
• Gordy Slack – Science writer
• Benjamin Radford – Deputy editor, Skeptical Inquirer magazine

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Mysterious_Illness

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://radio.seti.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.