Tag: probability

• Prehistoric Boning and Micromorts

  Scientists know a surprising amount about the historical period when Neanderthals and ancient humans were interbreeding, including whether they kissed and the nature of their sexual organs. Jeff and Anthony take a look at this data with the dispassionate professionalism of real scientists who've seen the trailer for the Croods. Then, the unit measure known as the Micromort quantifies your chance at dying from any number of day to day activities. Anthony and Jeff are obsessed with death, but they might find new ways to employ this illuminating value. [more]

  January 23, 2021Episodes

• One Last One Fermi

  The sheer abundance of stars in the universe suggests that, somewhere, an intelligent lifeform should be warming itself on a distant planet. Even if life evolves rarely, ET should be phoning. Yet, by all appearances, humanity seems to be flying solo in our galaxy, and perhaps the universe. Many solutions have been proposed to solve this riddle, known as the Fermi Paradox. Researchers of Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute believe It’s likely intelligent life doesn’t exist at all, outside of Earth. Jeff and Anthony think we're lacking supporting evidence of such. [more]

  July 1, 2018Episodes