Lab Out Loud » skepticism

Episode 57 – Preventing Bad Science in the Classroom

Dale — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 06:30:26 +0000

Dr. Ben Goldacre

Finishing our UK tour, we talk with Dr. Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks and Big Pharma Flacks. Dr. Goldacre talks to us about interpreting scientific results, the tricks used to deceive us, and how science teachers might combat bad science in the classroom.

badscience.net
Bad Science Column at guardian.co.uk
Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks and Big Pharma Flacks (from Amazon.com)
Ben Goldacre’s Twitter Feed
Review of Bad Science by Cory Doctorow on boingboing.net
Ben Goldacre videos on YouTube
Ben Goldacre Talks Bad Science from PopTech on Vimeo (below)

Direct download: LOL57.mp3

Episode 47 – Evolution for the Young Reader

Brian — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:15:53 +0000

Daniel Loxton

Our guest this week is Daniel Loxton, editor of Junior Skeptic and author/illustrator. Daniel joins us to talk about Junior Skeptic, shepherding and his new book: Evolution: How we and all Things Came to Be.

Links:

Praise From GeekDad (Wired):

Evolution

Daniel Loxton’s Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be (Kids Can Press, 2010) is the best overview of evolution for children of which I’m aware. There have been other recent kids’ books on Darwin, motivated by last year’s 150th anniversary of Origin of the Species. Instead of focusing on Darwin, Loxton sticks with explaining the mechanics of natural selection, both what it can accomplish and explain and what it can’t. Beautifully illustrated and elegantly written, any child interested in the story of life will be fascinated by it. There’s no need to take my word for it: This review is a couple of weeks later than I’d hoped, because my 6-yr-old kept stealing it and carrying it around the house to study.

Direct download: LOL47.mp3

Lab Out Loud at the Amaz!ng Meeting 7

Dale — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:56:14 +0000

This weekend Brian and I are happy to be in Las Vegas attending The Amaz!ng Meeting7 (TAM7). TAM7 is a conference sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) that showcases speakers and guests that focus on critical thinking and skepticism.

You might remember our discussion with Phil Plait (a.k.a. The Bad Astronomer) in episode 12 when we talked about the importance of skepticism in science education. Plait is now the president of the JREF and we were excited to finally meet him in person.

Phil Plait, President of JREF

The conference opened with a keynote by Bill Prady, Executive Producer of our favorite sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Prady’s show has some wonderful examples that can be used in the science class. (We hope to get a chance to talk to him more about this in our third season.)

Bill Prady, Executive Producer of 'The Big Bang Theory'

‘The Big Bang Theory’ is a show I started watching after our conversation with Jennifer Ouellette in episode 28. Ouellette also spoke at TAM7 this afternoon.

Jennifer Ouellette, Science and Entertainment Exchange

If you’re here at the conference, please stop us to say hello (we’re wearing our Lab Out Loud t-shirts today). Can’t attend the conference? See what’s happening by following our Twitter feeds (@basler and @bbartel); the entire conference is also available via live stream.

Episode 27 – Questions with Skeptoid

Brian — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:16:03 +0000

Brian Dunning

For this episode, we took a suggestion from one of our listeners. Nathan from Western Maine writes:

For almost a year now I have been listening to the podcast called “Skeptoid,” recorded and published by a good skeptic fellow named Brian Dunning. He researches and reports on subjects like alternative medicine and paranormal occurrences in a weekly podcast that lasts about ten minutes, and attacks them with good science. I’ve learned a lot about the scientific method, clinical testing, fishy reporting, and just plain common sense from listening to this, and I really enjoy it. I also use the episodes in my class from time to time, and there’s a lot of educational value in them. I thought Brian would make an interesting guest for the Lab Out Loud, and I suggest you try to contact him.

So we welcome Brian Dunning to the show – the man behind Skeptoid. Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena “is a weekly pro-science, anti-pseudoscience podcast.” Brian talks to us about Skeptoid, using the scientific method, and using skepticism in the science classroom.

Preview from the Show:

One thing that I like to do is try to apply the scientific method to things that you generally don’t do in school, which is stuff that’s in popular culture… Things that are on television, things that are on the Discovery channel, Sci Fi channel, National Geographic channel – all of the paranormal channels, for example. There’s so much that’s being promoted in the media these days, and nobody ever takes a critical look at it, and nobody ever tries to apply the scientific method to that. So I like to find interesting things from history, interesting things that a lot of people generally know about – and not only explain those phenomena in an interesting way, but also use the scientific method to explain what’s actually going on.

They are hijacking scientific-sounding terms and terminology, and words that impress people. So many things are sold today with the claim that “quantum physics supports this.” And of course, who understands quantum theory? Who is qualified? What Joe-blow on the street is qualified to understand quantum theory, and why that’s an implausible theory for that explanation for the claim… It’s a serious, serious threat to scientific literacy because it works. It works so much of the time – I mean look at the book “The Secret”. Complete nonsense, and it’s sold because it’s got a “chapter in there that says “quantum theory explains how this works.” And I’m sorry – no matter how critical or scientific most people think they are, very few people know enough to refute that claim.

[What might be some examples that educators might use in the classroom?]
Here’s one. There’s a lot of paranoia about mercury poisoning that you can get from the fillings in your teeth. Most dentists use – and historically have used – what’s called an amalgam filling in teeth, and mercury is one of the ingredients. Of course when we say “mercury”, you think “oh my gosh, mercury is a horrible neurotoxin,” and that’s true – it is. But you can say the same thing of chlorine, but of course that’s one of the main examples of salt – which is not harmful at all. Almost every element, when it’s in the right combination with other elements, is not dangerous, it’s not poisonous. And this is the case with the mercury found in amalgam fillings. So there’s one group of anti-science nuts – I’m not sure what their motivation is, because a lot of them are dentists. They put out this video – it’s called the infamous “Smoking Teeth” video. …They’ve taken a tooth that’s been extracted, so they’re holding it with tweezers, and they dip it in water, and they put it under a light in front of a fluorescent screen, and you can see this vapor rising off of the tooth. And they say: “That’s mercury.” That’s mercury that, everyone in the world who has mercury fillings in their teeth – they’ve got mercury that’s being constantly released out of their fillings into their body… The smoking teeth video is so fun, because it touches on so many aspects of science. You just mentioned the health one, well what is it that mercury does to the body? And in what forms is mercury a neurotoxin? In what form can if cause neurological damage? And then what I found was most fascinating – it’s the most obvious point about this little smoking teeth video is – what’s the relative weight of mercury vapor, compared to air?” It’s heavier. It’s much heavier. Mercury vapor would never rise – it would fall to the floor like carbon dioxide.

Links:

Direct download: LOL27.mp3

Episode 24 – The Bad Astronomer Returns

Dale — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:16:09 +0000

The Bad Astonomer

We welcome Phil Plait (aka The Bad Astronomer) back to the show. Phil talks to us about the International Year of Astronomy and highlights a few events planned for the IYA. As President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, Phil also discusses the role of skepticism in education.

Links:

Skeptic
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
PZ Myers Pharyngula
Stop Jenny McCarthy – post from the BA
Stop Jenny
Amanda Peet supports the science with vaccinateyourbaby.org
Dale uses viral videos to promote skepticism in the classroom

Direct download: LOL24.mp3

Episode 12 – Skepticism and the Bad Astronomer

Brian — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:43:48 +0000

Bad Astronomer

Today’s guest calls himself the Bad Astronomer. Phil Plait is an astronomer, an author, and a well-known blogger at www.badastronomy.com. Phil talks to us about myths and skepticism in the science classroom.

Preview from the show:
Plait: I am in fact a skeptic. In the public mind – if you ask somebody “what’s a skeptic” – most people think it’s a cynic or a denier, somebody who just doesn’t believe in anything. And that’s not strictly true. All a skeptic is, is someone who demands evidence for a claim. If you come up to me and say the sky is pink, I’m going to say “what is your evidence for this?”. Or I’ll say, “that’s an interesting claim, but here’s the evidence against it.” It’s someone who applies critical thinking, logic, evidence, observation, the scientific method to any sort of claim.
Science is all about skepticism. They are hardly different – I mean skepticism is a tool of science. Richard Feynman (the physicist) said “science is a way of not fooling ourselves. It’s a way of figuring what’s out what’s really going on”. And skepticism is just a way of looking at things. It’s making sure that if you’re thinking about something, if there’s a claim that’s being made – whether it’s by a person or even yourself, there’s a way of examining it so that you can test its reality or not. And the problem is, it’s not something we teach our kids. In fact, we teach them exactly the opposite. We teach them to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. We go to movies where the skeptic is always a jerk, and the end is always the supenatural cause or trust in humanity or whatever.”

Plait: Scooby Doo was a great cartoon because in the end, it really wasn’t a ghost or whatever, it was always old man Marley wearing a mask, who didn’t want the developers to come in and destroy his farm or whatever.”

Plait: When you’re teaching kids to the test, and you’re saying “here’s how you do the math” without explaining why, “here’s what you’re supposed to get in the results in the lab” without explaining why, we’re not teaching our kids science. We’re teaching them nothing, we’re teaching them belief, faith – and that’s not what science is about. Science is not about belief, science is about evidence.

Follow the Bad Astronomer:

Posts from badastronomy.com discussed on the show:

Books:

Skepticism on the Internet:

Direct download: nstalol12.mp3