Precis
In this seminar, students will confront such knotty questions as,
What is science? Can science be wrong? Is creation science
science? Is quantum- or herbal-healing science? Is science
subjective? Elitist? Limitless? Are there events so improbable
that science cannot explain them? What attitudes towards science
are reflected in controversies over creationism, cold fusion, and
environmental dangers?
Instructors
William Chinowsky is Professor Emeritus of Physics at UC Berkeley
and Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He came to
Berkeley in 1960, after a few years at Brookhaven National Lab,
having received a Ph.D. in Physics at Columbia University in
1955. His research, until recently, has been in experimental
particle physics at most major laboratories in the United States
and abroad. He has intermittently made forays into science policy,
real politics and public service at the National Science
Foundation, 1992-1996.
Robert Cahn
is a Senior Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, where he served as Director of the
Physics
Division from 1991 to 1995. He received his B.A. from Harvard in
1966 and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1972. He held positions at
Stanford, University of Washington, University of Michigan, and
U. C. Davis before returning to Berkeley in 1979. His research has
focused on theoretical elementary particle physics, though he is
now working on an experiment at Stanford to study
matter-antimatter asymmetry.
Assignments
Each student will write a paper of 3,000 to 5,000 words on a topic of
the sort listed below. Each student will also make a presentation of
about 30 minutes. Typically two students will make presentations at
each
class meeting. Some meetings will be devoted to these student
presentations, others to discussions led by the instructors. There
may be occasional guest lecturers. There will also be short readings
for which all students are responsible.
Context
Contemporary society celebrates the achievements of science, its
silicon chips and DNA sequences. Yet at the same time, there are
persistent challenges to science from creationists, and more broadly,
challenges to the scientific establishment asserting that science is
inherently subjective and culturally determined.
There are challenges, too, from the fringe, from those firmly
convinced that we are visited by aliens and UFO's. Scientific
orthodoxy is attacked by proponents of alternative medicine, by those
who offer cures with magnets, homeopathy, herbalism...
There are controversies over public policy issues that depend on
scientific judgments: Do electrical power lines constitute a health
hazard? Are race and intelligence correlated? How serious a risk is
posed by nuclear power plants?
Proposed topics and order of presentation:
- What is science? A discussion led by the instructors.
- Evidence and statistics. R. Cahn
- Error and fraud. See, for example, "Too Hot to Handle : The Race
for Cold Fusion," F. Close, Princeton Univ. Press, 1991
- UFO's and Aliens. See, for example, "UFO's: a Scientific
Debate," eds. C. Sagan and T. Page, Norton, 1972.
- Parapsychology. See, for example, "Science: Good, Bad, and Bogus,"
M. Gardner, Prometheus Books, New York, 1981.
- Power lines and cancer clusters. See, for example, articles by
Paul Brodeur in the New Yorker in June 1989.
- Alternative medicine and quackery. Herbs, magnets, etc.
- Creation Science. See, for example, books by Phillip Johnson of
the U.C. Berkeley Law School.
- Race and intelligence. See, for example, "The
Bell Curve : Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life"
Richard J. Herrnstein,
Charles Murray; "The Mismeasure of Man" by
Stephen Jay Gould;
- Misappropriation of Science. See, for example A. Sokol and Jean
Bricmont, "Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern
Intellectuals' Abuse of Science," St. Martin's, 1998
- The intellectual case against science. See, for example,
G. Holton, "Science and Anti-Science," Harvard University Press, 1993.
- Risks and Benefits of Technology. Is nuclear power too
dangerous? Should Berkeley be a nuclear-free zone?
Some other references
- Betrayers of the Truth, W. Broad and N. Wade
- "Enhance healing with magnetic bracelets from Homedics," adv. in
S.F. Chronicle, Nov. 19, 1999, p. 5
- "Wireless America Costs more than a cell phone bill.."
The EMR Network
- S. Weinberg, articles in the New York Review of Books:
- 1. Weinberg, Steven A designer universe? New York Review of Books
v46, n16 (Oct 21, 1999):46 (3 pages).
Abstract: The presence of fundamental principles that
govern nature is the most compelling evidence that
the universe had a designer. Constants of nature are
more believable than religious theories because they
are less flexible and reveal mysterious
fine-tuning. The presence of misery and injustice in
the world make it hard to belive in a benevolent
creator.
- 2. Weinberg, Steven The revolution that didn't happen. New York
Review of Books v45, n15 (Oct 8, 1998):48 (5 pages).
Abstract: Thomas Kuhn's book entitled 'The Structure
of Scientific Revolution' serves as a rich source of
information regarding normal science. The book
contends that scientific theories and their
corresponding standards from which they are measured
change during scientific revolutions.
- 3. Weinberg, Steven Sokal's hoax. (mathematical physicist Alan
Sokal) New York Review of Books v43, n13 (August 8, 1996):11 (4
pages).
Abstract: The hoax played by mathematical physicist
Alan Sokal of New York University on the editors and
readers of 'Social Text' served a lesson. Its
satirical jab at 'academic commentators who question
the claim of science to objectivity' exposed the
extent to which 'standards of rigor' have dropped.
- 4. Weinberg, Steven Nature's Imagination: The
Frontiers of Scientific Vision. New York Review of
Books v42, n15 (Oct 5, 1995):39 (4 pages). Pub type:
Review
- The Meaning of It All : Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist, R. P. Feynman
- Creationism and its critics:
Chosen topics and dates
- Feb. 8: "The Intellectual Case Against Science"
- Feb. 15: "Power Lines"
- Feb. 22: "Creationism"
- Feb. 29: "Alternative Medicine and Quackery"
- March 7: "Misappropriation of Science"
- March 14: "Cold Fusion"
- March 21: "Race and Intelligence"
- April 4: "Biotechnology"
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