Results
In this week’s eSkeptic, Harriet Hall, M.D. (a.k.a. the SkepDoc) takes a look at antioxidants. What are they? How do they work? How much is enough? What happens when we ingest more antioxidants than we need? Is the excess excreted? Does it just sit there doing nothing? Does it do something we didn’t intend? And, if they’re so good for us, wouldn’t more of them necessarily be better? Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Find out why. This…
In this startling and engaging new lecture, based on his latest book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Harvard University psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows just how violence has been diminishing for millennia and that we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species’ existence.
In this week’s eSkeptic, we present an excerpt from Massimo Pigliucci’s book Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk in which he discusses the alleged decline of the public intellectual, especially in the United States, as well as at the parallel ascent and evolution (some would say devolution) of so-called think tanks. He treats both as rather disconcerting indicators of the level of public discourse in general, and of the conflict between science and pseudoscience in particular. It is…
In this week’s eSkeptic, Skeptic co-founder Pat Linse is contacted by an expert who has the expertise to solve the mystery of Bob White’s UFO artifact—an object which has long baffled both the public and the scientists who examined it. This article appeared in Skeptic magazine volume 16, number 3 (2011).
FROM ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, Harvard University physicist and cosmologist Dr. Lisa Randall presents a rousing defense of the role of science in our lives. The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven’s Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance…
In this discussion panel with audience Q&A, five leading skeptics (Bill Nye, James Randi, Donald Prothero, Brian Dalton, and Michael Shermer) discussed their experiences communicating science to the public. Young audience members took advantage of these experts to ask excellent questions.
Science and faith do battle as archrivals Michael Shermer and Deepak Chopra debate in this ABC Nightline Face-off from March 2010.
From the birth of the mass media to today’s top news stories, the crime drama has remained popular. At least as far back as Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries, published between 1887 and 1927, the search for physical clues to help solve the crime has been an important component of sleuthing. It has been only recently, however, that the marriage of the most advanced techniques of science with criminal investigation has been offered as drama in the entertainment business’s…
IT IS THE MOST FAMOUS MILITARY INSTALLATION IN THE WORLD. And it doesn’t officially exist. Located a mere seventy-five miles outside of Las Vegas, the base has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government. Myths and hypotheses about Area 51 have long abounded, thanks to the intense secrecy enveloping it. Some claim it is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems, and nuclear facilities. Others believe that the lunar landing itself was filmed there. The prevalence of these rumors stems from…
