It’s summertime, and the Meetups are breezy! Come on over to Black Rock for a super-casual hangout with fellow like-minded folks. There’s no formal speaker or or topic, just good conversation.
There’s no Skeptical Salon book for this month, because OUR HOSTS ARE MOVING!
Instead, we’re having one last hurrah at Skeptic Tower. Same bat time, same bat channel, bring your favorite snack or beverage to share. Come hang out with your favorite fans of science and critical thinking, and get one last photo off the balcony.
There may be boxes! Possibly a rogue dishwasher! There will be dogs! There will be merriment! There is definitely short notice, but we’re still gonna do the thing!
Illinois Science Council invites you to the second annual Chicago Science Festival — a celebration of the wow-inspiring, mind-expanding, human-benefitting awesomeness that is S.T.E.M (science, technology, engineering & math) research in the Chicago area. All events require tickets/registration, generally $10 in advance/$15 day of. All-Day passes give you access to all talks on Saturday, May 14 and are $30 in advance/$40 day of. (If all-day passes sell out, no individual tickets will be sold.) Advance ticket sales end at 6:00pm May 13, then get them at the door. Chicago Skeptics can get $10 off the all-day pass with the promo code SKEPTIC!
Here’s what the festival has in store for you:
Friday, May 13, 3:30-6pm
This opening event of the 2016 Chicago Science Festival will feature a series of talks in which speakers will discuss how cutting-edge research can help address some of the biggest intellectual and societal challenges, and what the University of Chicago is doing to support bold scientific risk-taking. UChicago faculty from psychology, neuroscience, and physics will present their breakthrough ideas, and Monika Bickert, Head of Facebook’s Global Policy, will discuss how collaborations with research universities is crucial for solving pressing social issues. Friday’s event is free but space is limited. Registration is required.
Saturday, May 14, 10:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday includes a full day of fascinating topics with engaging speakers and a free demo area. (Read the full listing with descriptions here.) You can purchase all-day passes giving you access to ALL talks and demos on May 14 or purchase tickets for individual speakers. (If all-day passes sell out, no individual tickets will be sold.) Advance ticket sales end at 6:00pm May 13, then get them at the door. Topics include:
Circadian Rhythms, Sleep, and Your Health - What? How? And When?
Martha Hotz Vitaterna (Northwestern U) 10 – 11:00am
Chicago’s Urban Wildlife – What you might encounter in your neighborhood
Liza Lehrer (Lincoln Park Zoo) 10-11:00am
Saving Monarchs and More – Trials, tribulations, and citizen science of tracking and saving species
Doug Turon (Nature Museum) 11am – 12noon
The How & Why of Tracking the Invisible, Elusive Neutrino - from the sun, distant galaxies and particle accelerators
Anne Schukraft (Fermilab) 11am – 12noon
Your Brain on Psychotropic Drugs
Richard J. Miller (Northwestern U) 12noon – 1:00pm
The End of Water As We Know It
Seth Darling (Argonne Lab) 1 – 2:00pm
Black Holes & Gravitational Waves – Why a massive galactic occurrence requires mind-blowingly precise detection
Shane Larson (Adler & Northwestern U) 1 – 2:00pm
Microscopy and the Mystery of Pablo Picasso’s Paints
Volker Rose (Argonne Lab) 2 – 3:00pm
Deep Ocean Research Adventure – Discovering life waaaay down under
Janet Voight (Field Museum) 2 – 3:00pm
Holding Science in Your Hands – 3D printing at the interface of art and research
Allan Drummond (UChicago) 3 – 4:00pm
The Science and Art of Risk Taking – Courage, Caution, and Free Will
Kayt Sukel (Author) & Moran Cerf (Northwestern U) 3 – 4:00pm
The Physics of “Game of Thrones”
Becky Thompson (American Physical Society) 4 – 5:00pm
Hands-on Demo stations (which are free) to include:
Get your tickets at http://chicagosciencefest.org/, and use the promo code SKEPTIC to get $10 off a Saturday all-day pass!
There are decades, millennia even, of speculation about human nature from both philosophy and religion, especially with regards to our unique cognitive abilities. We are at a point in time of our species development and science advancement that we can make some more enlightened hypotheses about how our unique cognition evolved. The info and the ideas and eventually the answers will come from archaeology, paleo-anthropology neuroscience, developmental and cognitive psychology.
Is it a coincidence that intensive observational hunting of large mammals and Cave Art occur at the same time 40,000 years ago? Why are depictions of humans not portrayed with the same skill as those of animals? From simple inscribed lines (70,000 ya) to detail of animal form, posture and behavior, Dr. William Zingrone will present a hypothesis about the development of human cognition through evolutionary means from the point of view of developmental psychology.
Dr. Zingrone is a Developmental Psychologist with passionate research interests in Consciousness and Cognitive Evolution. “My driving motivation is to dispel outdated religious based ideas about human nature that are ingrained in the folk beliefs of our modern culture. Father, devoted husband in his 61st year, hockey fan, information sponge, music lover, out to give religion the drubbing it deserves.“
As many skeptics know, rampant disinformation distorts the science on anthropogenic global warming, but did you know the disinformation campaign extends to the economics of climate change as well? What can economics really teach us about designing climate policy? Will mitigating cost us, or save us? A careful look at the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and other recent reports, along with a look at the consensus among economists, can help us separate science from fiction on the economics of climate change mitigation.
About our speaker:
Emily Church is a long-time skeptic and PhD candidate in neuroscience who has suffered for years from an obsession with climate change economics and climate policy.