Sunday, December 20, 2015

Jan 9 - A Brief History of Creation

Science and the Search for 

the Origin of Life

Bill Mesler

Author and Journalist


Bill Mesler will be discussing his new book, A Brief History of Creation.  Described as a “rich, masterfully woven tale of our still-evolving ideas about life and how it came to be” by author and scientist Sean Carroll, A Brief History of Creation is the epic tale of the often quixotic search to understand perhaps the most important question science has ever faced.  It is a story that encompasses many of the seminal moments in the history of science, and is filled with some of its most colorful and iconoclastic thinkers – Darwin, Pasteur, Crick and Woese, to name just a few.



Mesler will examine how the scientific search has been shaped by religion, philosophy and even politics.  He will discuss how the march of scientific progress is not nearly as straightforward as we often assume.



Bill Mesler is a veteran journalist who has worked for the daily Santa Cruz Sentinel, the weekly San Francisco Bay Guardian and The Nation magazine.



Saturday, January 9, 2016


1:30 pm


* * * I M P O R T A N T * * *
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be unable to use the National Science Foundation for this Saturday’s NCAS talk.  Instead, the talk will be held in the atrium behind The Front Page, which is in the same building as NSF (4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA).

The Front Page
4201 Wilson Blvd
Rear Atrium
Arlington, VA 

 
frontpagearlington.com/
 

www.nsf.gov/about/visit

FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members

Refreshments and socializing after the talk.

Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - December 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • Dec 12 Lecture - Forensic Follies: The Dark Side of CSI by Prof. Walter Rowe
  • Torn From Today's Headlines by Scott Snell
    CBS News Gratuitously Highlights "Bermuda Triangle" after Freighter is Sunk by a Hurricane
  • Shadow Light
  • Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA!
  • Time to Renew?

Thursday, December 03, 2015

Dec 12 - Forensic Follies: The Dark Side of CSI

Walter F. Rowe, PhD
Department of Forensic Sciences
The George Washington University
Forensic science enjoys an excellent reputation on television. TV shows such as Forensic Files, CSI and Bones laud the science and the scientists. However, in the real world forensic science is facing an existential crisis. Cases continue to come to light in which convictions were obtained by pseudo-science, by faked science or by science incorrectly applied. The victims of these miscarriages of justice have often languished in prison for decades. In one case an innocent man was executed because a fire investigator erroneously concluded an accidental fire was the result of arson. This presentation will explore examples of bad forensic science in order to identify the causes of these miscarriages of justice. It will also examine current efforts at the federal level to improve forensic science.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - November 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • Nov 21 NCAS Lecture:
    "
    The American Civil War: Obsolete Myths and Real Questions" by Andrew Zimmerman, PhD
    Department of History, George Washington University
  • December NCAS Lecture:
     
    "Forensic Follies: The Dark Side of CSI." by Professor Walter F. Rowe, Department of Forensic Sciences at The George Washington University
  • Torn From Today's Headlines by Scott Snell:
    Capital Gazette Misleads Readers About Alleged "Spirit Voices" Recorded at Glen Burnie Library
  • When Strange Coincidences Happen to Normal Skeptics, or How NCAS Board Members Can Meet Without Really Trying
  • AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
  • Shadow Light 
  • Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA (New Time)!
  • Time to Renew?

Friday, October 16, 2015

Nov 21 - The American Civil War: Obsolete Myths and Real Questions, by Andrew Zimmerman, PhD

This lecture will introduce some of the most interesting and important questions historians of the American Civil War are asking today.   These include: what role did slaves themselves play in the end of slavery? How did the Union Army defeat the Confederacy and win the war? It will also debunk some persistent myths that sometimes overshadow these real questions, including the claim that the Confederacy fought for states' rights rather than for the perpetuation of slavery. Even if you have never given a thought to the Civil War, you will come away from this lecture able to discuss and debate this defining moment in US history.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - October 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • Oct 10 NCAS Lecture: The Skeptical Life of Martin Gardner by Dana Richards, PhD
  • Upcoming "Ghost Trackers" Event at Public Library
  • AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
  • Shadow Light 
  • Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA (New Start Time)!
  • Time to Renew?

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - September 2015

September 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • Sep 19 NCAS Lecture: The Secrets of Surveys: When Can You Trust Them?Fran Featherston and Kristin Stettler
  • Board of Directors Election Results
  • NCAS SkepTour Recap
  • Torn From Today's Headlines By Scott Snell
    • Local Girl Makes...Well...Bad
    • Local Library Employs the Services of "Ghost Hunters"
  • AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
  • Shadow Light 
  • Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA (New Start Time)!
  • Time to Renew?

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - April 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • April 4 NCAS Lecture: You Mean They're Not True? Busting media myths, Joseph Campbell, PhD Professor, School of Communication
  • NCAS YouTube Channel
  • NCAS Board Elections: Electronic Voting
  • AmazonSmile
  • Shadow Light
  • Apr 8 Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA (New Start Time!)
  • Time to Renew?

NCAS Public Lecture Series

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Apr 4 - You mean they’re not true? Busting media myths, W. Joseph Campbell, PhD

Communications professor, author, and blogger W. Joseph Campbell debunks prominent media-driven myths — those well-known stories about and/or by the news media that are widely believed and often retold but which, under scrutiny, dissolve as apocryphal or wildly exaggerated. These myths include the hero-journalist interpretation of Watergate, the famous "Cronkite Moment" of 1968, and the myth of superlative reporting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, all of which are addressed in Campbell's book, Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism (University of California Press, 2010).

Sunday, March 08, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - March 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics

  • Mar 14 NCAS Lecture: How diet and physical activity dynamically interact to affect human body weight by Kevin D. Hall, PhD biophysicist, National Institutes of Health
  • April NCAS Lecture at Bethesda
  • CityLab Article Features NCAS SkepTour Map
  • Torn From Today's Headlines, By Scott Snell Tom Harkin, "Father" and Patron of National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), Leaves Senate
  • NCAS Board Elections: Call for Candidates
  • AmazonSmile
  • Shadow Light
  • Mar 11 Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA (New Start Time!)
  • Time to Renew

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - February 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • Feb 14 NCAS Lecture: Are Genetically Modified Foods Safe to Eat? and Other Issues Related to the Science of Genetic Engineering by Anastasia Bodnar, PhD
  • Mar 14 NCAS Lecture: How diet and physical activity dynamically interact to affect human body weight by Kevin D. Hall, PhD biophysicist, National Institutes of Health
  • CityLab Article Features NCAS SkepTour Map
  • NCAS Board Elections: Call for Candidates
  • AmazonSmile
  • Shadow Light
  • Feb 11 Drinking Skeptically in MD and  VA (New Start Time!)
  • Skeptic Line Number
  • Time to Renew

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Shadow of a Doubt - January 2015

The Monthly Calendar of the National Capital Area Skeptics
  • Jan 10 Ghosts, Elves, and the Man from Mars: Two Decades (Skeptically) Investigating the Paranormal, Jerry Drake 
  • Jan 11 NCAS Movie Meetup!
    • About the Movie: THE IMITATION GAME
  • Jan 21 Michael Shermer in DC
  • Amazon Smile
  • Shadow Light
  • Wed Jan 14 Drinking Skeptically in MD and VA!
  • Skeptic Line Number
  • Time to Renew?