The Skeptic Mag

Ooops! TWO errors in previous message!

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:28:00 +0000

Hi All,

Apologies, I made TWO mistakes in previous email!

First, the event I said was on 25 October is actually on 26 October (thanks to John Webb for spotting that one).

Second, I pasted the wrong link in for the last event in the list in my previous email. This is what it should have said:

29/10/15, 7:45pm, The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London: Encountering Ghosts. A panel discussion with me, Al Robertson, and Rev Paul Turp for the London Fortean Society. http://forteanlondon.blogspot.co.uk

Sincere apologies for any confusion caused!

Best wishes,
Chris

October Spookiness!

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:11:00 +0000

Hi All,

I'll be doing lots of ghost talks in the run up to Halloween. In case you're interested, here's a list:

8/10/15, 7 pm (doors at 6 pm), Brighton: Paraphotography with me, Richard Wiseman & Brad Feuerhelm. http://miniclick.co.uk/2015/09/07/discussion-paraphotography-thurs-8th-sept-2015/

15/10/15, 6:10 pm, South Kensington: The Psychology of Ghosts and Hauntings for Imperial Atheists, Secularists and Humanists (IASH), Pippard Lecture Theatre, Sherfield Building, Imperial College's South Kensington Campus https://www.facebook.com/events/446678122182907/

21/10/15, 7 pm, Hackney Picturehouse: Nerd Night Halloween Special (ghosts, zombies and the occult). https://www.picturehouses.com/cinema/Hackney_Picturehouse/film/nerd-night-london

25/10/15, 7 pm, Kingston: The Psychology of Ghosts and Hauntings for South West London Humanists. http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-psychology-of-ghosts-and-hauntings-professor-chris-french-tickets-18381862646

Best wishes,
Chris

Empirical Sex Talk on Dacryphilia, tonight

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 06:59:00 +0000

Hi All,

There's an interesting talk tonight at the Bell Pub in the Empirical Sex series (details below). I know it's nothing to do with the paranormal but I'm happy to help promote this series organised by one of our students, Elisa Solaris.

Best wishes,
Chris

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Please find below the details of the next Empirical Sex lecture, tonight 1st October 7.30pm at the Bell Pub near Liverpool Street Station. Tickets available here £4 advance https://empiricalsex.eventbrite.co.uk

"All of us have experienced crying before. Likewise, many of us may have felt an urge to comfort somebody who is crying. But have you ever wondered how some people might be sexually aroused from this? In this talk, Richard Greenhill will be presenting a qualitative study that he carried out into dacryphilia, a non-normative sexual interest that involves enjoyment or arousal from tears and crying."

Richard Greenhill is a MRes Psychological Research Methods Student at Nottingham Trent University and has recently published his paper "Compassion, Dominance/Submission, and Curled Lips: A Thematic Analysis of Dacryphilic Experience in Dacryphilia" in the International Journal of Sexual Health.

Advance tickets £4 can be purchased here: https://empiricalsex.eventbrite.co.uk

Tickets can be purchased on the night but these will be £5 on the door

To find out more about this series:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmpiricalSex Twitter: @EmpiricalSex
or email us at ...@gmail.com">Empi...@gmail.com to be removed from our mailing list

Hope to see you all there,
Elisa

Little Atoms 393 – Timothy Snyder & Black Earth

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 10:00:20 +0000

Timothy Snyder is Housum Professor of History at Yale University, and has written and edited a number of critically acclaimed and prize-winning books about twentieth-century European history: Bloodlands won the Hannah Arendt Prize, the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award in the Humanities and the literature award of the American […]

Ash Pryce on "How to talk to the dead" @ Greenwich SitP, 7:30 pm, 7/10/15

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:12:00 +0000

Hi All,

Our next speaker at Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub is Ash Pryce who will be telling us "How to talk to the dead" (he won't really - see disclaimer below!).

Further details of the talk can be found below and at http://greenwich.skepticsinthepub.org/

Please forward on to groups or individuals who may be interested.

Best wishes,
Chris

+++++

Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub:

What?
How to Talk to the Dead

When?
Wednesday, 7 October 2015 at 7:30 pm

Where?
The Star and Garter
60 Old Woolwich Road, Greenwich, London SE10 9NY

Who?
Ash Pryce

What's the talk about?

Hydesville. New York. 1848. The young Fox sisters begin communicating with the spirit of a murdered beggar and spiritualism is born. This interactive look at a history of talking to the dead will feature an array of magical treats including levitating tables, ectoplasm manifestation and spirit communication.

Part magic show, part comedy, part rational inquiry this fun show has regularly packed venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Ash has performed frequently at Skeptics in the Pub groups to positive responses.

NB: This is a skeptically themed show and not intended as an actual demonstration of mediumship or psychic abilities.

Weird Science at Exeter Hub: tonight, 6 pm

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 07:51:00 +0000

Hi All,

Sorry for the short notice, but if you live in or around Exeter you might like to come along to hear me give my Weird Science talk this evening at 6 pm for Exeter's Psychology in the Pub group.

Details are below and at:

http://www.bps.org.uk/events/weird-science-introduction-anomalistic-psychology

Best wishes,
Chris

++++++

Speaker: Professor Chris French

Ever since records began, in every known society, a substantial proportion of the population has reported unusual experiences many of which we would today label as “paranormal”. Opinion polls show that the majority of the general public accepts that paranormal phenomena do occur. Such widespread experience of and belief in the paranormal can only mean one of two things. Either the paranormal is real, in which case this should be accepted by the wider scientific community which currently rejects such claims; or else belief in and experience of ostensibly paranormal phenomena can be fully explained in terms of psychological factors. This presentation will provide an introduction to the sub-discipline of anomalistic psychology, which may be defined as the study of extraordinary phenomena of behaviour and experience, in an attempt to provide non-paranormal explanations in terms of known psychological and physical factors. This approach will be illustrated with examples relating to a range of ostensibly paranormal phenomena.

Professor Chris French is the Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, as well as being a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and a member of the Scientific and Professional Advisory Board of the British False Memory Society. He has published over 120 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics within psychology. His main area of research is the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences. He frequently appears on radio and television casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims, as well as writing for the Guardian and The Skeptic magazine which, for more than a decade, he also edited. His most recent books are Why Statues Weep, co-edited with Wendy Grossman, Anomalistic Psychology, co-authored with Nicola Holt, Christine Simmonds-Moore, and David Luke, and Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience co-authored with Anna Stone. Follow him on Twitter: @chriscfrench

Fees and how to book

These are free events and open to everyone including BPS members, students and the General Public. There is no booking requirement.

Talk starts at 6.30pm

Location:
St Olaves Hotel, Mary Arches Street, Exeter, EX4 3AZ (Their website is: http://www.olaves.co.uk/business-meetings.php )

Dates:
30/09/2015 - 18:00 - 20:00

Contact Information:
If you have any queries, please email ...@bps.org.uk">Memb...@bps.org.uk . Please start the email subject line with the phrase ‘South West Exeter Hub PiP 2015’

Organiser:
South West of England Branch

Professor David Hand on The Improbability Principle @ Goldsmiths, 6:10 pm, 29/9/15 (tomorrow)

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 07:41:00 +0000

Hi All,

Final reminder!

The first speaker in our brand new APRU Invited Speaker Series is Professor David Hand, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London. The title of David's talk is "The Improbability Principle: Why coincidences, miracles, and rare events happen every day". The talk will take place at 6:10 pm on Tuesday, 29 September 2015, in LG01 in the Professor Stuart Hall Building (formerly the New Academic Building) at Goldsmiths (details below). As always, the talk is free, open to the public and there is no need to book. For further information, contact Duncan Colvin (email: ...@gold.ac.uk">d.co...@gold.ac.uk) or visit

http://www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id=8967

You can find the full programme of APRU speakers for 2015/16 here:

http://www.gold.ac.uk/apru/speakers/

Feel free to forward this message to individuals or groups that may be interested in attending (if you received this email that way, you are strongly advised to subscribe to the (free) Psychology of the Paranormal email list at http://www.gold.ac.uk/apru/email-network/ in order to ensure that you are kept informed about any changes in schedule, future events, etc.). To be sure that you are informed immediately of any very last-minute changes, you might like to follow me on Twitter (Twitter name: chriscfrench - note the middle "c").

Best wishes,
Chris

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Date: 29 September 2015

Time: 6:10 pm

Venue: LG01 in the Professor Stuart Hall Building (formerly the New Academic Building), Goldsmiths (see http://www.gold.ac.uk/find-us/)

Speaker: Professor David Hand

Title: The Improbability Principle: Why coincidences, miracles, and rare events happen every day

Abstract
Coincidences happen, incredibly unlikely things occur, and the apparently miraculous comes about. The improbability principle says that extraordinarily improbable events are commonplace. It shows that this is not a contradiction, but that we should expect identical lottery numbers to come up, lightning to strike twice, to meet strangers with your name, financial crashes to occur, and ESP experiments to produce positive results. All of these and more are straightforward consequences of the five solid mathematical laws constituting the improbability principle.

David Hand
David Hand is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London and Chief Scientific Advisor to Winton Capital Management. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and has served (twice) as President of the Royal Statistical Society. He serves on the Board of the UK Statistics Authority, and chairs the Board of the UK’s Administrative Data Research Network. His recent book The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day was published in 2014. He was made OBE for services to research and innovation in 2013.

Peter Popoff

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:12:00 +0000

Hi All,

Thanks to Alan Henness for the following links.

Good Thinking Investigates: Faith Healer Peter Popoff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rffe5DxPrc

And in today's Mirror: Two very different charlatans both selling the divine right to get rich quick:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/two-very-different-charlatans-both-6501321

Best wishes,
Chris

Me and Jean La Fontaine on Satanic Ritual Abuse Claims and False Memories at London Fortean Society, 7:45 pm, tonight, 24/9/15

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 08:39:00 +0000

Hi All,

Final reminder!

I'll be talking about satanic ritual abuse claims and false memories with Professor Jean La Fontaine at the London Fortean Society this evening, 24/9/15, at 7:45 pm, at The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EX. Full details here:

http://forteanlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/satanic-ritual-abuse-and-false-memories.html

Best wishes,
Chris

Little Atoms 392 – Royal Society Winton Prize 2015 Three

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 10:00:26 +0000

The last of three episodes of Little Atoms in association with the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, ahead of the award ceremony on Thursday 24th September. This week Neil Denny talks with Matthew Cobb, and there’s a repeat of our interview with Alex Bellos from May 2014. The show also includes a short […]

Special "Out of this World" issue of The Psychologist on Aliens and Space Travel

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 11:40:00 +0000

Hi All,

The next issue of the Psychologist (October 2015) includes a number of interesting articles on aliens and space travel:

http://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-28/october-2015/out-world

including one by me on alien contact and abduction claims:

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-28/october-2015/close-encounters-psychological-kind

Best wishes,
Chris

"Midwinter of the Spirit" starts tomorrow on ITV

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 09:11:00 +0000

Hi All,

Note that the writer of the above drama series, Steven Volk, will be speaking at Greenwich SitP on 7/9/16 (that's less than a year away!). The series starts tomorrow on ITV.

Best wishes,

Chris

Greenwich SitP Programme for 2016 announced!

Tue, 22 Sep 2015 07:51:00 +0000

Hi All,

Now that you've had time to get the dates of the APRU Invited Speaker Series into your diaries, I am pleased to announce that we have also finalised our line-up of speakers for Greenwich Skeptics in the Pub right up to the end of 2016 (well almost!). Note that the next three fabulous speakers in our series (Ash Pryce, Rob Bailey, and Deborah Hyde) are NOT included on the attached list as it just covers 2016. You can find full details of their talks here:

http://greenwich.skepticsinthepub.org/

As for our 2016 programme, it is attached (pretty version) and below (scruffy version). The web site will be updated with these details soon.

Best wishes,
Chris

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

GREENWICH SKEPTICS IN THE PUB

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS, 2016

Talks are held on the first Wednesday of the month starting at 7:30 pm unless otherwise noted. We meet in the Star and Garter pub, 60 Old Woolwich Road, London SE10 9NY. The Star and Garter pub is close to many transport links and is approximately 7 minutes walk from Maze Hill Overground Station, or 10 minutes walk from the Cutty Sark DLR Station. Although the pub does not currently serve food, there are plenty of excellent restaurants in Greenwich, including several very nearby on Trafalgar Road. Attendance is free (unless otherwise stated) although a small donation to help cover expenses is appreciated. There is no need to book in advance (again, unless otherwise stated).

For further information, visit http://greenwich.skepticsinthepub.org/ or contact Dr Deborah Bowden (email: ...@gold.ac.uk">d.bo...@gold.ac.uk).

NB: You are strongly recommended to register (at no cost) with the “Psychology of the Paranormal” email list (run by Professor Chris French, Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London) to ensure that you are informed of any future changes to the programme as well as news of related events. You can also follow @chriscfrench on Twitter for announcements (including news of last-minute cancellations, changes of venue, etc.).

Visit: http://www.gold.ac.uk/apru/email-network/

2016

6 Jan           Dr Itiel Dror
                University College London
                The Myth of Expertise
3 Feb           David Frank
                International Marketer & Teacher
                Sex, Love & Marketing: How To Market Yourself On Online Dating Sites
        
2 Mar           Michael Head

University College London
To Vax or Not To Vax: An amble through vaccination and those who dangerously preach against it

6 Apr           Dr Kimberley Wade
                University of Warwick
                Can digital forgeries change our memory?
        
4 May           Andrew Copson
                British Humanist Association
                Introduction to Humanism

1 Jun Alom Shaha
Physics teacher, film-maker, writer and science communicator

How to be a science teacher

6 Jul           Professor Karen Douglas
                University of Kent
                What is the appeal of conspiracy theories?
3 Aug           Hayley Stevens
                Skeptical Paranormal Researcher
                A Skeptic’s Guide to Ghost Hunting
        
7 Sep           Stephen Volk
Screen writer and author
                Creating paranormal drama for film and TV
5 Oct           Dr Ashok Jansari

Goldsmiths, University of London
Never Mind The Neuro-Bollocks: An Attempted Navigation Through All That Neuro-Stuff That Is Thrown At Us!

2 Nov Michael Marshall
Project director of the Good Thinking Society and vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society

Homeopathy in the UK: The NHS and Beyond

Little Atoms 391 – Royal Society Winton Prize 2015 Two

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 10:00:55 +0000

The second of three episodes of Little Atoms in association with the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. This week Neil Denny talks with David Adam, and there’s a repeat of our interview with Gaia Vince from August 2014. This show also marks the 10th anniversary of Little Atoms. We first broadcast on […]

Little Atoms 390 – Royal Society Winton Prize 2015 One

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 10:00:01 +0000

The first of three episodes of Little Atoms in association with the 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. This week Neil Denny talks with shortlisted authors Jim Al-Khalili & Johnjoe Mcfadden, and Jon Butterworth. Professor Jim Al-Khalili, OBE is an academic, author and broadcaster. He is a leading theoretical physicist based at the […]

Little Atoms 389 – Petina Gappah & The Book of Memory

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 10:00:18 +0000

Petina Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz University and the University of Zimbabwe. Her debut story collection, An Elegy for Easterly, won the Guardian First Book Prize in 2009. Her debut novel is The Book of Memory.

Little Atoms 388 – John Higgs & Stranger Than We Can Imagine

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 10:00:31 +0000

John Higgs is the author of I Have America Surrounded: The Life of Timothy Leary, The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds, and the novel The Brandy of the Damned. His latest book is Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century.

Little Atoms 387 – Michela Wrong & Borderlines

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 10:00:50 +0000

Michela Wrong is a distinguished international journalist, and has worked as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC and the Financial Times. She writes regularly for Foreign Policy magazine and the Spectator. Based on her experiences in Africa, In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz, her first book, won the […]

Little Atoms 386 – Stephen Grey & Dan Richards

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 10:00:08 +0000

Stephen Grey is a journalist based in London, who writes mainly about national security issues. He is best known for breaking the international exclusive story of the CIA’s secret rendition program. A former editor on the Sunday Times’ investigations unit, the Insight team, he continues to contribute to that newspaper, as well to the New […]

Little Atoms 385 – Alok Jha & The Water Book

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 10:00:57 +0000

Alok Jha is a journalist and broadcaster based in London. He is science correspondent for ITN and, before that, was science correspondent at the Guardian. He has presented science programmes for BBC2 and BBC Radio 4. Alok received a science-writing award from the American Institute of Physics in 2014, was named European Science Writer of […]

Little Atoms 384 – Helen Scales & Spirals in Time

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 10:30:02 +0000

Helen Scales is a marine biologist, a freelance researcher and broadcaster; she appears regularly on BBC Radio 4, Sky News and the BBC World Service, and has presented documentaries on topics such as whether people will ever live underwater, the science of making and surfing waves and the intricacies of sharks’ minds. Her doctorate involved […]

Little Atoms 383 – Iain Sinclair – London Overground & Black Apples of Gower

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 10:30:13 +0000

Iain Sinclair a poet, film-maker, essayist and the author of many acclaimed books, including Downriver (winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize), Lights Out for the Territory, London Orbital, Edge of Orison, Hackney: That Rose-Red Empire, Dining on Stones, Ghost Milk and American Smoke and London Overground, his account of a one-day walk around […]

Little Atoms 382 – Antony Beevor & Ardennes 1944

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:30:38 +0000

Antony Beevor was educated at Winchester and Sandhurst, where he studied under John Keegan. A regular officer with the 11th Hussars, he left the Army to write. He has published four novels, and numerous works of non-fiction. His books include The Spanish Civil War; Crete — The Battle and the Resistance, which was awarded a […]

Forum announcements • Forum resurrected

Phil McKerracher — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 13:33:19 +0000

This forum was closed in 2007 because it was needing a lot of maintenance due to spam and hacking attempts, and many users had moved to the ukskeptics forum anyway. But the ukskeptics forum has now closed and better security measures have been implemented here so I've re-opened it in case someone finds it useful, even if only for historical interest.

For now, all posts are moderated to make sure there's no spam. If it gets more useful comments than spam I'll open it up, otherwise I'll make it read-only again.

The RSS feed is now at http://www.skeptic.org.uk/forum/feed.php - you may need to adjust your reader.

Statistics: Posted by Phil McKerracher — 11 Jul 2015, 13:33

Little Atoms 381 – Dylan Evans & Andrew Mueller

Wed, 08 Jul 2015 10:00:45 +0000

On this week’s Little Atoms, Dylan Evans on The Utopia Experiment, and Andrew Mueller on his memoir It’s Too Late to Die Young Now. Dylan Evans is an academic, philosopher and journalist. He has written several popular science books, was named by the Independent as one of the 20 best young writers in Britain, and […]

Little Atoms 380 – Nell Zink & The Wallcreeper and Mislaid

Wed, 01 Jul 2015 10:30:25 +0000

Nell Zink was born in 1964 in southern California and grew up in rural Virginia. She attended Stuart Hall School and the College of William and Mary, where she majored in philosophy. Rather late in life she got a doctorate in Media Studies from the University of Tübingen, Germany. She works as a translator for […]

Little Atoms 379 – Emma Jane Unsworth & Alex Hourston

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 10:15:50 +0000

Emma Jane Unsworth is a journalist and won the Betty Trask Award for her novel Hungry, the Stars and Everything, and was shortlisted for the 2012 Portico Prize. Her short story ‘I Arrive First’ was included in The Best British Short Stories 2012. Emma’s latest novel Animals has won a 2015 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. After […]

Little Atoms 378 – Nick Lane & The Vital Question

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 10:30:03 +0000

Nick Lane is a biochemist in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London and leads the UCL Origins of Life Programme. His first book, Oxygen, was one of the Sunday Times Books of the Year in 2002. Power, Sex, Suicide was named as a book of the year in The Economist in 2005 and was short-listed for The Aventis […]

Little Atoms 377 – Joanna Biggs & Stevan Alcock

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 10:30:13 +0000

On this week's Little Atoms Podcast, Joanna Biggs on her book All Day Long: A Portrait of Britain at Work, and Stevan Alcock on his novel Blood Relatives.

Little Atoms 376 – Gavin Francis & Adventures in Human Being

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 10:30:14 +0000

On this week's Little Atoms, Neil Denny talks to Dr Gavin Francis about his latest book is Adventures in Human Being.

Little Atoms 375 – Lynsey Addario & It’s What I Do

Wed, 20 May 2015 10:30:54 +0000

On this week's Little Atoms, Pulitzer Prize-winning Photojournalist Lynsey Addario on her Memoir It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.

Little Atoms 374 – Brandy Schillace & Caitlin Doughty

Wed, 13 May 2015 10:30:23 +0000

On this week’s Little Atoms podcast, two books about Death. Brandy Schillace on Death’s Summer Coat, and Caitlin Doughty on Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Dr Brandy Schillace writes about culture, the history of medicine, and the intersections of medicine and literature. She is Research Associate and guest curator for the Dittrick Medical History Center […]

Little Atoms 373 – Zoe Williams & Get it Together

Wed, 06 May 2015 10:30:14 +0000

The day before the most uninspiring General Election in Decades, we talk to Zoe Williams about her new book Get it Together: Why We Deserve Better Politics.

Little Atoms 372 – Wellcome Book Prize 2105 Part Two

Wed, 29 Apr 2015 10:30:01 +0000

Neil Denny talks to two more shortlisted writers, Henry Marsh and Marion Coutts.

Little Atoms 371 – Wellcome Book Prize 2015 Part One

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 10:00:37 +0000

On Wednesday 29th April the winner of the 2015 Wellcome Book Prize will be announced. In the first of two special editions of Little Atoms, Neil Denny talks to three of the shortlisted writers. This week: Miriam Toews, Scott Stossell and Sarah Moss. Miriam Toews was born in 1964 in the small Mennonite town of […]

Little Atoms 370 – Christopher Bollen & Orient

Wed, 15 Apr 2015 10:00:32 +0000

On this week's Little Atoms, Neil Denny talks to New York writer Christopher Bollen about his new novel Orient.

Little Atoms 369 – Susan Pinker & Gary Wilson

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 10:00:01 +0000

On this week’s Little Atoms, Susan Pinker on her book The Village Effect, and Gary Wilson on his book Your Brain on Porn. Susan Pinker is a developmental psychologist and award-winning newspaper columnist who writes about psychology and social science in the Globe and Mail. She has worked as a clinical psychologist for twenty-five years […]

Little Atoms 368 – Andrew Scull & Madness in Civilization

Wed, 01 Apr 2015 10:00:27 +0000

Andrew Scull is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Science Studies, University of California, San Diego. He has previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Princeton. His many publications include Museums of Madness; Social Order/Mental Disorder; The Most Solitary of Afflictions: Madness and Society in Britain, 1700–1900; Masters of Bedlam; Madhouse: A Tragic Tale […]

Little Atoms 367 – Mind’s Eye Interviews Five – Dennis Reuter

Wed, 25 Mar 2015 09:30:25 +0000

Dr. Dennis Reuter is a New Horizons co-investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and the instrument scientist for Ralph, the New Horizons color imager and infrared spectrometer. New Horizons launched on 19th January 2006 and is scheduled to fly-by Pluto and its moons in July 2015. This is another interview recorded by Little Atoms […]

Little Atoms 366 – Hannah Fry & Jon Ronson

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 09:30:44 +0000

On this week’s Little Atoms podcast, Hannah Fry on The Mathematics of Love and Jon Ronson on his latest book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. Dr. Hannah Fry is a mathematician and complexity scientist from University College London’s Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis. Fry also regularly presents the Number Hub strand of BBC Worldwide’s YouTube […]