Tag: pseudoscience

Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Pickles for Seasickness

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab
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My grandfather, who was on board Marine ships from 1928 through the Korean War, used to suggest eating pickles for seasickness. During my recent cruise in the Sargasso Sea, I finally had a chance to test his theory and it worked. Was it just a placebo effect, was it the vitamin C, or something else … Read More “Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Pickles for Seasickness” »

An Ocean of Pseudoscience, Linkfest Round 3

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 1 Comment on An Ocean of Pseudoscience, Linkfest Round 3
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We’re halfway through our first ever Ocean of Pseudoscience Week. Many great blogs have decided to enter the fray, tackling pseudoscience in their own fields. If anyone wants to join in, either as a guest post on our blog or as a post on your own blog, let me know. Below are all the blogs … Read More “An Ocean of Pseudoscience, Linkfest Round 3” »

Our favorite sea monsters – Aspidochelone (#3)

Posted on By David Shiffman 1 Comment on Our favorite sea monsters – Aspidochelone (#3)
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Though the Aspidochelone is not as well known as some other sea monsters, the story surrounding it is so awesome that we had to include it on our list of favorites.

According to legend, this crafty turtle/whale/fish (the story varies between cultures on this point) is so big that sailors think it is an island. Excited to see land after so much time out on the water, sailors make landfall on the Aspidochelone. The beast then submerges, taking the unsuspecting sailors with it to the depths.

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Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Can methane bubbles sink ships?

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 1 Comment on Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Can methane bubbles sink ships?
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One of the often cited causes for ships that mysteriously and quickly disappear are methane bubbles, released from sub-seafloor gas pockets. The story goes that as methane rises to the surface, the bubbles cause the density of seawater to drop, and any ships in the area suddenly lose buoyancy and spontaneously sink. This effect has … Read More “Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Can methane bubbles sink ships?” »

“You Could Walk On The Backs of Sea Turtles”

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab 1 Comment on “You Could Walk On The Backs of Sea Turtles”
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Sea turtle research is unique in that many if not most of the people actually out in the field taking data are volunteers. By day, they are teachers, librarians, business owners, lifeguards, firefighters, students, retirees, you name it. If you’re curious, check out the network’s website. Sea turtles are the classic cute endangered animals that can really make someone care about marine conservation. And all of this data has gone to help produce population assessments such as this that confirm that while overall population is declining, some areas are actually increasing. But no where is back to the populations on which people could walk out to sea on the backs of turtles.

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Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Bloop!

Posted on By David Shiffman 2 Comments on Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Bloop!
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Our oceans have always been full of mystery, and those mysteries have inspired many fascinating stories over the centuries. We tend to think of sea monster stories as ancient superstitions, but the tale of the Bloop is less than 15 years old. In 1997, some US Navy hydrophones that had been in place for decades … Read More “Ocean of Pseudoscience Shorty – Bloop!” »

Bone-eating worms and contorted creationist thinking

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 10 Comments on Bone-eating worms and contorted creationist thinking
Science

I tend to avoid the creationist blogs. Every time I get sucked into that vortex of pseudoscience, I find the exact same debunked claims that were bunk when I was 12. There are better bloggers out there who have the energy and patience to systematically dissect the same tired old rubbish day after day, but I’m not one of them.

This claim, however, is special. There’s nothing new in the rhetoric behind it, it’s just another “how could this commensalism/symbiosis/mutualism evolve? It must be magic!” mantra. And the analysis isn’t terribly sophisticated, anyone could do the basic googling to find out why every argument in it is either wrong or deceptive. What’s special is that it’s about one of my favorite critters, Osedax – the bone eating worm.

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Chemistry of the Great Big Blue: Nutrients

Posted on By Bluegrass Blue Crab 1 Comment on Chemistry of the Great Big Blue: Nutrients
Science

The Great Big Blue looks like it contains nothing but water and maybe a little salt, especially out in the open ocean. However, this kind of sparse environment is exactly where the chemistry matters the most – it’s a fine line between not enough, too much, and just right. Given this, there’s no distinct myth here but an underlying unresolved question: what is the limiting factor that keeps the open ocean at low productivity?

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