The Reality Check Episode 15

JFK Assassination, pesticides+cancer, and does the brain prove evolution?

Part 1:

A lot of people believe JFK's assassination is a conspiracy. Discovery channel did a recreation of the crime scene. After all the analysis, they think they know which direction it's coming from. A lot of people thinks it's a conspiracy because they think in order for the bullet to hurt both JFK and the governor, then the bullet would have to change direction and other similar reasons like that. In old videos, it does look odd the way the bullet entered and came out. Scientists today think it's because of the coat and flesh made it change direction. But they don't have complete solid evidence yet. Another alternative theory why the bullet might snap back, is that a team assassinated a goat as an experiment. They found out the goats snaps back as well as the bullet is entering the head, and it seems like a neurological effect, it's a reflex from the body, because it's not dead yet.  

Part 2:

Should we be really worried about pesticides and cancer? One use of pesticides are used to make the lawn and crops look nice. People think that the more we use pesticides, the rate of getting cancer would get higher. They tested this experiment on some animals to see what level of pesticides would be a dangerous level, and what would be a safe level. They haven't looked into how it would affect the food chain yet, they only looked to see what direct effect pesticides would have on the individual. What it comes down to is to evaluating the risks versus the potential benefits. We have to balance the use of pesticides with the health concern of the people. We can't just go extreme one way. If we completely ban it, then people will start using it illegally and without the knowledge how to use the pesticides which will cause even more problems. 

Part 3:

As if you need more evidence for evolution. The podcast says that there are still many people arguing and trying to convince people that evolution is fake. This just sounds crazy, because there are so many solid evidence about evolution and how evolution is happening right now. Michael Anderson looked at what areas of the brain are used for different cognitive functions. He looked at the areas of the brain that aren't looked at as much for higher cognitive functions. He found that the parts of the brain that we think on the evolutionary standards to be newer. These parts of the brain, when they engage in cognitive activity, they also utilize the older parts of the brain for higher cognitive function, however the reverse is not true. So, now we can see that the older parts that are already there, because they don't need the newer parts to function. So, evolution somehow made the newer parts and survived. There are many papers that supports that brains are built by layers, instead of suddenly appearing.