Skeptics in the Pub, Leicester

The Things That Don't Make Sense

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Why should we pay attention to unexpected scientific results? Michael Brooks explores the role of anomalies in science.

Michael Brooks, who holds a PhD in quantum physics, is an author, journalist and broadcaster. He is a consultant at NewScientist, a weekly magazine with over three quarters of a million readers worldwide, and the author of the acclaimed non-fiction title 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense and the techno-thriller Entanglement.

His writing has also appeared in the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer, the Times Higher Education, the Philadelphia Inquirerand (his proudest byline) Playboy. He has lectured at New York University, The American Museum of Natural History and Cambridge University. As well as contributing to traditional outlets for science, such as BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and Material World, he has a regular live slot on the George Lamb Show on BBC’s 6 Music radio station, where he is regularly asked to explain everything in the universe.

For television, he has appeared in a Channel Four documentary on Time Travel (which he co-scripted) and discussed alien invasions on More 4 News. He is a regular speaker and debate chair at the Brighton Science Festival.

Religious Apologetics

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Apologetics is the systematic defence of a position. Religious apologetics specifically is a field of theology which seeks to present a rational basis for religious faith, defend the faith against objections and support the claim “God exists”. But are the arguments made by apologetics sound? Mike Hall takes a look at five common apologetics, deconstructing the arguments presented and exposing any flaws.

Mike Hall is the president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and presenter of the Skeptics with a K podcast. His particular interests are the existence of God, alternative medicine, logic and Doctor Who. He is definitely not the Labour MP who claimed thousands of pounds in expenses for the cost of cleaning products and laundry bills for his London home.

Adventures in Skepticism

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The talk will focus on a number of investigations into psychic claims including, Christine Holohan and the murder of Jacqui Poole, Chris Robinson, the 'Dream Detective', and testing a parrot in Chicago for telepathy. A few demonstrations of trickery will be included.

Though always sceptical of psychic claims Tony's interest took off following Granada's James Randi Psychic Investigator series in 1991. Tony has appeared on a number of television and radio programmes over the years including: Kilroy (okay he's sorry), Central Weekend Live, National Geographic, Vanessa, Lowry, Everyman and The Heaven and Earth Show. He posed as a tarot reader for Meridian Focus and an astrologer in The New Zodiac. His favourite was The Ultimate Psychic Challenge which meant working with James Randi.

He is a founding member of ASKE.

Psychic Frauds

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Throughout history there have been many people making a living from the paranormal. From the Fox Sisters who kickstarted the spiritualist craze through to modern psychics and mediums who have been shown up for using trickery in their performance, the lure of the paranormal con is easy to understand.

People want to believe, and the desperate are easy to exploit for gain. Ash will look back at 150 years of supernatural shenanigans and address some of the modern day claims in this interactive and fun talk- but be warned, those on the front row might get messy!

Ash Pryce is the founder of Edinburgh Skeptics Society.

 

Demons & Nightmares

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Deborah's talk is on the Cultural & Physiological aspects of the religious and superstitious experience.

• When do the dead chew in their graves?
• Why do vampires strike in autumn?
• Why do ghosts live in electric clocks?

We are delighted to be hosting Deborah Hyde who has been writing about the folklore of the macabre for eighteen years. Her book, ‘Unnatural Predators’ will be published this year. She blogs on belief in the supernatural as ‘Jourdemayne’, but often suffers from mission creep. Her daytime, grown-up job is a makeup effects coordinator in the film industry – more vampires and zombies, then.

Sense About Libel Reform

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Dr Síle Lane became Public Liaison for charity Sense About Science after a career in stem-cell research. Sense About Science was founded to equip the public to make sense of science and evidence. As Public Liaison, Síle is concerned with the role of science and evidence in civic society. She also coordinates the Libel Reform Campaign.

England’s libel law have a chilling effect on scientific discussion.

Sense About Science launched the Keep Libel Laws out of Science campaign in June 2009 and in December 2009 we joined with Index on Censorship and English PEN to form the Libel Reform Campaign. The campaign has brought to light the chilling effect of the libel laws on editors, bloggers, academics, forum users, review magazines, GPs, patient groups, and local newspapers. It brought into the spotlight cases like that of science writer Simon Singh, cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst and doctor and writer Ben Goldacre who were all sued for expressing concern on medical and scientific issues.

The campaign has the support of more than 50,000 people, the majority of MPs, leading commentators, scientists and performers, organisations from science, human rights, the law and the arts, and secured commitments to reform the laws in the General Election manifestos of all three major parties.

Síle will talk about how the support of everyone who joined the campaign led the new coalition Government to promise a libel reform bill in the New Year 2011 and why we need to keep pushing for reform to protect writers, scientists and the public interest.

The New Psychological Skepticism

How to be certain about anything, even when you've got no evidence.

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"Confirmation bias is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses whether or not it is true. As a result, people gather evidence and recall information from memory selectively, and interpret it in a biased way. The biases appear in particular for emotionally significant issues and for established beliefs."

I wouldn't normally use a quote from Wikipedia as a blurb for a talk, but there is a very good reason in this case. Tonight's speaker, Martin Poulter, rewrote the entire Confirmation Bias article on Wikipedia over a period of several months. His efforts were recognised, when his article was made Wikipedia's "Featured Article" for Friday 23 July 2010. These articles are considered to be the best articles in Wikipedia, and as such just 0.09% of articles are held in such regard.

In tonight's talk, Martin will explain exactly what confirmation bias is and how it can lead us to make bad decisions, and continue to hold our false preconceptions as true.

Martin Poulter first encountered skepticism while a teenager. He has a Philosophy and Psychology degree from Oxford University and a PhD in Philosophy of Science from the University of Bristol. Martin first came to speak to Glasgow Skeptics in the Pub, on Scientology, back in January 2010. He has been a Scientology-watcher since 1995, when he was threatened with legal action over material he posted online. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the SubGenius, which offers eternal spiritual salvation or triple your money back.

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.