Wednesday 24 November 2010

Letter from Hardcash productions

Received this a couple of days back (unfortunately only just had time to catch up on the emails):

---
Dear Aston Humanist Society

My name is Andrew Smith and I am a producer with a TV company - www.hardcashproductions.com - which makes documentaries for Dispatches on Channel 4. Naomi Philips gave me your contact details from the BHA. I'm developing a documentary looking at Islamic faith schools - primary and secondary schools, especially independent ones - in the light of concerns which have been expressed over the nature of some of the teaching which may be taking place, and wanted to know if you had come across concerns in your local community area of this nature? I'm also interested in teaching and child protection at unregulated madrassas.

I would very much welcome a confidential chat over any issues of this nature you may have come across in your area. Could you give me a ring on *** or email me a number to contact you on?

Thanks very much and I look forward to hearing from you
--

No idea what to really make of it, or why they would ask me! I've got some opinions on faith schools, sure, but I'm less sure that I'm brave enough to get involved in TV stuff.

No harm in ringing him and asking for more details I guess.

Saturday 30 October 2010

Hamza Andreas Tzortzis: Islam or Atheism?

During Aston University’s Freshers’ Week, back in September, I got talking to a chap from the Aston University Islamic Society who was very excited by the prospect of working with the Aston Humanist Society, and particularly with getting us involved in debates with some of the speakers they had lined up.

Then, over the last few weeks, this poster has been plastered on all the noticeboards all over campus. This is exactly the kind of thing that I set the humanist society up to take part in! Given that I’m supposed to be in the middle of writing my thesis, I hoped to be able to attend but wasn’t sure if I would be able to fit it in, but a couple of phone calls and texts from the Islamic Society reminding/urging me to come sealed the deal.


First a little about the speaker. Hamza Andreas Tzortzis’ was a humanist, as his parents still are, but became a Muslim around 8 years ago. His blog introduces him as “an international public speaker on Islam, a writer and intellectual activist. He has debated prominent intellectuals and academics. Some of his interlocutors include the leading humanist and best selling author Peter Cave, the editor of the Philosophy Now magazine, Rick Lewis, and the highly acclaimed Professor Simon Blackburn. More recently Hamza debated one of the leading American atheists and secular activists, Dr Ed Buckner, the president of American Atheists.

Only an hour before the talk, I was sent a link to this post on the Harry's Place blog on Tzortzis, along with a warning not to engage with him. I read the post with interest and admit it did set some alarm bells ringing, not least allusions to Tzortzi’s ties to an extremist Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain (HTB), which the Centre for Social Cohesion called a “revolutionary Islamist party that works to establish an expansionist super-state in Muslim-majority countries, unifying Muslims worldwide as one political bloc, or “ummah”…”

The article also urges that, in the same way that Richard Dawkins now famously refuses to share a platform with Creationists, humanists should not debate with people like Tzortzis for fear of lending them credibility. It’s clear from the way Tzortzis introduces himself on his blog (and during the talk) that he is certainly proud of the people he has shared a platform with. He has managed to secure time with some significant atheists; it certainly does give him an air of respectability to have gone up against such prominent and intelligent speakers.

The Harry’s Place and Richard Dawkins articles propose taking the high road in order to avoid giving the public the false impression that there was some to debate about at all. I gave this idea some real thought and still decided to go; that’s not to say I’m not struggling answer whether it’s more important not to lend them credibility, or to actively show that their arguments lack credibility.

I decided to go for a number of reasons. First, I’m concerned that not engaging with groups like the Islamic Society and speakers like Tzortzis gives the impression that atheists and the like are ‘above all that’, which I hope is not the case, and certainly isn’t the case for me. Second, I’m not sure avoiding lending credibility outweighs the obligation to challenge the anti-secular, anti-science, anti-liberal ideology which is actively undermining progress and societal cohesion; there is an argument to be had because one side is already doing the arguing. I think it would have been a real shame to simply ignore him and leave his potentially dangerous opinions unchallenged. Third, Tzortzis was on campus preaching to my fellow students, even if I wasn’t going to take him on in a debate, it is important to know just what he is saying and how he is saying it. I was curious to see what the group thought of his ideas and just what kind of reactions he would provoke.

I have to say that I was impressed by the size of the crowd. A 120-capacity lecture theatre was full, with around 20 people sitting on the floor. It started off with a quick talk by a representative of the Qu’ran Project a scheme started to distribute a compendium containing a full up-to-date translation of the Qu’ran , with additional chapters aimed at addressing issues like the role of women and science in Islam. I bagged my free copy and made it next on my reading list – although I might skip to the Science in the Qu’ran chapter first. It’s interesting to note how much time religious people expend trying to convince us that their texts have scientific credibility, given the little credence they give to science. If science doesn’t really matter, why bother?

My initial intention was just to sit in on Tzortzis’ talk, make copious notes and report back what was said, and perhaps deconstruct his arguments. I don’t think it would be particularly fruitful to provide a transcript of his talk, especially as it won’t be verbatim and I don’t want to be accused of misrepresenting his ideas. I did record the talk on my phone, but was told that the Islamic Society own the rights to the video that it would be appearing on Tzortzis’ YouTube channel shortly. Almost all of the content of the talk is covered in various articles on his blog:

How do we know God is one? A theological and philosophical perspective.
God’s will and power. Answers to common questions.
Questions: How does the Qu’ran’s uniqueness make it a divine and miraculous text?
Comment: Assisted suicide and subjective morality.

Much of what Tzortzis said during his talk for the Islamic Society can also be seen in the first 35 minutes of his debate with Ed Buckner from the American Atheists.



I do hope that people will read his articles and watch the above video, because they make for an interesting insight into the mind and opinions of someone who has the respect of many Muslims, but to even the half-inquisitive eye comes across like someone that’s read a lot and perhaps understood little. I just read Alex Bellos’ Alex’s Adventures in Numberland (which I highly recommend) and I have a better grasp of probabilities and the concept of infinity than Tzortzis. The writer of the Harry’s Place blog has it exactly right in stating that “he is a particularly confrontational character with a host of tricks up his sleeve to make up for his deficient philosophical arguments”.

I made a list of a few things that Tzortzis did which would undermine his claim to be anywhere near a good debater:

Blinding the audience with philosophical terms. When I attempted to call him on the fact that his use of complex terminology in a room full of non-philosophy students did little to explain his arguments, he became personal and suggested that ‘I was a typical atheist who thinks that just because he didn’t understand no one else did either’. When I asked for a show of hands of who actually understood any of the phrases like 'Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam' or ‘ontological argument’ meant, only four people in a room of 140 put their hands up, and when he asked for a show of hands for who actually understood his arguments little over third did.

Avoiding answering any question directly and instead, diverting the question into areas where he was able to go on long, self-serving rants. His rhetorical loop-the-loops would have politicians gushing in admiration.
Baseless, flippant asides, which actually needed to be discussed, were frequently followed with ‘but that’s for another discussion’. Examples include:

“Atheists don’t have no objective morals so they think it’s OK to bomb children in Baghdad because it’s just ‘the rearrangement of atoms’.”

“For atheists, ‘nothing’ [in the context of the physics and scientific theories of the origin of the universe] is a nothing word, it’s like the term collateral damage when they kill people. In words, it doesn’t mean anything.”

And my absolute favourite: “We live in a post-secular society – it’s time we got our guns out too”, perhaps not the most appropriate metaphor in the current climate.

Littering the talk with names and texts. It’s a great trick as it certainly makes you sounds clever and well read but remembering names and quotes is not the same as understanding the arguments. His other favourite move was to make a big deal out of the fact that he was attacking people like Stephen Hawking’s ideas, as if by the very fact that attacking them made him somehow smarter.

I could go on.

The Q&A session started with the announcement that whilst the Brothers in the audience were allowed to address the speaker directly, the Sisters had to write their question on a slip of paper which was then passed down to the front and vetted before being answered. Unbelievable. Perhaps what is more unbelievable is that the practice is being defended, and not labelled the outright misogynistic behaviour that it is. This was posted on the Islamic Society group page on Facebook.

“Just one side-note regarding the point which one of the atheists (I don't know who) raised regarding our sisters etc. The reason why sisters write questions on paper is because many of them feel shy, its called "hayaa". Its not because they're less than us!!! And also, there were so many brothers sitting on the floor, can we say: Muslims disrespect men because they had to sit on the floor?? If he didnt know, thats ok, but he should have asked. Isnt asking the cure to the disease of ignorance?”

For a start, ALL the sisters were told to write their questions on paper, not just the shy ones. I can’t imagine that none of the 40-odd women in the room were so shy they couldn’t put their hand up. And surely a room full of fellow, sympathetic Muslims is the best place to overcome your shyness? Yes, asking is the cure to the disease of ignorance. It’s just a shame that the Brothers seems to be keeping the cure for themselves. Around 10 bits of paper were passed to the front and not a single question from them was answered. In fact he actually chastised one woman for ’‘writing an essay’.

Thank goodness that the men were not subject to the same vetting scheme, although the Q&A was the clearest demonstration that debating’ with people like Tzortzis is a completely futile exercise. I’m afraid I did start to monopolise the floor, but I wasn’t going to let him get off lightly. Whilst he acknowledged that my question on the problem of evil and suffering was ‘one of toughest’ (the answer was we can never understand God in his infinite wisdom and life is a test and isn’t just one, ong happy party), many of the questions he received from the audience just resulted in his derision.

His answer to the question ‘What sets Islam apart from other religions that have clearly documented and recent origins, like Scientology and Mormonism?’, asked by the only other openly non-believer in the room, was answered with a reiteration of his arguments about how Allah must be the one, with no specific comment on the question he was actually asked. This was followed by a Muslim member of the crowd who asked ‘As a Muslim, how can I sincerely pray if I’m standing by a billionaire Saudi Sheikh who lives in a palace and is doing little to alleviate the poverty as Mohammad taught?’ This was met with a long rant which can be summarised as ‘What do you know? How much money do you give? Don’t judge others before you judge yourself, and even then only God can judge’. And he even managed to shoe-horn in the claim that believers give more aid that non-believers.

I was apprehensive about taking on a speaker who had traveled the world and debated many prominent atheists, but the feeling dissipated not more than 5 minutes into his talk, once I realised the extent of the logical behind his arguments. His self-proclaimed reputation as a ‘great debater’ who’d taken on all these famous speakers didn’t count for anything, as his ideas were still nonsense and were presented in such an illogical way. I in no way profess to know or understand a fraction of the physics and philosophy spilling from Tzortzis’ mouth, but what little I do know was enough to take his ideas to bits. Alom Shaha recently wrote an piece on how Skeptics should avoid navel gazing  and engage with people who might benefit from what you have to say, and I think the argument applies here. We can take the moral high road, scoff amongst ourselves at their crazy ideas, or we can talk to and in front of the people that matter. I understand that not all people are comfortable with the idea of incurring the wrath of religious folk, and whilst I’ve been called brave for going along and confronting him, I don’t think it is bravery; I felt it was my duty to show that people like Tzortzis won’t get an easy ride as they tour universities filling the hearts and minds of students with illiberal, ill-thought out, divisive jargon.  I don’t think for one minute that anyone in the audience will change their mind and abandon Islam after listening to me, but I hope that perhaps just one person listened to his arguments and my attempts at addressing and dismantling them and seriously considered whether Tzortzis and his ideas were genuinely worthy of admiration.

I went to this talk in the anticipation of learning something from someone who appeared to have something intelligent to say about the opposing ideologies of atheism and Islam, but left ultimately disappointed. I’m glad I went, as had I not, his visit to Aston would have remained largely unreported outside of Aston, and I don’t think we can afford to just ignore these kinds of speakers are touring universities and preaching to students in this way.

Tzortzis closed the talk at just before 5pm (having to go off and pray), with a closing proviso which I can only dream of feeling like I could get away with at the end of a talk: “If anything I have said is wrong it’s due to Shaitan (Satan); anything good, has been the will of Allah. That just about sums the potency of his arguments up really.

Saturday 23 October 2010

A report from day 1 The Amazing Meeting (TAM) London 2010, by James Ellor


Well, as some of you might know, I went to TAM London this weekend, and I kindly volunteered to write a blog post of my experiences. There’s only one problem: I don’t know where to start.

The weekend was so jam-packed full of talks and comedy and music and random photography, and yet flew by so quickly, that I would need my own blog (which I do have, but that’s beside the point) and much more time than I have now, to even begin to do it justice. But I’ll give it a go. I may miss some important details but I do hope I’ll be able to portray the sheer awesomeness that was TAM London 2010.

Firstly, I didn’t go alone. My good friend Darryl Hewitt, who introduced me to Dawkins, atheism, scepticism and all that malarky some time in 2006 offered to come with me ever since I rang him up a few months ago, hysterically shrieking that we must go to this thing in October! We stayed at a dingy but cosy hostel near Piccadilly Circus for a couple of nights, and got the tube to TAM each morning, excessively bleary-eyed on the Saturday due to a lack of breakfast, caffeine and sleep.

The first ‘celebrity’ I saw was the YouTuber AndromedasWake (aka Tommy K) who was first in line outside the Monarch Suite of the Hilton Metropole. For those of you who don’t know, AndromedasWake makes some simply superb videos focused on debunking the astronomical claims of creationism (that’s astronomical as in pertaining to astronomy, not as in large or immense, though either definition is apt). He also has a sister channel, SiriusStargazing, which is very useful for amateur or novice astronomers in identifying some of the features of the night sky. He is also one of the co-founders of the League of Reason, a collective of skeptic YouTubers who host BlogTV discussions every other Sunday.

 Anyway! The next was Richard Dawkins who hurried past (he did a lot of hurrying past, but we got him in the end) into the main room, where we soon entered after failing to find coffee. After a quick performance by the Amateur Transplants, Richard Wiseman introduced James Randi, who rightly received a standing ovation before even saying anything. The first speaker was ex-parapsychologist Susan Blackmore, who gave a talk on her fruitless attempts to prove ESP and psychics, which eventually led her to become a professional skeptic.

She was followed by Richard Dawkins, who gave an interesting talk on evolution being “The New Classics”. Classics being the study of ancient Mediterranean philosophy, literature and art, seen in the past as essential study needed to fully understand the rest of academia. Evolution, he argued, is a modern equivalent; one can only fully understand biology if there is a full understanding of evolution.



American journalist Cory Doctorow followed with a chilling talk on the possibilities of heavier copyright laws being pressed by the US government and record companies. Adam Rutherford, editor of Nature and columnist for The Guardian was next, who told us about his experiences when he joined the Alpha Course (a 10 week course on Christianity hosted at churches throughout the country ) and met its founder, Nicky Gumbel. Apparently it’s very very homophobic. I might join one myself to have a look.

Then there was lunch, and the tea/coffee tables there had actual chests of Twining’s tea which I made full advantage of.

On our return were talks by Andy Nyman (good friend of Derren Browns and a co-writer of many of his shows), Paula Kirby (journalist and writer, who gave a talk on the hilarious horrors of Britain’s right-wing religious parties) and Karen James (spokesperson for the HMS Beagle Project, aiming to rebuild and re-sail the HMS Beagle in commemoration of Darwin’s 19th Century voyage).

Robin Ince then had a delightful interview with James Randi which honestly could have gone on for a hundred times longer and been just as fascinating. He told stories of how he debunked many fraudulent ‘psychics’ over the years, including Uri Geller and the faith healer Peter Popoff. The lamentable fact is, of course, is that these are still at it, garnering followers decades after they were exposed for the money-grabbing frauds they are.
After an interlude of two hours (during which Darryl and I searched the Edgware Road for half an hour before finding a restaurant that wasn’t a McDonalds’ or KFC) we hurried back to the hotel for an evening with Tim Minchin. He gave us a rousing knees-up rendition of the infamous Pope Song, plus a new song called ‘Cont’ (short for ‘Context’… and that’s a clue) before we were treated to the premiere of an animated version of his beat-poem Storm  (not released until January 2011).

We finally arrived back at the hostel at around 1am, fully aware we’d be up again at 7am for another day of intellectual fascination…. Which I’ll cover in the next blog post   :)

Sunday 17 October 2010

Book review of Micheal Ots' What Kind of God? by Tulpesh Patel

What Kind of God is a collection of 10 short answers to common questions, or ‘accusations’ made by atheists, of religion, such as: What kind of god doesn't prevent suffering? What kind of god sends sincere people to hell? What kind of god would limit my sexuality? It’s written by a Minister of Evangelism at Landsdowne Baptist Burch in Bournemouth, but by happenstance grew up just down the road from where I did.

I wanted to review this book not on the arguments presented, but on the writing and book itself, but realised that would be a impossible and not entirely useful. I won't spend time dissecting the answers given to these questions, save to say that, as is par for the course with these kind of books, they are just one long non sequitur. 

Paraphrased answers to the questions posed above are: ‘God, in his justice, is perfectly fair in punishing our sin, but, in his love, he is patient with us, and thus every day the world continues is a sign of his patience’, ‘just like ourselves God does not tolerate the evil that is inherent in us and demands justice – it would be evil of God not to judge and punish us for our sins’ and ‘when it comes to sex, it is because it is good and precious that God places restrictions on it’ (and what I found most laughable as a ‘Christianity isn’t a homophobic religion, honest’ defence: ‘there is a difference between the orientation and the act’). 

The book is written in an affable, blokey style and is peppered with little snippets of the author’s life, which I suppose is meant to appeal to the Christian Union students it is aimed at and demonstrate that ‘Christians are people too’. It’s not the worst kind of book in defense of Christianity, but don’t read it expecting a serious theological discussion – it’s well short of any solid argument or philosophical discussion, and as I’ve already said, is just a series of illlogical appeals to emotion built around a scaffold of biblical quotes.

It’s a quick enough read, and it’s always good know what the religious feel is something resembling the antidote to amassing and incisive anti-religious literature.

Sunday 10 October 2010

Science is Vital, unlike Tory MPs

The Science is Vital campaign is a response to the drastic and devastating cuts to science funding proposed by the government in an attempt to alleviate the UK’s financial, shall we say, ‘difficulties’.

I would hope that to most sensible folks, questioning the importance of funding scientific endeavour at all would sound unnecessary. Such is the time we live in, and the government that we have, however, that the question is being asked in all seriousness. Thankfully, it seems that scientists have united under the Science Is Vital campaign to provide an emphatic answer. And why is science vital? Science is Vital provide a neat answer: “Investing in research enriches society and helps drive the economy. It led to our pre-eminent position in the 20th century, and will be vital in meeting the challenges of the 21st – whether they be in energy, medicine, infrastructure, computing, or simply humanity’s primal desire for discovery.”

There are three ways to support the campaign:

1. Sign the petition
2. Write to your MP
3. Lobby Parliament. Science is Vital and the Campaign for Science and Engineering are taking the matter directly to Parliament on the 12th of October, from 3:30 – 4:30pm, in Committee Room 10. If you can be there, and especially if you’ve written to your MP to ask that he/she attend, register here.

There was also a rally held alongside Her Majesty’s Treasury yesterday afternoon. Thanks to the awesome folks at the Pod Delusion, those, like me, that couldn’t make it can listen to the speeches from fantastic pro-science luminaries like Dr Evan Harris, Imran Khan, Simon Singh, Dr Petra Boynton and Colin Blakemore. There are also literally hundreds of photos uploaded from the event. The easiest way to keep up-to-date with all the rally’s goings on and the campaign in general is the Twitter hashtag #scienceisvital.

I sent my Science is Vital protest letter to Tony Baldry, the Conservative local MP for North Oxfordshire, and received my reply yesterday. The cover letter is pictured on the below.



Also attached by way of response was a four-page transcript of Mr Baldry’s recent speech to Bodicote House. You can read the whole speech here. I wasn’t expecting much by way of a direct reply to my letter or the Science is Vital campaign, but Mr Baldy was true to form. As a Conservative MP, there’s plenty in the speech blaming the previous Labour government, supporting the ‘Big Society’ and it also included this choice little quote, which summarises the Tory ideology that will almost certainly stunt scientific progress, and only benefit the wealthy, for some time to come (those of a socialist disposition might want to make sure there are no kids in the room when you read it):

There is no particular merit or value in having to increases taxes or council taxes and taking money away from people which otherwise they should choose to spend as they would wish”.

One thing I can agree with Mr Baldry on is the opening line to his speech, that “rhetoric cannot overcome reality” (which is ironic, as that’s basically the job description for many a politician!). This is science’s trump card: science is vital and we’ve got evidence on our side, not just political ideology and rhetoric to prove it.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Fresher's Fair 2010


Aston's 2010 Fresher’s Fair is over and thanks to some of James’ delicious cookies, my constant, over-enthusiastic ranting about humanism, and of course our general all-round geeky charm, we had just shy of 50 people sign up! It might seem a modest figure compared to some student societies, but I can’t stress enough that a humanist society is really up against it at a university with such a large and religiously diverse student body.

I make a virtue of the fact that we were the only society and voice for non-believers on campus, but I dearly wish that wasn’t the case. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated by the sheer number, size, financial backing and enthusiasm of all the religious societies. A quick pan around the stands in the main Fresher’s Fair hall showed three explicitly Islamic societies (although none of them could actually explain why and how they were different to each other, other than vague statements to the effect of ‘we interpret the Qu’ran in slightly different ways’); Hinduism had the Hindu Society and Krishna Consciousness; Christians had the Christian Union and the University Chaplaincy and Sikhs had the Sikh Society. Coupled with these were societies that are not explicitly religious, but are bound into religious-cultural traditions, for example nationality-based societies like the Pakistani and Bangladeshi Societies, or the Bhangra society, which is a form of music and dance intimately woven with Sikh and Punjabi traditions.

Religious societies have ready-made memberships; a Muslim/Hindu/Christian student will go into that room and home in on their relevant society, and may not engage much, if at all, with the alternative societies. The problem, at least with a humanist society, is almost one of definition:  few people know what humanism is or what a humanist might think, do or believe (or more accurately not believe). My favourite response to the question “have you heard of humanism?” was “what, you’re not like Satanists are you? ‘Cause I’m really not into that, yeah”. We’ve still got some way to go before humanisms gains the recognition and even superficial understanding of established religions, but despite reactions like this, which made me chuckle and despair in equal measure, I was heartened to hear more positive responses than last year’s event, so we’re definitely heading in the right direction.

Gauging a student’s reaction was all a matter of reading their top lip. As soon as you say it’s a society for free-thinking atheists and agnostics, you either (1) get a smile, in which case you know you might talking to someone vaguely interested, or (2) watch their top lip curl into a grimace, which reveals that they’re almost definitely religious, and almost definitely not keen on hearing about how non-believers have morals too. Reactions to our stand ranged from “Atheists? Brilliant! Good on you” to “I don’t deal with petty humanists”, with ambivalence and disappointed ”you’re a lost-cause” headshakes in between.

Of course all this diversity has the advantage of throwing up some very interesting characters. I vowed to my colleagues that I wouldn’t get involved in a fruitless ‘religion is just mental, oh not it’s not’ debate, but I just couldn’t help myself. Especially not when a committee member of the Islamic Society starts talking about irrefutable scientific evidence in the Qu’ran, like how ‘salt and freshwater do not mix’, or that old chestnut of how ‘evolution is just a theory’; man must have been made by Allah from water and clay because there is no other way to explain how people, who are 70% water, could have arisen in the desert, where it never rains. These are the conversations that give me even more drive to promote and participate in not just humanist, but also scientific causes. This conversation boiled down to not just misguided theological principles, but a fundamental misunderstanding of just some basic science.

The brilliant, but divisive Richard Dawkins has written an endorsement for all member groups of The National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies, which very neatly captures exactly the ideals I was promoting to all of Aston’s new, and returning, students.

Students away from home for the first time are faced with a barrage of invitations from religious groups of various kinds, all eager to take advantage of the newcomers' unfamiliarity with their surroundings and their natural apprehensiveness about what lies in store for them, to lure them into the religious fold. I therefore congratulate the Aston Humanist Society for offering a real alternative, creating an environment in which young people can actively explore and celebrate the natural world and formulate an approach to ethics which is not dependent on superstition or myth.  Societies like this one offer a tremendous service, both to students who wish to learn about reality, and to the cause of atheism, humanism and secularism as a whole.

Best wishes,

Richard Dawkins

Occasional excitable chats like these aside, we were careful not to alienate those with religious views who might want to engage with humanists in ways other than arguments about the veracity of evolutionary theory. We were keen to emphasise that arguing with religious people was not our main aim (I should tattoo “you cannot reason someone out of something they did not reason themselves into” onto the back of my hands), but rather to promote the positive idea that people can be good, moral, loving and happy without necessarily having God, a holy book or even their mother to tell them to be so and that we champion lots of positive, religion-free causes, for example pro-science campaigns like Science Is Vital #scienceisvital, raising money for charities like Amnesty, Cancer Research UK and Medicine Sans Frontier, and organ and blood donation (the latter being a ‘religion-free cause’ only if you don’t include Jehovah’s Witnesses, of course).

We also had fantastic response to our environmental friendly, pro-literacy, university-wide bookswap proposal, which means that the university may just have to pay a bit more attention this time round, and not just fob us off excuses like ‘it’s a fire hazard’ or that a box of books in the corner is ‘not in keeping with the university aesthetic’. I feel our first petition coming on!

On a lighter note, we also had a competition to find the best science-related joke. The prize: a signed copy of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science. The best of the bunch submitted on the day was: “What does it take to run the Marathon? 80p.” The competition will stay open all week. If you think you can top the one above, email it to astonhumanistsociety@gmail.com with your name and number. All the jokes will be read out at next week’s meeting and the one that raises the biggest laugh will win the book!

Now that madness of Fresher’s Fair is over, here’s the line-up for the rest of October:

Thursday the 7th of October will be our first meeting of the academic year and will be a chance for all of our new members to get to know each other over some drinks and nibbles.

Wednesday the 13th of October we’re meeting at 6.30pm before heading over the Victoria pub to see Simon Singh speak to the Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub about his run in with the British Chiropractic Association and the subsequent Libel Reform campaign.

Thursday 21st of October will be our first discussion: “Having a baby: right or privilege?”, an ethical minefield which is taking on even more importance given potential revisions to government policy with regards to IVF treatment in reaction to the financial crisis and the need to cut NHS spending.

All the scheduled events will go up on the public Aston Humanist Society Google Calendar. To make things easy, there’s a handy button which will automatically add them to your own diaries!



Meetings on campus will be held weekly on Thursdays at 7pm in the Presentation Suite on the second floor of the Aston University Student’s Guild. Membership is £5 and runs for a calendar year from October 2010. £5 is the minimum required fee set by the Student’s Guild to cover the cost of admin., hiring rooms etc. throughout the year. We’d like to be completely free, but the price of a couple of pints is pretty good value for being part of one the coolest clubs on campus.

We'll be over the moon if all the 50 people that signed up today became regular active members, but we're realistic enough to know that probably won't be the case. The main thing is we’re continuing to grow and we’re continuing to provide a voice on campus for those who are proud of thinking for themselves.

If you’re not sure about joining the society or unable to come to meetings, feel free to email astonhumanistsociety@gmail.com for more information about us, or how you can get involved through the blog, Facebook pages and Twitter @astonhumanists!

Sunday 26 September 2010

Fresher's Fair and Future Plans


The new academic year is nearly upon us and after a summer of slumber the Aston Humanist Society is truly wide awake and ready to set minds alight once again! It all kicks off with Fresher’s Fair next on Sunday 3rd of September in the Aston Student’s Guild at 11 o clock. For anyone that can make it, it’s to speak to some of us in person, find out what we’re all about and join up!


It’s important to stress that we’re absolutely not an 'anti-theist' society that exists just out to ruffle religious feathers, those with religious beliefs are very welcome to join; the main objective of the group is to provide a forum for discussion so that people can express their ideas and opinions on things that interest them.

Membership is £5 and runs for a calendar year from October 2010. £5 is the minimum required fee set by the Student’s Guild to cover the cost of admin., hiring rooms etc. throughout the year. We’d like to be completely free, but the price of a couple of pints is pretty good value for being part of one the coolest clubs on campus. To sweeten the deal (if you’ll excuse the pun), everyone that signed up last year was treated to a special homemade humanist fairy cake, this year we’ve got some special cookies lined up!

Meetings will be held weekly on Thursdays at 7pm in the Presentation Suite on the second floor of the Aston University Student’s Guild. For those unlucky people that can’t make it to meetings and events in person, the blog is the best way to keep abreast of the latest action and contribute to articles and ideas.

At some of the meetings last year, we attempted answer, or at least think about, some of the questions that god wasn’t going to answer for us: “How do we deal with the involvement of religion in major health issues, namely the Pope and his reigniting of the condoms/Aids situation”, “Should we treat paedophiles and criminals or mentally ill?”, “Trust in doctors or trust in god: how should society deal with clashes between people's beliefs and medical ethics?” and “Do criminals should have the right to vote?”.

Members can nominate a topic on anything that they wish by emailing astonhumanistsociety@gmail.com or coming along to meetings. A doozy of a topic we’ve got lined up for one of the next discussions is “Having a baby: right or privilege?” an ethical minefield which is taking on even more importance given potential revisions to government policy with regards to IVF treatment in reaction to the financial crisis and the need to cut NHS spending.

It isn’t all intense, high-brow and heated debates though! Last year we also had regular movie/documentary nights (including Richard Dawkin’s The Enemy of Reason, Religulous and the BBC doc. My Name Is Muhammad, we hosted talks by Ariane Sherine (Atheist Bus Campaign) and Rebecca Watson (Skepchick), and took part in fundraising events like AmnesTEA parties, and the Cancer Research UK Relay for Life.

This year the plan is for a monthly rota of events roughly broken down in to:

1. Weekly discussion meeting on a topic decided by members
2. Documentary/movie night
3. Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub talk
4. Social in the pub, which will be a chance to do a bit of drinking along with the thinking

with other events and guest speakers slotted in as and when then happen.

All the scheduled events will go up on the public Aston Humanist Society Google Calendar. To make things easy, there’s a handy button which will automatically add them to your own diaries!

The first meeting will be on Thursday the 7th of October and will be a chance for all of our new members to get to know each other over some free drinks and nibbles. The first proper event is a cracker: a trip to the Victoria on Wednesday the 13th of October to see Simon Singh speak to the Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub about his run in with the British Chiropractic Association and the subsequent Libel Reform campaign (which you should definitely sign up to and support!).

We’d also like announce that we are now an official member of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (also confusingly shortened to the AHS), with myself and James Ellor as the two members on the committee.

With the society really finding its feet and promising to go from strength to strength, it looks to be an great year ahead, chock full of fantastic events and opportunities to shares ideas, vent your spleen, or just listen to what others have to say on some interesting and often controversial issues. With the support of the AHS and other societies like ours, we’ll be able to put on bigger and better events and contribute to an ever-growing network of student groups promoting free-thinking!

The Best of the 'Fest

One of Europe’s biggest science festival came to town in the same week that some bloke called the Pope decided to pay a visit. From Monday the 13th to Sunday the 19th of September Aston University and Birmingham hosted a huge number of events covering a massive variety of science. From particle physics to sexing the brain, how we can know what babies think to bone densities in Neolithic man, dancing on custard to Catholic astronomers; the festival celebrated the richness of scientific endeavour.

The festival started with a (big) bang as 40 of the grooviest geeks in town flashmobbed Birmingham Cathedral and put on one hell of a show! Not bad for only a couple of hours of practice that morning.



A few teething troubles and technical difficulties aside, feedback for the X-change events and the festival as a whole appears to be very positive. Early reports suggest around 88,000 attendees over the week and were literally hundreds of stories in the press covering the news and controversies surrounding the festival. The British Science Association, The Guardian and the BBC had the most comprehensive coverage. The BBC also hosted X-change presenter Sue Nelson’s Daily Reporter’s Log. I particularly enjoyed her sneaking in a mention of my humanism!

By virtue of the fact that I was working on the X-change team, this blog had the privilege of hosting the daily X-change programme of events, which was frantically uploaded each afternoon of the festival. The idea was to have daily blogs, but quite frankly there was so much happening that there just weren’t enough hours in the day! The reports are being collated, however, and will be put together as a yearbook, much the same as it was last year.  A few photos from the festival and the X-change can be found here.


There was too much going on to cover the whole festival in any detail, but there are some personal highlights that are sure to live long in my memory. My participation in a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation experiment with friend and colleague, Dr Craig McAllister, went down very well at Tuesday’s X-change. Craig placed a TMS coil over my motor cortex and, much to the delight and alarm of the audience, used very high-field magnetic pulses that made my arm twitch!


I was also batted away by an amiable and PR-savvy Catholic astronomer who was one of the star guests at Friday’s X-change.  My question: ‘how do you square 4 billion year old meteorites with God and the Bible?’ Brother Guy Consolmagno’s answer: ‘Creatonism is a Protestant invention, not a Catholic one’. Case closed then! I also really enjoyed Brother Guy’s t-shirt.

In an irony that we can all enjoy, someone else has suggested that we’re still not sure that God would have said it that way. You can see more of Brother Guy and what exactly being an astronomer for God involves in this interesting BBC documentary about the Vatican  Skip to around 22:30 to hear Brother Guy’s astonishing twisting of logic as he explains that ‘my religion tells me that God made the Universe, but my science tells me how it’s done’. He obviously hasn’t read Stephen Hawking’s latest book.


Although it ran until the Sunday, Saturday was the last day of my festival and, despite recovering from some over-enthusiastic consumption of Desperados with the BSA team the previous night, it ended it on an absolute high. Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rapper and straight-up genius. His Rap Guide to Evolution is one of the best rap albums and coolest methods of science communication that I have ever heard.  When I heard he was performing at the science festival I jumped at the chance to invite him to the X-change. A busy schedule meant that this wasn’t possible, but he put on a frenetic, funny and informative show, which included this performance and a very surprising inclusion of me in his freestyle! His latest offering is the Rap Guide to Human Nature, which is also definitely worth a few hundred listens.


I finished the week exhausted, but also with lots of new friends, a million and one ideas buzzing in my head, and an ever more enthusiastic passion for science and science communication. I really must thank the whole of the X-change team, Sue Nelson, and all the lovely people from the Science Association that made it such a pleasure to attend and work at the festival.

Of course as a humanist, I was disappointed that I couldn’t take part in the Protest the Pope campaign and lend my support to the National Secular Society, but, on the whole, I was happier that I had contributed to pro-science ideals, rather than the anti-religious ones that dominated the week.

Friday 17 September 2010

X-change speakers for Friday 17 September

The X-change events, presented by BBC journalist, Sue Nelson, are like a highlights package at the end of each day of the festival, featuring the most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious people.

The events take place from 18:15-19.30 in the Blue Room of the Aston Student's Guild. You don't need to book in advance, just come along, grab a drink and enjoy the talks and discussion.
There are more speakers to come, depending who manages to wow us during today’s talks, but here are the people we’ve already got lined up for tonight:

19:00 to 19:15 Brother Guy Consolmagno, one of the Pope’s 12 astronomers. 

Brother Consolmagno’s research explores the connection between meteorites and asteroids, along with the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. Here he is talking about science and religion. This is a real coup for the X-change team and is definitely an event for your diaries!

Matt Parker: Maths Comedian

Fresh from his show at the Edinburgh festival, co-author of the Manual of Mathematical Magic, Matt joins us to demonstrate how magic can be used to to put the thrill back into mathematics.

Colin Wright: 75 years of radar

Radar was invented 75 years ago and has made a vital difference to winning the war and continues to keep us safe in the air (as well as catching us if we are speeding). Colin will describe the history, current use and future possibilities of radar. And maybe even get his balls out.

Professor Jonathan Silvertown: Biodiversity
Professor Silvertown will be talking about the OPAL Biodiversity Survey and its importance in helping people understand the importance of urban and rural hedgerows. For the X-change, he will be talking specifically an urban hedgerow in the heart of Birmingham and discovering what lives there.

Professor Michael Coleman: Building brain ‘tissue’ in the laboratory

With our aging population, in incidences of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Motor Neurone diseases are increasing and without new human experimental models of brain function, it’s unlikely we will be able to understand and treat these afflictions. Aston Alumni, Professor Coleman will talk about creating models of brain tissue and the possible implications of this research.

Professor John Gibbins: Preventing Cardiovascular Disease in the Obese World

Professor Gibbins is Director of the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research, an organisation that looks at treating heart disease from a variety of angles including prevention and repairing damage. He will outline some of measures that are being using to tackle a problem growing almost as fast as our waistlines.

PLUS! Tell us your favourite science-related joke and the one that raises the biggest laugh will win a shiny new science book, courtesy of the Aston Student Guild Shop.

Thursday 16 September 2010

X-change speakers for Thursday 16th September

The X-change events, presented by BBC journalist, Sue Nelson, are like a highlights package at the end of each day of the festival, featuring the most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious people.

The events take place from 18:15-19.30 in the Blue Room of the Aston Student's Guild. You don't need to book in advance, just come along, grab a drink and enjoy the talks and discussion.

We're happy to announce the fantastic line-up for speakers for tonight's X-change event:

 
Professor Gina Rippon: Neurononsense and Psychobabble

After having to dash off to other events yesterday, Dr Rippon has kindly offered to come back to the X-change to talk about how brain sciences are being used in research into sex differences – follow the road to neuro-nonsense, learn how to spot brain bloopers and scoff at neuro-trash.


Professor Jim Al Khalili
British Science Festival Trustee and X-change regular, Jim Al-Khalili is Professor of Theoretical Physics, academic, author and broadcaster of a number of TV shows including Science in Islam, Bang Goes the Theory and Chemistry: A Volatile History. Coming along to hear him discuss topics as diverse as medival science, Stephen Hawkins and funding cuts.

Pete Reddy: The beautiful game: How can we all play football into our 50s and 60s?

Football is the national game and is endlessly adaptable. With an ageing population and sedentary lifestyles, participation in sport has never been more important. Pete will discuss how football can be made accessible for the over 50s and contribute to healthier lifestyles.

Matt Prichard aka Johnny Façade: Something about nothing: Magic, comedy and science

Johnny Façade specialises in close-up magic, mentalism and stand-up comedy. His comedy show will attempt to fill in the empty gaps and explain almost everything there is to know about nothing.

Dr Peter Naish: Susceptibility to Hypnosis
Dr Naish is currently working on using the latest neuroimaging techniques to try to determine the regions of the brain involved in time judgment, and looking to see how they are impacted by hypnosis. He will be talking about the different factors involved in susceptibility to hypnosis.
Dr Sarah Beck: Imagination in infants and young children.
Dr Beck is interested in children’s imaginations and how they become able to speculate about events in the past and future and how they handle uncertainty. She will be explaining how imagination develops and the different techniques that are used to investigate this tricky area of child psychology.
Richard Allum: Galileo’s best friend
Come and meet Filipo as he tells the story of a stolen telescope, in full 16th century costume.
The best way to keep up-to-date is to check out this blog, follow #BritSciFest, @tulpesh and @TheXchangeTeam on Twitter, and keep an eye out for posters and flyers during the week.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

X-change speakers for Wednesday 15 September

The X-change events, presented by BBC journalist, Sue Nelson, are like a highlights package at the end of each day of the festival, featuring the most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious people.

The events take place from 18:15-20:00 in the Blue Room of the Aston Student's Guild.You don't need to book in advance, just come along, grab a drink and enjoy the talks and discussion.

We're happy to announce the fantastic line-up for speakers for tonight's X-change event:

Dr Anthony Hilton: Grime Scene Investigation

You might have seen Dr Hilton on the Grime Scene Investigation BBC 3 show. He will talk about the hidden world of organisms living all over our bodies in order to examine how they survive, what impact they have on us and what purpose, if any, they serve.

Dr Caroline Witton: Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Dr Witton will talk about how MEG is being used at Aston to investigate how the brain works, and the exciting new scanner that is being built especially for research with children at the Aston Brain Centre.

Professor Gina Rippon: Neurononsense and Psychobabble

Fresh from speaking on Radio 4, Dr Rippon will talk about how brain sciences are being used in research into sex differences – follow the road to neuro-nonsense, learn how to spot brain bloopers and scoff at neuro-trash.

Dr Tara Shears: News from the Big Bang Machine

Dr Shears with talk about the headline-capturing Large Hadron Collider and whether this mind-boggling machine will help us uncover the secrets of dark matter or the elusive Higgs Boson – the so-called ‘God particle’.

Dr Jessica Grahm: Charles Darwin Lecture Award: Hit Me with Your Rhythm Schtick

Dr Grahm will be exploring the cultural influences on everyday musical abilities, touching on interesting theories about why we developed a musical culture at all. Come along to take part in a live audience-participation demo of the difference between Balkan and Western music!

Robin Lovell Badge: The Yuck Factor: Just how 'human' should laboratory animals become?

Stem Cell scientist Robin Lovell Badge will be discussing today's Ipsos MORI report on animals containing human materals (ACHMs) and the ethical implications of this for future research.

Lorelly Wilson: Chemistry of Cabbage

Lorelly will talk about experiments you can do at home using common household products, and maybe even give some live demonstrations. Highlights of the full talk includes a great lava lamp, toothpaste for your elephant, novel uses for constipation remedies and why your mum tells you to eat your greens.

Tuesday 14 September 2010

X-change speakers for Tuesday 14 September

The X-change events, presented by BBC journalist, Sue Nelson, are like a highlights package at the end of each day of the festival, featuring the most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious people. The events take place from 18:15-20:00 in the Blue Room of the Aston Student's Guild, with around 5 or 6 speakers. You don't need to book in advance, just come along, grab a drink and enjoy the talks and discussion.

The team have been running around all day attending as many talks as possible and we're happy to announce a fantastic line-up for speakers for tonight's X-change event:

Professor Mike Hulme: Why we disagree about climate change 

Professor Hulme will be talking about a few themes from his book Why We Disagree About Climate Change, including how knowledge of climate change is constructed and the interactions between climate change, knowledge and policy.

Dr Elizabeth Moores and Emma Birkett: Discovering Dyslexia

Dr Moores and Emma Birkett will talk about task development in cognitive psychology using examples of spot the difference tasks and recognising impossible objects. Members of the audience will also be able to volunteer to take part in an interactive example of timing problems in dyslexia.

Dr Craig McAllister: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation 

Dr McAllister give a live demonstration on how powerful magnets can be used to manipulate brain activity and behaviour and help us investigate how the brain works.

Dr Nick Lee: Neuromarketing  

Dr Lee will provide a whistle-stop tour of recent findings in the brain sciences, and their link to consumer decisions, exploding myths about both advertising and the brain along the way.

Dr Giovanna Tinetti: Planets Outside the Solar System

Dr Tinetti will be talking about how molecules like water, methane and carbon dioxide can be detected on plants outside our solar system, and how we can use this information to find other planets in the habitable zone of stars colder than the Sun.

Dr Kate Bellingham: Colliding Futures

Dr Bellingham, star of Museum of Life, The Big Bang and Tomorrow's World, will be be giving a unique insight into unique career paths in science and how young people are needed to take up the challanges of the future.

Friday 10 September 2010

FLASH ahah!

We need you to help us organise a ‘flash mob’ to promote the start of the British Science Festival in Birmingham. It will provide photo opportunity for the papers, good footage for online media and a word of mouth talking point for anyone that comes into contact with the mob.





Ideally we want 100 people to descend on Birmingham Cathedral on Monday the 13th September at12.30pm to dress as Albert Einstein (Mask and Lab coat provided) and dance to Spaceman by Babylon Zoo, Girls Aloud’s Biology and other science-related choruses!

The whole event will take no more than 5 minutes to perform with a 3-hour rehearsal in the morning at Aston University in room G63 



The dance routine is available to practice on Youtube:

Britscifest flashmob 1
Britscifest flashmob 3

If you are a friend of a Festival assistant or volunteer, you will receive a £20 cash incentive upon completion of event and return of lab coat, mask and Festival t-shirt.

Pease contact Kate Sinclair from British Science Festival on DL: 02070194947 mobile: 07549708417 email kate.sinclair@britishscienceassociation.org to take part.






Provisional list of speakers for X-change events

It’s less than a week to the British Science Festival, and things are really shaping up! 


The X-change events, presented by BBC journalist, Sue Nelson, are like a highlights package at the end of each day of the festival, featuring the most controversial, interesting or downright hilarious people. The events take place from 18:15-20:00 in the Blue Room of the Aston Student's Guild, with around 5 or 6 speakers. You don't need to book in advance, just come along!

The British Science Association and X-change Team have been hard at work putting together a list of great speakers for 2010. You can watch some of the best bits from the 2009 festival here. To whet your appetite, here’s a list of some of the people we’ve get so far and the latest details of their talks. If you would like to attend the proper event for each speaker, there are also links to the ticket booking page. 

18:15 – 20:00 Tuesday 14 September 


Professor Mike Hulme: Why we disagree about climate change 

Professor Hulme will be talking about a few themes from his book Why We Disagree About Climate Change, including how knowledge of climate change is constructed and the interactions between climate change, knowledge and policy.

Dr Elizabeth Moores and Emma Birkett: Discovering Dyslexia

Dr Moores and Emma Birkett will talk about task development in cognitive psychology using examples of spot the difference tasks and recognising impossible objects. Members of the audience will also be able to volunteer to take part in an interactive example of timing problems in dyslexia.

Dr Tim Grant: Forensic Linguistics

Dr Grant will talk about how Aston's Centre for Forensic Linguistics has helped the police investigate crimes including murder and terrorism.

Dr Craig McAllister: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation 

Dr McAllister give a live demonstration on how powerful magnets can be used to manipulate brain activity and behaviour and help us investigate how the brain works.

18:15 – 20:00 Wednesday 15 September 

Dr Anthony Hilton: Grime Scene Investigation

You might have seen Dr Hilton on the Grime Scene Investigation BBC 3 show. He will talk about the hidden world of organisms living all over our bodies in order to examine how they survive, what impact they have on us and what purpose, if any, they serve.

18:15 – 20:00 Thursday 16 September


Dr Caroline Witton: Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Dr Witton will talk about how MEG is being used at Aston to investigate how the brain works, and the exciting new scanner that is being built especially for research with children at the Aston Brain Centre.

18:15 – 20:00 Friday 17 September


19:00 to 19:15 Brother Guy Consolmagno, one of the Pope’s 12 astronomers. 

Brother Consolmagno’s research explores the connection between meteorites and asteroids, along with the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. Here he is talking about science and religion. This is a real coup for the X-change team and is definitely an event for your diaries!

Professor Frank Close and Stephen Brown: Lasers 

Lasers are used in many different areas form medicine to communication and there are a number of laser-  related events during the festival. Professor Close and Stephen Brown will talk the relevance of lasers in topics as diverse as fusion energy, quantum computing and disease diagnosis.

Matt Prichard aka Johnny Façade: Something about nothing: Magic, comedy and science

Johnny Façade specialises in close-up magic, mentalism and stand-up comedy. His comedy show will attempt to fill in the empty gaps and explain almost everything there is to know about nothing.

Here are some more speakers (in no particular order) that have kindly volunteered their time for the event, but we’re still working on confirming the dates.

Lucy Moorcraft Solar Sparks: The future of solar technology.

This will be an exclusive talk for the Xchange event as it’s not actually part of the Science Festival program.

Professor Gina Rippon: Neurononsense and Psychobabble

Dr Rippon will talk about how brain sciences are being used in research into sex differences – follow the road to neuro-nonsense, learn how to spot brain bloopers and scoff at neuro-trash.

Lorelly Wilson: Chemistry of Cabbage

Lorelly will talk about experiments you can do at home using common household products, and maybe even give some live demonstrations. Highlights of the full talk includes a great lava lamp, toothpaste for your elephant, novel uses for constipation remedies and why your mum tells you to eat your greens.

Chemistry of Cocktails with the Jekyll & Hyde

The manager of The Jekyll & Hyde (which apparently does 50 different types of gin!) will be talking about the art of pousse-café – spirit and liqueur layering that requires knowledge of gravity and liquid density.

Professor Nadrian C. Seeman – Kavli Prize winner

The Kavli Prize is presented every two years to scientists in the fields of Astrophysics, Nanoscience and Neuroscience. The 2010 prize winner in Nanoscience Professor Nadrian C. Seeman will talk about his work in the field of DNA nanotechnology.

Dr Nick Lee: Neuromarketing  

Dr Lee will provide a whistle-stop tour of recent findings in the brain sciences, and their link to consumer decisions, exploding myths about both advertising and the brain along the way.

Professor Kevin Kendall: Fuel cells in Birmingham

Professor Kendall will talk about fuel cell science and technology, especially for domestic houses.

Please note, that the times and dates are subject to change. The best way to keep up-to-date is to check out this blog, follow #BritSciFest, @tulpesh and @TheXchangeTeam on Twitter, and keep an eye out for posters and flyers during the week.

Sunday 5 September 2010

Why I love Sense About Science by Tulpesh Patel

Sense About Science is a charity organisation started as a reaction to the way  the media was being swamped by bad science stories. It was set up to actively work towards improving the public perception and understanding of science and campaign against bad science coverage. Rather than give a rambling introduction to all the stuff they do and how amazing they are, you can read for yourself here, and watch Alice Tuff,  Voice of Young Science Coordinator, talking to the British Pharmacological Society here.

I first came across Sense About Science a couple of years back when I got an email about one of their Voice of Young Science workshops, which are aimed at early career researchers who are interested in getting involved with science communication. Whilst I haven’t been directly involved with the organisation, I’ve followed their work closely and can honestly say that the workshop I attended really impacted how I consider science in the media and how I could become actively involved to improve media coverage of science. In fact, it was one of the motivations behind my starting the Aston Humanist Society.

Although it was a while ago, I remember the panel discussion at the workshop really well because the speakers were so engaging. Dr Dominic Williams from the University of Liverpool demonstrated his personal experience of how a peer-reviewed, published piece of research into the toxicity of food additives to murine neuroblastoma cells in culture snowballed into ‘Combination of additives, food colourings toxic to brain cells’ in the online paper the Crime Times, a publication which aims to ‘link brain dysfunction to disordered/criminal/psychopathic behaviour’. Professor Raymond Tallis (one of my humanist heroes) had a very positive message: don’t be afraid of ‘putting yourself out there’, promote the work you do and speak up for what you believe (this was the kick up the backside I needed to finally get moving with starting the Aston Humanist Society). Dr Trevor Cox from the University of Salford explained the other side of the science-media relationship: how scientists can take advantage of television, radio and newspapers to engage with the public and make science accessible, interesting and fun. Incidentally, Dr Cox will also be at the British Science Festival as part of the judging panel for the Radio 4 competition amateur scientist competition, So You Want To  Be A Scientist?, which will be well worth checking out.

I have wanted to write about just how important Sense About Science is, especially in the current climate, where unreason seems to be increasing exponentially and in surprise correlation with the number of people actively getting involved to combat it. Sense About Science have a whole series of articles on their website  covering the MMR vaccines, food additives and climate change, which collate the views of experts and those working in the area to help explain the science and combat the misconceptions propagated in the media. The malaria campaign  got a lot of coverage as it formed part of the huge (and ongoing) Ten23 campaign to raise awareness about the absurdity, and danger, of homeopathic remedies.

Their latest campaign is ‘You too could have a Diploma in Old Wives’ Traditional Medicine’ (#oldwivesmed), which highlights the Department of Health’s  ludicrous scheme to register and regulate practitioners of traditional medicines. If you’re in and around Whitehall on Wednesday 8 September at 11:30, give them your support at the flashmob! As well as the event at Whitehall on Wendesday, Sense About Science are holding a Standing up for Science event as part at the British Science Festival. I urge everyone to attend, especially if you are involved in science research; if it’s anything like their workshops it will be fascinating and very inspiring.

For scientists, especially young career scientists like myself who are interested in wider science communication, the goal is to perform sound research, report findings and share opinions with due care, accuracy and diligence; when trying to get the work further than publication in a specialist journal, it is up to us to do our level best to maximize the understanding of the science and minimize the opportunity for the research and ideas to be misconstrued. This is where Sense About Science’s excellent Voice of Young Science guides come into their own. These clear and concise handbooks are full of full of practical tips on how young scientists can confidently engage with the media to their advantage, and also challenge bad science reporting.

Standing up for Science and Standing up for Science II– nuts and bolts contains great hints and tips on things like contacting the media, companies or MPs, or putting together blogs and podcasts, and the best bit is that they’re all written by other researchers and science communicators. There Goes the Science Bit… is a series of reports on what happens when I bunch of young scientists took on companies who made ludicrous health claims about their products.  The results are by turns both a scary and (not necessarily intentionally) funny account of the state scientific understanding of some companies (or at least their marketing departments). It’s an excellent example of what people with a little science knowledge and the ability to ask the right questions can achieve. My favourite might just be the Making Sense of Statistics guide, which should be made required reading for all undergraduates. I might even go as far as to say a copy should be posted (or emailed – better for the environment of course) to every household.

I’m only just getting round to embracing blogs, Twitter and Facebook, which offer limitless opportunity to voice your opinion and join the debate. Part of the reason it’s taken me so long is that I haven’t always been confident about sharing my ideas and opinions for fear of being shot down or coming across as an ill-informed moron. I unhappily admit that I used to find it far too easy not to bother reading yet another crazy science story, or give a sad shake of the head when I saw something in the media that was blatantly ridiculous, put the newspaper down or click to Football365 and do nothing more.

The more media-savvy young scientists become, the broader the range of voices that are available to speak up. I am slowly learning to be to be more assertive with my love for science and the defense of the good science that is being done. Reading blogs written by peers and others that I admire, and being armed with guides like the ones produced by Voice of Young Science, has made me more confident about following up stories that rub my brain the wrong way and sharing my opinions on them. We definitely need more Sense About Science, and they deserve all the support they can get.

You can donate to Sense About Science here and @voiceofyoungsci on Twitter.