Scientific skepticism is the simple process by which provisional conclusions are reached through a systematic examination of evidence. The tools of science fill our workbench while emotions and spirituality are left still wrapped in cellophane under the table -- pretty, and seemingly pretty useless. As such, it would seem that the humanities would have little to offer the skeptical community. What can poetry tell us of Occam's razor? How can a song express the quadratic equation?

As I write this, I'm listening to "Glorious Dawn" by ColorPulse, also know as John Boswell. This viral piece features Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking "singing" about the wonder of science. I find the sound mesmerizing and listen to it often; your mileage may vary. But it illustrates an important point that I think the skeptical community misses at times. Music, art and poetry can and should inform our skepticism.

(Editor's Note: Steve Cuno is the founder of the RESPONSE Agency, an evidence-based marketing firm in Salt Lake City. He has spoken at the last two TAMs, and has been invited to write for Swift to share his knowledge of marketplace behavior as it pertains to skepticism — and vice versa.)

When a friend teaching a college scriptwriting course told students that standard videotape runs at 30 frames per second, a hand shot up. "Actually," corrected the young man who owned the arm to which the hand was attached, "it's 29.97 frames per second." Thus it began. For the rest of the semester, no gnat was safe from this fellow's interrupting the class to strain at it.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote -- here on Swift as well as at my own blog -- about the Iraqi military employing useless magic wands to search for explosives at checkpoints, and about the inevitable deadly results. This was based on an article in the New York Times, and the word has now spread far and wide.

Skeptic, physician, and journalist Ben Goldacre wrote about it in The Guardian, and Graeme Wood did so as well for The Atlantic. The story was huge on tech and skeptic sites too, like Slashdot, MetaFilter, Gizmodo, and Bruce Hood's Supersense blog. It made a brief appearance on TV in this segment on the Rachel Maddow Show.