In Search Of... Skepticism in Science Museums

 Presented by

Bruce Behrens, PhD

YouTube Live Event with Q and A 

Wednesday, August 21, 7pm US/Eastern (UTC-04:00)
NCASVideo YouTube Channel:


 

Are science museums skeptical? Science museums are great at presenting scientific facts, but what about the scientific method, critical thinking, and scientific skepticism? In this draft of my presentation for the Sunday Morning Papers session of CSICon Las Vegas 2024, I examine science museum exhibits in search of skeptical content.

After Dr. Behrens completes his short presentation, NCAS members will be invited by email to join the online Zoom meeting to ask questions and provide constructive feedback. 


Bruce Behrens
studied High Energy Physics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, receiving his Ph.D. in 1995. Following postdoctoral research at Cornell University, Dr. Behrens became a research scientist at the Center for Naval Analyses, the US Navy's Federally Funded Research and Development Corporation, where he provides evidence-based advice to military leaders.  In 2023, he founded the Behrens Science Museum to teach critical thinking and the scientific method through exhibits about pseudoscience and the paranormal.


Shadow of a Doubt - May 2024

 

  • Lecture May 4 - The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories, presented by Prfessor Emerita Zelda Gilbert
  • Eldrich investigations and a discount for NCAS
  • May NCAS Lecture -Zelda Gilbert will present the "Psychology of Conspiracy Theories".
  • May Bay Area Skeptics LectureThe [San Francisco] Bay Area Skeptics will host their next online event on Thursday, May 9 at 10 PM ET.  William & Susan Trollinger, authors of Righting America at the Creation Museum (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) will provide an update on the activities of the creationist organization "Answers in Genesis."
  • More videos from CSICon 2023 
  • NCAS Elections - Electronic voting
  • NCAS membership
  • Shadow Light
  • Time to Renew
See the complete May 2024 Shadow

The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

Presented by Zelda Gilbert, Retired professor of psychology

May 4, 2024, 1:30pm

Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA [map] [directions]
(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members


 Also a YouTube Live Event with Q and A 

NCASVideo YouTube Channel:

https://youtu.be/Du5JWbvSAjc  (corrected URL)

Dr. Gilbert will discuss how the tools of modern psychology can be used to explore the prevalence, motivations, and content of historical and contemporary conspiracy theories. This will include conspiracy theories concerning such things as Lincoln’s assassination, chemtrails, the destruction of the battleship Maine, election fraud, and space lasers from orbit. Concepts such as existential, epistemic and socio-psychological motivations will be defined and applied to various theories, providing the audience with the tools to do their own analyses. Finally, audience members will be invited to create and evaluate their own conspiracy theories.


Zelda Gilbert is a retired professor of psychology with over 40 years experience in higher education. She currently lectures on  political psychology, conspiracy theories, and other topics, mostly for the continuing education Silver Frogs program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. She completed a doctorate in counseling psychology at the University of Kentucky and studied political psychology at UCLA. 

Cancer Risk Assessment, Its Wretched History and Its Impact on Public Health


Presented by 

Edward J. Calabrese, Professor of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, 

School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst.

April 13, 2024, 1:30-3:00pm

On YouTube, (https://youtube.com/live/3R8YuZXUklI?feature=share

The historical foundations of cancer risk assessment were based on fundamental scientific errors that were never corrected, all within the framework of an extraordinary appeal to the authority of the radiation genetics community, led by Hermann J Muller. Even though these individuals were greatly talented and accomplished, they were driven by ideological and self-serving professional biases that would lead to both falsification of the research record and suppression of key scientific findings, all in an effort to establish the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for hereditary and cancer risk assessment, replacing the threshold dose response model. This troubling history has now been revealed in a long series of peer reviewed publications by the author and summarized in a 22-episode documentary by the Health Physics Society* (https://hps.org/hpspublications/historylnt/episodeguide.html). This troubling history remained hidden from the regulatory agencies around the globe since their inception. These groups simply and uncritically accepted a flawed and corrupt history, assuming that it was accurate and reliable. Yet, this path of historical ignorance led the US EPA, and other national regulatory agencies, to accept a dishonest foundation upon which to base and frame cancer risk assessment, terribly failing in their public service mission. This untenable situation has placed a continuing stranglehold on the actions of all regulatory agencies worldwide, improperly guiding its philosophies, policies and practices down to the present time.

(*Note that the views expressed in these videos do not necessarily represent official positions of the Health Physics Society.)

Edward J. Calabrese is a Professor of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst. Dr. Calabrese has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants, and is the author of over 1,000 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books. Dr. Calabrese was awarded the 2009 Marie Curie Prize from the World Council of Nuclear Workers for his body of work on hormesis. He was the recipient of the International CCN Society's Springer award for 2010. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from McMaster University in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded the Petr Beckmann Award from Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. Dr. Calabrese was awarded the G. William Morgan Lectureship Award and the Robert S. Landauer, Sr., Lectureship Award in 2022 from the Health Physics Society.