Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13:26 — 67.7MB)
We predict SCIENCE!!! It’s the 2016 Predictions show!
Buy A 2016 TWIS Blair’s Animal Corner Calendar now!!!
Disclaimer Disclaimer Disclaimer
The following hour of programming cannot be trusted…
For the content within is of a dubious and potentially subversive nature…
The hosts have set down their normal baton of bringing you science news
and are attempting to do a job normally held
by pollsters,
by psychics,
by horoscope writers,
by sports gamblers,
by sock market gamblers,
by weathermen and weather women…
Yes, this week…
This Week In Science looks not to a brilliant week past…
But to the shrouded future, the year yet to come…
And this is where the dubious nature of the program comes in…
For at no time in history have predictions of the future
been as useful to society as the addition of actual new knowledge…
So it bears repeating
Disclaimer Disclaimer Disclaimer
This week in science
Future prediction show
Coming up next…
We predicted all sorts of things for 2015. Some of them occurred, some did not. Listen to the show to hear how we fared in our tally!
Support us on Patreon!
And, for 2016…
Justin predicts:
– 2016 hottest year on record…
– Homo Naledi will be dated… Into the 3 million ish plus range… challenging Lucy as our early ancestor…
– Bring on the clowns… 2015 was the year that science died, at the hands of politicians…
Bad brained, junk branded, pre paid propaganda substituted for science over and over again…
– 2016 is the year scientists finally have enough… begin fighting back… by publishing several studies that suggest the political ideology of the republican party… doesn’t actually exist.
– Horoscope writers, fearing the loss or readership… will begin to get very specific, calling out readers by name with direct warnings… Hey Blair, avoid escalators today… Kiki, the answer to the pub quiz is Fenris… Justin, it’s not an aspirin, don’t take it
– Crispr-Cas9 is once again in the news throughout the year… highlights include: Mosquito malaria experiment gets deployed after early success… with a 2017 prediction of Malaria being eradicated… and the Bill and Melinda gates foundation nets being re-purposed as soccer goal nets
– Several new drugs will be developed, to target specific gene functions in diseases… that were discovered using crispr cas9
– Mama said knock you out… Using crispr cas9 to knockout specific genes in order to study the effects down stream… will lead to a Nobel prize in 2016.
– And once again… this year, no gravity waves…
Blair predicts:
– We will find microscopic life in space, and tests will be feverishly conducted to see if it is contamination, a mistaken reading, or real extraterrestrial life… Results will be inconclusive.
– We will discover parthenogenesis in a species it has not previously been observed
– I will release a 2017 #blairsanimalcorner calendar, and we will sell out!
– White nose syndrome will be completely eradicated in a geographical region due to the new treatments available
– A mammothophant will happen, to my chagrin.
– A vaccine for toxo will go on the market… but for your cat
– Successful replacement of bodily organs with 3d printed ones in a human
– Cuttlefish will be discovered to use 3 kinds of camouflage! (visual, electroreception, and now, audio!)
– Tardigrades will find new ways to shock us in 2016 – they are LIKE ONIONS.
– There will be at least one question about climate change in the main presidential debates, but the issue will still be skirted.
– Water rationing will take place in the US in summer 2016.
– Spiders will find new ways to terrify and fascinate us in 2016.
– New methods of traumatic insemination will be discovered.
– HIV vaccine trials will begin
– Crows will continue to show us how smart they are
– Coffee will once again be shown to have positive health effects
Kirsten predicts:
– The LHC will discover that it’s unpredicted bump of 2015 was just a bump, and not new phyics.
– Gravitational waves will not be detected… again
– John Snow in wolf form will live to become King of Game of Thrones and marry Daenaris.
– The Arctic will melt in the winter night.
– 2016 will be the next warmest year on record.
– Private space flight will take it to the next level with sub-orbital flights.
– The Hyperloop pod tests will not be successful.
– The Juno will be wildly succesful, again showing NASA capable of doing amazing things on a tight budget. And, an expanded budget will lead to an expansion of proposed missions to possibly life-bearing moons in our solar system.
– CRISPR will continue to wow us with new discoveries about life.
– After last year’s epigenome description papers, expect to see more studies detailing how the epigenome influences organisms of all kinds.
– TWIS will enjoy a fantastic live show in NYC!
Some news to end the year:
Tardi-glass!
Tardigrades produce a special glass-like protein that when dried out becomes rigid and encases molecules and enzymes, essentially protecting them from the possibility of breaking apart in the absence of water. This could be essential for developing drought-resistant crops, or vaccines with high longevity!
More smart crows!
Crows were caught on tape manufacturing tools in the wild, with naturally occuring materials, for the first time ever! Now we know it isn’t just a phenomenon related to captive study. Goooo crows!
Vitamin D For MS
A study showed success in using Vitamin D to reduce factors related to MS.
Don’t Eat
If you aren’t hungry.
Harbingers Of Failure
Some people predict the failure of some products.
If You love TWIS, please consider making a donation below.
Don’t forget to tell a friend about TWIS, and to check out our Patreon page!
I'm the host of this little science show. 
