Skeptic: Promoting Science and Critical Thinking

2009 July–December

December 30th: Why Skeptics Should Embrace the Supernatural on TV

Do depictions of the supernatural on television and in movies lead to belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal? Or, is there something more subtle happening within these shows that we should pay attention to? In this week’s eSkeptic, Jason Colavito tells us why skeptics should embrace the supernatural on television.

December 23rd: The Case Against Ball Lightning

Steuart Campbell discusses the evidence (or lack thereof) of the phenomenon known as ball lightning.

December 16th: How Derek Freeman Fooled Us All

In this week’s eSkeptic we present an excerpt from The Trashing of Margaret Mead: Anatomy of an Anthropological Controversy by Paul Shankman.

December 9th: God is Love

P.J. Rooks reviews Robert Wright’s book The Evolution of God and Shop Skeptic has 15% off all Caltech lectures for a limited time.

December 2nd: A Death Valley Adventure

In this week’s eclectic eSkeptic we announce a Death Valley Adventure (our next geology tour), two super deals at Shop Skeptic, and a new feature for telling a friend you want a subscription to Skeptic magazine for Christmas!

November 25th: Skeptic Five-Day Sale

Spread a little skeptic cheer this year! Now thru Sunday, you can save 25% off everything in our store, including subscriptions! Sale ends November 29, 2009 at midnight Pacific Standard Time.

November 18th: Teaching by Doing

Clark Lindgren recounts the birth of Bio 150 — An Introduction to Biological Inquiry. By turning the curriculum on its head, the Biology Department at Grinnell College has created opportunities for students to perform actual scientific research from the get-go. Results suggest that students are getting just what they need to confirm their interest in biology and get an early start developing their skills as young scientists.

November 11th: Will Physicists Destroy the World?

Lloyd B. Lueptow asserts that the Large Hadron Collider experiments should be delayed or stopped while the risk/cost-benefit equation is sorted out in debates the public can comprehend. In the rebuttal to this piece, Lawrence Krauss asserts that to cease performing experiments whose results we are not certain about beforehand is a recipe for ending scientific discovery.

November 4th: Celebrating Carl Sagan

Few celebrities in science have done more for the promotion of science, reason, rationality, and critical thinking than Carl Sagan, whom we remember this week upon the impending occasion of his birthday on November 9. Carl would have been 75 years old. Happy Birthday Carl!

October 28th: Skeptic welcomes new podcast: MonsterTalk

Just in time for Halloween, we’re proud to welcome MonsterTalk to the growing Skeptic media family. Dedicated to focussed critical examination of cryptozoological mysteries, this second audio talk show presented by Skeptic magazine is a natural complement to Skepticality (our flagship general interest skeptical program). Plus, we present an article from an early Halloween issue of Junior Skeptic describing how to make your very own alien autopsy cake.

October 26th: Farewell to Norman Jay Levitt (1943–2009)

It is with much sadness that we report the death of Norman Jay Levitt who died of heart failure on Saturday, October 23, 2009. In this special eSkeptic, in tribute to one of the finest writers ever to grace the pages of Skeptic magazine, we present Norman Levitt’s review of Science: A Four Thousand Year History by Patricia Fara.

October 21st: Fatal Adjustments — How Chiropractic Kills

J. D. Haines, MD reminds us that chiropractic is a dangerous threat to public health and remains a holdover from the days of the snake oil salesmen.

October 14th: Science & Morality

Dr Harriet Hall, MD, (aka the Skepdoc) reviews Render Unto Darwin: Philosophical Aspects of the Christian Right’s Crusade against Science, by James H. Fetzer.

October 7th: Drowning Toads by 20-something Naturalists

Darryl E. Brock reviews Darwin Slept Here: Discovery, Adventure, and Swimming Iguanas in Charles Darwin’s South America, by Eric Simons.

September 30th: Paranormal Wall Street

Karen Stollznow wonders whether psychics are cashing in on the current economic climate.

September 23rd: Swine Flu Vaccine Fearmongering

Dr Harriet Hall, MD, (aka the Skepdoc) explains why fearmongering about the swine flu vaccine is both wrong and dangerous.

September 16th: A Tale of Two Sci-Fi Conventions

Junior Skeptic Editor Daniel Loxton reports from Dragon*Con 2009 in Atlanta, where he spoke last week as a guest of the giant science fiction convention’s Skeptrack.

September 9th: LogiComix: An Epic Search for Truth

David Cowan reviews Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, a graphic novel about the life and ideas of philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell, written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou.

September 2nd: Criminal Injustice

We bring you a very controversial article on the criminal justice system by investigative journalist Steve Salerno, who previously debunked the self-esteem and self-help movements for Skeptic.

August 26th: War, Columbine, UFOs…

Download a free chapter of War: History, Causes & Solutions from Michael Shermer’s lectures at Glendale College in 1996; hear Dave Cullen on Skepticality delve deep into the psyches of the killers, the victims, and their families of the Columbine massacre; read Michael Shermer’s SkepticBlog post on how to talk to UFOlogists (if you must).

August 19th: An Empirical Analysis of a Supernatural Claim

Gary J. Whittenberger investigates whether the prayer of Georgia State Governor Sonny Perdue correlates to an increase in precipitation and how likely it was to have actually caused the increase.

August 12th: Philosophers, Creationists & Serious Brainiacs

Glenn Branch reviews But Is It Science? The Philosophical Question in the Creation/Evolution Controversy. (Updated edition, edited by Robert T. Pennock and Michael Ruse).

August 8th: The Gullible Instructing the Gullible

Michael E. O’Reilly reviews Stephen Greenspan’s Annals of Gullibility: Why We Get Duped and How to Avoid it.

July 29th: Epic Creatures, Remarkable Species

James N. Gardner reviews Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean B. Carroll. James N. Gardner is an Oregon attorney and the author, most recently, of The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos.

July 22nd: Fix Wikipedia

Daniel Loxton, Editor of Junior Skeptic (and the organizer behind What Do I Do Next? 105 Practical Ways to Promote Skepticism and Advance Science) addresses the importance of Wikipedia. Find out how grassroots skeptics can help ensure that Wikipedia is a science-based public resource.

July 15th: Complexity Redux

James N. Gardner reviews Complexity: A Guided Tour by Melanie Mitchell.

July 8th: Linked: How Everything is Connected

Andrew Shaindlin reviews Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.

July 1st: Robert Richard responds to Daniel Gasman

Robert Richard responds to Daniel Gasman’s review of The Tragic Sense of Life which ran in eSkeptic (June 10th, 2009). Robert J. Richards is a Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science at the University of Chicago.