Science in the Media

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After completing a PhD in particle physics, Simon Singh joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on programmes such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon. He has also presented programmes on Radio 4, BBC4 and Channel 4. He is best known as the author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book and Big Bang.

Simon will speak on science reporting in the media.

Science and Uncommon Sense II

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Kevin spoke at Skeptics in the Pub in May 2009 and gave an extremely interesting talk - but had more content than there was time for.  In Feb 2010 he completes the talk with more examples of unintuative science experiements.

Many ideas in science do not, and in some cases cannot make sense. The phrase 'counter-intuitive' has been coined to describe such concepts. Whilst some ideas no longer appear counter-intuitive with the emergence of new knowledge, others, such as quantum theory, fail to make any rational sense irrespective of years of progress aimed at understanding them. This presentation will aim to describe the counter-intuitive in thought, feeling and action with some interactive challenges and demonstrations. The implications for making rational sense of other aspects of life will be left for discussion.

Kevin Byron received his Ph.D in Physics from the University of Hull and spent many years in telecomms research. In 2001 he was awarded a NESTA fellowship for studies in creativity in science education. He is currently based at the University of Leicester, where he is involved in research skills training with postgraduates in the sciences.

The Men Who Stare At Goats

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Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary film maker.  His books, Them: Advenures with Extremeists and The Men Who Stare At Goats are international best sellers.  The Men Who Stare At Goats is now a major motion picture starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.  Jon is also the author of two collections, Out of The Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness and What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness.

Jon authored the popular Human Zoo and Out of the Ordinary columns for  The Guardian, where he still contributes features.  He currently writes and presents twice Sony nominated BBC Radio 4 series, Jon Ronson On...

For Channel 4, Jon has made a number of films including the acclaimed five part series of theSecret Rulers of the World and the multi award-winning Tottenham Ayatollah.

Here is the movie trailer for The Men who Stare at Goats.

How Quackery Corrupts Real Science

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Quacks not only deceive (and sometimes harm) patients but the culture of managerialism that tolerates them in universities has a more serious consequence, the corruption of real science.

Professor D Colquhoun, FRS held the established (A.J. Clark) chair of Pharmacology at UCL, and was the Hon. Director of the Wellcome Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology. In October 2004, he became a Research Fellow. Like many previous holders of the chair (in particular, A.J. Clark, J.H. Gaddum, H.O. Schild and J.W. Black) his interests are in quantitative analysis of receptor mechanisms.

He graduated from Leeds with a BSc and then went to Edinburgh to work for a PhD. After doing research at University College from 1964-69 on immunological problems and completing a book on statistics, he went to Yale University to work on nerve conduction. After returning from the USA he eventually returned to the Pharmacology Department at UCL in 1979, and has worked on single ion channel mechanisms since then.

In 2004, he was made an Honorary Fellow of University College London.