What do philosophers and scientists understand by the concept of “truth” ? This talk will argue that however ‘truth’ is to be understood,  it will never be attained by science, and that therefore an ultimate ‘theory of everything’ is a disappointing and misconceived  promise. It will range from Aristotle, via Kant, to the critical / sceptical  ideas of Putnam and Nagel (with a pause to take in refreshments from Popper and Kuhn).  There will be plenty of time for questions, and maybe some disturbing, but enlightening answers.
 

Ian Bryant has spent most of his academic career training and supervising educational research students, and teaching in Canada, the USA, Scotland and England (including the Open University and Workers Educational Association). He has researched and published books and academic articles on the social philosophy of learning, education for professional development, and the history of scientific ideas. His current interests are in the phenomenology of mind, and the concepts of learning, agency and selfhood. Recently retired, he is now Visiting Fellow, University of Southampton School of Education.

According to some nutritionists and practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine, sharks don’t get cancer. It’s a myth that’s not only brought false hope to sufferers of one of the world’s horrific diseases, who are told that consuming shark cartilage can cure cancer, but it’s also contributed to a recent acceleration in demand for shark cartilage, which has had devastating impact on the world’s shark populations. In fact, it’s estimated that 38 million sharks are slaughtered every year.

After millions of years serving as the oceans’ main apex predator, many shark species are now on the brink of extinction following just a few decades of indiscriminate fishing. People often ask ‘where the harm?’ when it comes to using alternative medicine, and this talk will explain the very real and costly price of relying on unregulated, bogus medicine to treat cancer.

In this talk, marine conservation enthusiast Ben Hardwidge will explore the theories behind using medicines derived from sharks and rays, and explain the devastating impact that overfishing them is having on our marine ecosystem. As well as this, he will also introduce the ideas behind a new scepticism campaign in development, which aims to raise awareness about medicines based on shark cartilage, while appealing to major retailers to stop stocking them.

Deborah's talk is on the Cultural & Physiological aspects of the religious and superstitious experience.

• When do the dead chew in their graves?
• Why do vampires strike in autumn?
• Why do ghosts live in electric clocks?

We are delighted to be hosting Deborah Hyde who has been writing about the folklore of the macabre for eighteen years. Her book, ‘Unnatural Predators’ will be published this year. She blogs on belief in the supernatural as ‘Jourdemayne’, but often suffers from mission creep. Her daytime, grown-up job is a makeup effects coordinator in the film industry – more vampires and zombies, then.

 

The Pod Delusion is a weekly news magazine podcast about interesting things. From politics, to science to culture and philosophy, it's commentary from a secular, rationalist, skeptical, somewhat lefty-liberal, sort of perspective. A bit like From Our Own Correspondent but with more jokes.

If you'd like to contribute towards the recording by preparing a 5 minute (ish) talk then please let us know!

www.facebook.com/event.php

Part 1: Sex, Lies and Instant Messaging

Adultery is one of the oldest of human preoccupations, but the modern world of social networking and instant messaging is ill-suited to discreet and deniable infidelities. In this talk we will describe what can go wrong with your intra-affair communications, how to avoid such mistakes, and what lessons can be learned from them.

Part 2: Thinking clearly about Security, or: Why Cybersecurity is Rubbish.

"Cyberspace" is considered by many - in both governments and pundit industries - to be the next great battleground for warfare; this perspective is based upon a 1980s sci-fi metaphor which does not stand up to scrutiny, and thus the entire enterprise of "cybersecurity" is at best ill-explained, and at worst entirely fictitious.

**Due to the nature of the talk and the venue restrictions, unfortunately this event is unsuitable for under 18s**

Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines

Jim will discuss the nature of space and time, parallel universes, the possibility and paradoxes of time travel, all with a microphone in one hand and a pint in the other.

Jim Al-Khalili OBE is a theoretical physicist, author and science communicator. He is Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey. Jim has become a familiar science personality in the British media.

He has hosted several BBC productions about science and is a frequent commentator about science in other British media venues  including Atom, a three-part series on BBC Four about the history of our understanding of the atom and atomic physics and BBC Horizon, The Big Bang. He has contributed to programmes ranging from Tomorrow's World, BBC Four's Mind Games, The South Bank Show to BBC One's Bang Goes the Theory.

 

Many prominent scientists (naming no names) have publicly declared philosophy to be an unworthy subject (this is putting it kindly!), so come along and hear Clio defend the philosophical corner.

Clio is happy to identify as an athiest, skeptic, feminist medic. She is a child and adolescent psyciatrist who sometimes gets a bit worked up about stuff, and who has a bit of an Open University Addiction.

(I stole the above paragraph from the Hampshire Skeptics website, but hopefully when people realise how good her talk is, she'll get her own 'fficial blurb!)

No formal speaker. If you want to speak then just find a table with some people interested in what you have to say :)

A chance to have a drink and get to know some of the other people interested in skepticism.

If you use facebook please join the event here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=100785866681136 as it helps us get an accurate picture of how many people will be attending. Thanks!

Simon Singh, Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial

Prince Charles is a staunch defender and millions of people swear by it; most UK doctors consider it to be little more than superstition and a waste of money. But how do you know which treatments really heal and which are potentially harmful? Simon Singh and his co-author Professor Edzard Ernst investigated the evidence for and against alternative therapies and published their conclusions in “Trick or Treatment?”, an honest, impartial and hard-hitting examination and judgement of more than 30 of the most popular treatments.

Singh, who has also authored “Fermat’s Last Theorem” and “Big Bang”, will discuss how and why he got involved in writing about alternative medicine. In particular, he will discuss the origins, philosophy and testing of acupuncture and homeopathy, two of the most popular forms of alternative medicine. Singh, who was unsuccessfully sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association, will also discuss the impact of libel laws on scientific journalism and the ongoing battle for libel reform.

After completing a PhD in particle physics, Simon Singh MBE joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on programmes such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon. He has also presented programmes on Radio 4, BBC4 and Channel 4. He is best known as the author of "Fermat’s Last Theorem", "The Code Book", "Big Bang" and "Trick or Treatment?".

Adam Kay - from the Amateur Transplants

Adam's music consists mainly of parody comic songs mostly dealing with medical subjects. He has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival every year since 2005. Ten percent of the Amateur Transplant's sales, and all proceeds from the London Underground Song are donated to Macmillan Cancer Relief.

The duo have released three studio albums, 'Fitness to Practice', 'Unfit to Practise' and 'Have Yourself A Sweary Little Christmas'. They also released an album of a live recording of their stage show called 'In Theatre'.

Adam studied medicine at Imperial College London. 

Colin Wright graduated in 1982 from Monash University, Melbourne,
Australia, with a B.Sc.(Hons) in Pure Mathematics, and went on to
receive his doctorate in 1990 from Cambridge University, England.
While at Cambridge he also learned how to fire-breathe, unicycle,
juggle and ballroom dance. Since then he has worked as a research
mathematician, a computer programmer, and an electronics hardware
designer, taking time to give presentations all over the world on
"Juggling - Theory and Practice." Colin also enjoys sailing small
boats and playing bridge, although not (so far) at the same time.

We're very pleased to welcome back Chaz Shapiro to wow everyone with stunning images and video and talk of dark energy and matter.

Chaz works for the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation · University of Portsmouth

Dr Paul Curzon works as a Reader in Computer Science in the School of Electronic

Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary, University of London.

http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~pc/