Tag: pseudoscience

Episode 70 Sources: Alchemy & the Birth of Modern Science Featuring Dr. Brian Regal

Meagan is joined by Substitute Sister and Professor for the History of Science at Kean University, Dr. Brian Regal, to talk about the O.G. spooky science – alchemy and its influences on science as we know it today. Although alchemists came to be associated with gold, mysticism, the Philosopher’s Stone, and in some cases, fakery, many were careful experimentalists who made significant discoveries in the areas of metallurgy, chemistry, distillation, and more. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and more.

You can get in touch with Brian via his website (https://sites.google.com/a/kean.edu/brian-regal-phd/) or on Twitter @RomeoA25.

Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/spookyscipod

Here are our sources:

  1. https://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2002/crabb/history.html
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
  3. https://sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-secrets-of-alchemy/
  4. https://www.breakingatom.com/learn-the-periodic-table/history-of-chemistry-alchemy
  5. https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/specialcollections/2018/08/15/a-brief-history-of-alchemy-or-my-alchemical-romance/
  6. https://spacedoutscientist.com/2015/05/16/alchemy-how-a-tradition-spanning-millennia-became-modern-chemistry/
  7. https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/alchemy/what-is-alchemy
  8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxiLuz9kHi0
  9. http://www.chymist.com/History%20Alchemy.pdf 
  10. https://science.howstuffworks.com/alchemy-to-chemistry.htm
  11. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/alchemy-may-not-been-pseudoscience-we-thought-it-was-180949430/
  12. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/01/30/this-chemist-is-unlocking-the-secrets-of-alchemy/
  13. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwk9AVZFXx4aM3gwTHpldmE2clE/view?resourcekey=0-y52X8h7sfuLQ6YZqwupLXg
  14. https://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/03/15/good_as_gold/
  15. https://daily.jstor.org/when-did-alchemy-end/
  16. https://bigthink.com/the-well/crazy-criminal-alchemy-modern-science/
  17. https://www.alchemywebsite.com/symbolic.html

Episode 67 Sources: The Cult of Personalities

Struggling to figure out who you are in this world? Never fear – there’s a test for that! In fact, there’s A LOT of them. In this episode, we discuss the historical origins of personality tests, and discuss two popular ones available today – the MBTI and the Big Five – with a focus on what’s “real” and what’s pseudoscience. You’ll even get to hear our results! Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and more.

The free MBTI we took: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

The Big Five test we took: https://bigfive-test.com/

A comparison of our Big Five results: https://bigfive-test.com/compare/W3sibmFtZSI6Ik1lYWdhbiIsImlkIjoiNjRkMTE0NDNiZWZlZDgwMDA4ODM5NGViIn0seyJuYW1lIjoiTWUiLCJpZCI6IjY0YzMyNTM1OGVkNGJkMDAwODczZmU2MCJ9XQ%3D%3D

Want to listen without the ads? Check out our Patreon, where you can get ad-free episodes & more! https://www.patreon.com/spookyscipod

Here are our sources:

General:

  1. https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/life/leisure/personality-tests#:~:text=The%20tests%20capitalize%20on%20our,isn’t%20a%20bad%20thing.
  2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/201909/your-favorite-personality-test-is-probably-bogus
  3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/201909/why-do-we-personality-tests-even-the-bad-ones
  4. Stuff You Should Know podcast – How Personality Tests Work
  5. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/mar/03/they-become-dangerous-tools-the-dark-side-of-personality-tests
  6. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/first-personality-test-was-developed-during-world-war-i-180973192/
  7. https://vervoe.com/history-of-personality-tests/
  8. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-accurate-are-personality-tests/
  9. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-enduring-allure-of-the-personality-quiz
  10. https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/brief-history-personality-tests/
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments
  12. https://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~duchan/new_history/ancient_history/humor_theory.html

Myers-Briggs:

  1. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/22/650019038/how-the-myers-briggs-personality-test-began-in-a-mothers-living-room-lab
  2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbarthur/2018/09/16/the-strange-history-behind-the-mbti-and-what-that-can-mean-for-career-owners/?sh=674490ae2fb3
  3. https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless
  4. https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-problem-with-the-myers-briggs-personality-test
  5. https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/tools/MBTI/Myers-Briggs-history
  6. https://www.myersbriggs.org/about-us/myers-briggs-jung-legacy/
  7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator#CITEREFLilienfeldLynnLohr2014

The Big Five:

  1. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/assessment-and-selection/other-assessment-methods/personality-tests/
  2. https://www.retorio.com/blog/big-5-history-psychometric-test
  3. https://www.verywellmind.com/trait-theory-of-personality-2795955#:~:text=The%20first%20trait%20theory%20was,traits%20into%20three%20levels%3A3
  4. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-big-five/