Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist, lecturer and author widely known for his best-selling books that blend popular culture with exploration of the universe’s deepest scientific complexities, gave a public lecture at Capital University Monday night.
Krauss presented “Nonsense, Non-Science, and Science: From Aliens to Creationism” to a standing-room-only mix of students, faculty, staff and community members in the Bridge of Learning, located in room 260 of Ruff Memorial Learning Center on Capital’s Bexley campus, 1 College and Main. The event was sponsored by Capital’s Honors Program, behavioral sciences department and Provost’s Office.
Krauss is the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics, professor of astronomy, and director of the Center for Education and Research at Case Western Reserve University. He is a leader in the effort to defend the teaching of science in public schools and the author of more than 200 scientific publications and many popular articles on physics and astronomy. Krauss also has written seven popular books, including “Beyond Star Trek,” “The Physics of Star Trek” and “Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond.”
Vocal on issues of science and society, he has penned dozens of opinion/editorials for national newspapers and magazines, including “Make Science Part of the Debate,” co-authored by Chris Mooney and published in the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and San Jose Mercury, and “Science and the Candidates,” published in The Wall Street Journal.
Krauss provided the following abstract of his talk.
Nonsense, Non-Science, and Science: From Aliens to Creationism
In March 1996, U.S. presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said on national television that he wasn't descended from apes, and he didn't think children should be taught that they are. Not a single U.S. journalist questioned him on this position. In 2007, three Republican candidates indicated that they did not believe in evolution, and at least one of them indicated he was not willing to come down on the side of an earth that was older than 6,000 years. Most recently, the popular debate about the teaching of intelligent design in public schools presents a perplexing quandary for scientists and policy makers.
How do scientists take part in a national debate that essentially has been manufactured by a marketing campaign to appear to be a scientific controversy, but which bears little or no contact with the scientific enterprise? At the same time, these developments are taking place in the context of a larger distrust of science and efforts by various groups to restrict the flow of information, control government access of scientists, etc.
Lawrence Krauss will explore examples from the news, advertisements, TV shows and movies, as well as from his books, to discuss the difference between science and fiction and to explore how the distinction between sense and nonsense is becoming blurred in popular discourse. He also will address the important issue of what science is, and what it is not. The lecture will be part “tour” through the fascinating world of modern physics, part fun-filled examination of video clips, and part sober discussion of the various dangers facing modern society if we fail to learn the lessons science has taught us about the world. We must not be timid about offending sensibilities when those sensibilities are based on nonsense.
Photo by Jessica Lifland, courtesy of Lawrence Krauss.