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Book Club: The Man Who Knew Too Much by David Leavitt June 23 marks the 100th birthday of one of the most important mathematicians of the 20th century, a man who if not singlehandedly winning World War II, shortened it by at least a year and saved millions...

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Movie Club: The Revisionaries In keeping with this month's theme of religion in the classroom, The Revisionaries, a documentary about the Texas State Board of Education's textbook selection process, is showing at the Somerville Theater...

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Book Club: Next Book and Good News Update: Katherine Stewart will be joining us for our first ever author visit to a BSBC meeting. Don't miss it! P.S. I got Mary Roach's autograph (times 2) last night. She would have signed my...

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Upcoming Events for April and May 2012 The Cambridge Science Festival is happening right now! Tomorrow (Tuesday April 24) The Story Collider, a sort of oral history meets particle physics project, will be doing a presentation at MIT. They...

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Upcoming Events for April and May 2012

Posted on : 23-04-2012 | By : John | In : Event, local

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The Cambridge Science Festival is happening right now! Tomorrow (Tuesday April 24) The Story Collider, a sort of oral history meets particle physics project, will be doing a presentation at MIT. They sponsored a fantastic show at NECCS last Friday with 6 prominent skeptics telling brief personal stories of they journey to skepticism. Tuesday’s edition will feature 7 local scientists and science journalists. Free.

Don’t forget Mary Roach on Wednesday.

On Saturday May 5th, our own Todd W will be running for his life, pursued by ravenous Zombies, all to promote vaccine research. Help support this worthy cause.

Book Club: Douglas Starr’s “The Killer of Little Shepherds”

Posted on : 11-08-2011 | By : John | In : Book Club, Event

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Our book club meeting this month is again at the usual place and time, 3 PM Saturday August 13 on the lawn just north of Harvard Yard, between Memorial Hall (the big ugly pseudo gothic building) and the Science Center (the big ugly modern building that looks like a flight of giant stairs to nowhere.) It’s supposed to be warm and sunny, but if it rains, we’ll move indoors to the cafeteria of the Northwest building up Oxford Street just past the museum.

The book is about the birth of forensic science (CSI: Lyon, as in Lyon, France, circa 1894.) I’m about 1/2 way through, the prime suspect is about to go to trial, and is attempting an insanity defense. It’s a pretty compelling story, all the more so because it’s true. The author alternates chapters between the story of the criminal, Joesph Vacher, and the history of forensics, mostly focusing on Professor Lacassagne of the Lyon Medical School, who was the leading forensic scientist of the time.

Skeptics in the Pub with Jonathan McDowell: Elegy For A Spaceplane: 30 Years of Space Shuttles

Posted on : 29-06-2011 | By : John | In : Event, local, Skeptics in the Pub

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Jonathan says:

NASA’s Space Shuttle is being retired this month after three decades of ups and downs both literal and metaphorical.

I’ll take a trip down memory lane and review what the Shuttles did and didn’t do, and discuss other spaceplanes past and present. Finally, I’ll speculate about what’s next for the US human spaceflight program.

Jonathan McDowell in the Soyuz T-3 reentry module

Hello, Earthlings!

Jonathan is a long-time member of the Boston Skeptics, an astronomer, and expert on space travel. He writes a monthly column for Sky and Telescope and maintains the Jonathan’s Space Report web site. He previously spoke to us about the history of the Moon Race, in a very interesting, informative and popular talk, especially about the little-known Soviet moon program. Be sure to arrive early so you can get a seat in front!

RSVP on Facebook

When: Monday, July 25 at 7pm

Where: Upstairs at Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub,
Harvard Square

See you all there!

Brilliant Idea: The 10-Minute Lecture

Posted on : 20-11-2008 | By : Rebecca | In : Event

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As mentioned, last night I (and frequent Skepchick commenter Expatria) attended Nature Network’s pub event, which featured two guest scientists delivering 10-minute talks about what they’d do with limitless research funding. The first was Antoine van Oijen, who talked about the possibilities of studying a single molecule. His apt metaphor: if aliens visited Earth and collectively reported on the characteristics of humans, they’d conclude that each has one testicle and one ovary. He dreams of having the resources to color-tag a single molecule as it moves across a strand of DNA, watching as it encounters another molecule. To a layperson like myself, it sounded pretty neat, and van Oijen was very charismatic and accessible. Hearing the technical questions that came from the audience of scientists, though, I suspect I’m missing quite a lot. Homework!

The other scientist to speak was Andreas Mershin from the Center for Biomedical Engineering at MIT. I found him to be even more accessible, mostly because of the fact that his research has such clear practical applications in the real world. He’s working on developing bioelectronic photovoltaic applications, which I believe is a fancy way of saying that he’s trying to find a way to harness solar energy using plants. This is, in a word, rad. In multiple words, it is rad as all hell. Allow me to explain further.