New York City Skeptics

Entries in Public Lectures (24)

Saturday

Apr142012

Matt Strassler

The Einstein Obsession:

Science, Myth and Public Perception

WHEN: June 16th, 2pm

WHERE: Jefferson Market Library, 425 6th Ave. West Village, NYC

Free and open to the public!

Who hasn't heard of Einstein? We all know Einstein failed eighth grade math. (Although he didn't.) We know he showed energy is the same thing as mass (or was it "matter"?), that he's the father of the atomic bomb, that he was an old man with frizzy hair, and that he was a patent clerk whose theory was that everything is relative and that nothing can move faster than light. This messy assortment of half-truths and misconceptions permeates our culture and affects public perceptions of science, at many different levels. In this talk we'll consider how our culture's obsession with Einstein impacts efforts to convey science to the public.

Matt Strassler has been a professor of theoretical particle physics and string theory at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Washington, and Rutgers University. He is a former Sloan Foundation fellow and is an elected member of the American Physical Society. In addition to carrying out research related to the Large Hadron Collider (the big new accelerator in Europe that is looking for the Higgs particle), he runs a website, Of Particular Significance , whose purpose is to convey information about science, especially particle physics, to the public.

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Public Lectures

Sunday

Oct232011

Donald R. Prothero

New Topic: The Holocaust-Deniers' Playbook: Science Denialism and the Threat to our Future

WHEN: December 10th, 2pm

WHERE: Jefferson Market Library, 425 6th Ave. West Village, NYC

Free and open to the public! NYC Skeptics is pleased to be able to reschedule this event after it was originally cancelled due to Hurrican Irene!

The denial of scientific realities (from global warming deniers and creationists to anti-vaxxers and AIDS deniers) is growing in our society. Not only is our acceptance of scientific "inconvenient truths" under attack, but even scientists themselves have been threatened. In this talk, I will outline the common tactics and thinking of science deniers, and discuss the implications of their assault on science for our future.

Donald R. Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He earned M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in geological sciences from Columbia University in 1982, and a B.A. in geology and biology (highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa) from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 25 books and over 200 scientific papers, including five leading geology textbooks and three trade books as well as edited symposium volumes and other technical works. He is on the editorial board of Skeptic magazine, and in the past has served as an associate or technical editor for Geology, Paleobiology and Journal of Paleontology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America, the Paleontological Society, and the Linnaean Society of London, and has also received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation. He has served as the Vice President of the Pacific Section of SEPM (Society of Sedimentary Geology), and five years as the Program Chair for the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. In 1991, he received the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society for the outstanding paleontologist under the age of 40. He has also been featured on several television documentaries, including episodes of Paleoworld (BBC), Prehistoric Monsters Revealed (History Channel), Entelodon and Hyaenodon (National Geographic Channel) and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (BBC).

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