March 15 - It Came from the Science Fair!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: [March 12, 2020, Noon]: Because of the concern about meeting in large groups and the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 virus, this lecture has been postponed. We expect to reschedule it later this year.


Presented by Adam Ruben, PhD
Writer, Comedian, and Molecular Biologist

What are the most common mistakes kids make when preparing projects for science fairs?  What can we learn from these events about the way science is taught and understood?  And can we all please agree, onceand for all, that science has learned all it needs to learn from measuring classmates' heart rates before and after playing video games?  In this talk, scientist/comedian Adam Ruben will share some of the most bizarre, most inadvisable, least scientifically rigorous science projects he's judged and talk about their implications for the future of science education.

Adam Ruben is a writer, comedian, and molecular biologist. Adam has performed stand-up comedy and told stories on stage for more than 20 years. He has appeared on the Food Network, the Travel Channel, the Weather Channel, Discovery International, Netflix, and NPR, and he currently hosts the shows Outrageous Acts of Science and What On Earth? on the Science Channel and is writing episodes of Elinor Wonders Why, a new show on PBS Kids premiering in September 2020. Adam is the author of two books, Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School (Random House, 2010) and Pinball Wizards: Jackpots, Drains, and the Cult of the Silver Ball (Chicago Review Press, 2017), and writes the monthly science humor column Experimental Error in the otherwise respectable journal Science.

SUNDAY, March 15, 2020 (Note date- Sunday is not a typo)
1:30 pm
Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA

February 8 - Should We Worry About 5G Towers?

Presented by Roopesh Ojha, Ph.D.

The fifth generation wireless technology for digital cellular networks, popularly known as 5G, is rapidly being deployed around the world. The leap in network speeds it will enable have several well-known benefits and, if the past is any guide, the most profound benefits haven't even been imagined yet. 5G uses radio frequencies that are higher than the radio frequencies in current use. In some quarters, concerns have been raised about putative health impacts of these radio waves. In this talk, Dr Ojha will take a look at 5G from the physics perspective as well as the statistics perspective and discuss where the balance of probabilities lies.

Dr. Ojha has worked for the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (including a year operating a telescope at the South Pole) in Cambridge, MA, the Australia Telescope National Facility in Sydney, and the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. He currently works for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space telescope primarily studying the physics of active galactic nuclei - galaxies where the dominant source of energy is matter falling onto a central supermassive black hole. Dr Ojha is known for his ability to communicate science at any level, from highly specialized scientific meetings to elementary school students. He is a regular speaker at local schools, non-profit organizations, and STEM events.

Saturday, February 8, 2020

1:30 pm 

Connie Morella Library

7400 Arlington Road

Bethesda, MD

January 2020 "The Little Non-Profit That Could" presented by Nick Little, Vice President, General Counsel, and Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry February NCAS Lecture - "Should We Worry About 5G Towers?" Saturday, February 8, 2020 at Connie Morella (formerly Bethesda Regional) Library. National Archives Project Blue Book Exhibit Prez Sez AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS! Shadow Light Time to Renew? Click to see Shadow.

January 2020

• "The Little Non-Profit That Could" presented by Nick Little, Vice President, General Counsel, and Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry

  
  
• February NCAS Lecture - "Should We Worry About 5G Towers?" Saturday, February 8, 2020 at Connie Morella (formerly Bethesda Regional) Library.
• National Archives Project Blue Book Exhibit
• Prez Sez
  
• AmazonSmile: Thanks to our members who are supporting NCAS!
• Shadow Light
• Time to Renew?

Click to see Shadow.

January 11 - The Little Non-Profit That Could – CFI’s challenge to pseudoscience and alternative medicine through consumer protection laws

Presented by Nick Little
Vice President, General Counsel,
and Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry

How is so much pseudoscientific junk on store shelves? Why isn’t homeopathy illegal? Nick Little, Legal Director and General Counsel of Center for Inquiry (CFI), explains the path that CFI has taken to filing consumer protection lawsuits against retail giants CVS and Walmart for their marketing of homeopathic products.  The talk will address the limits of the law in dealing with pseudoscience, and how litigation and lobbying together can help skeptics challenge both government policies and private company promotion of pseudoscience — from climate change denial to snake oil medical products.

Nick Little is Vice President, General Counsel, and Legal Director of the Center for Inquiry. As CFI's attorney, he supervises the Center's litigation, both in the area of separation of church and state and the protection of the rights of non-believers, where he has brought multiple suits to require states to permit secular wedding celebrants, and in the area of skepticism, where he has filed CFI's groundbreaking consumer protection suit against CVS stores for their deceptive marketing of homeopathy. Educated at Oxford University, the University of  Warwick, and Vanderbilt University Law School, Nick seeks to keep CFI involved in cutting edge litigation to further its mission of a secular society based on reason, science, and humanist values.

 January 11, 2020
1:30PM

Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington VA
6 minute walk from Virginia Square Metro Station