New Mexicans for Science and Reason

NMSR October 9th Meeting: David Weinberg, MD
"Curing All Diseases... Again! Trampling Scientific Boundaries for Fun and Profit"

This talk compares a snake oil entrepreneur from the 19th century to the  direct-to-consumer stem cell industry of present day. I identify common themes in the scientific, social, and regulatory environment.
7:00 PM October 9th, 2024, on Zoom

SkeptiCamp-NM presentations are now on YouTube!

Detailed Schedule

Previous Meetings

2024

NMSR February Meeting: Anay Luketa on "Thermal Hazards Associated with Transporting Liquefied Natural Gas by Rail" (February 21st) Video of the Presentation
NMSR March Meeting: "Total Solar Eclipse Season: April 8th and More" (March 20th) Video of the Presentation
Arjak Bhattacharjee on "Science and the Indian Knowledge System (IKS)" (April 17th) Video of the Presentation
Keith Gilbert, "Counterintuitive Corners of The Mind" (May 15th) Video of the Presentation
Judith Polich, "Plastics and Climate Change" (July 17th) Video of the Presentation
Trish Henning, "The Very Large Array, from the Past to the Next Generation" (September 18th) Video of the Presentation

2023

"A Look at Graham Hancock's "Ancient Apocalypse" series, featuring Mark Boslough, John Hoopes, Dave Thomas and Ted Cloak (January 11th) Video of the Presentation
"Doing Science With Your Camera," with Leonard Tramiel and Dave Thomas (February 15th) Video of the Presentation
"Those Wacky Anti-Relativity Folks: Insights from John Geohegan, hosted by Dave Thomas" (March 8th) Video of the Presentation
Prof. Mostafa Hassanalian on "Biomimetics, and Bio-Inspired Aerial and Aquatic Robots" (April 12th) Video of the Presentation
Benjamin Radford on "Tracking the Lizard Man" (May 10th) Video of the Presentation
Joe Archbold and Dave Thomas, on "Looking Under the Hood of Wave/Particle Duality" (August 9th) Video of the Presentation
Frank Etscorn, Inventor of the Nicotine Patch (September 20th) Video of the Presentation
Karl Reineke on "Astrophotography: Equipment, Methods & Results" (November 15th) Video of the Presentation
Dave Thomas on "What's New in Flat Land? (December 13th) Video of the Presentation

2022

"Henrietta Lacks, the HeLa Cell Line, and the Long Wait for Justice" (January 12th) Video of the Presentation
Pace VanDevender on "Magnetized Quark Nuggets and Dark Matter" (February 9th) Video Coming Soon!
Al Zelicoff, M.D. on "Long COVID - Some recent, unexpected, and troubling findings" (March 9th) Video of the Presentation PDF of the Presentation
Susan Gerbic on "Science Activism does not stop during a world-wide pandemic, or How I spent my lockdown" (April 13th) Video of the Presentation
Revisiting Earthquake Lights! Panel Presentation with Friedemann Freund, Alberto Enriquez, John Derr, and Dave Thomas (June 8th) Video of the Presentation
Dave Thomas on "Non-Reversing Mirrors : Update" (August 10th) Video of the Presentation
Dr. Kevin Folta on "Rounding Up Glyphosate Myths" (September 14) Video of the Presentation
Robert Bartholomew on "The Myth of Havana Syndrome" (October 12th) Video of the Presentation
Celebrating the life of Kendrick Frazier, 1942 - 2022 (December 14th) Video of the Presentation

2021

Dr. Barbara Forrest on "Thoughts on Kitzmiller 15 Years On" (Jan. 13th) Video of the Presentation
Dr. Mario Cruz on "AI Persuasive Technology and Social Media: A moral dilemma?" (Feb. 10th) Video of the Presentation
Dr. Jim Kirkland on "Feathering Utahraptor: History of Dromaeosaur Discoveries" (March 10th) Video of the Presentation
Dr. Mark Boslough on "April Fools and Alabama π (as seen on Jeopardy! (April 14th) Video of the Presentation
Dave Thomas and guests on "They're Ba-ack! Magnetic Water Conditioning and Other Pseudoscience Zombies (May 12th) Video of the Presentation
June 2021 NMSR Meeting: NMSR's' "Summer Social" (June 9th) Video of the Presentation
July 2021 NMSR Meeting: The Great 2021 UFO Flap" (July 14th) Video of the Presentation
August 2021 NMSR Meeting: James Gover on "What should the NM Congressional delegation emphasize this year?" (August 11th) Video of the Presentation PDF of the Presentation
September 2021 NMSR Meeting: Panel Discussion: Ivermectin and Covid19 (September 8th) Video of the Presentation
October 2021 NMSR Meeting: Larry Crumpler, with an Update from Mars: Perseverance, Ingenuity and More! (October 20th) Video of the Presentation
November 2021 NMSR Meeting: Panel Discussion on Tall el-Hammam, Airbursts, and Sodom, with Dr. Mark Boslough (November 10th) Video of the Presentation UK Version
December 2021 NMSR Meeting: JW Madison, "What's New in Light Rail?" (December 8th) PDF of the Presentation

2020

Peter Fawcett, UNM Earth & Planetary Sciences, on "The Paleoclimate Records of The Southwest and Mexico." (January 8th)
Nicholas Lamar Soutter on “The Importance of Critical Thought” (Feb. 12th)
Sara Wofford on "The Pale Blue Dot" (March 4th)
James Gover on "City Economic Growth: Implications for New Mexico" PDF, Video of the Presentation (April 8th)
Holly Olivarez on "The connection between Climate Change & COVID-19". ClimateChangeTalks.com. May 13th, 2020, Video of the Presentation
Panel Discussion on COVID-19 with Coffee Brown, Austin Moede and Dave Thomas: June 10th, 2020, Video of the Presentation,
Tom Solomon on "A Sustainable Economy Without Fracking" (August 12th) Video of the Presentation, Zoom Chat, lots of links to resources!
Cynthia Hall on "The PRC and Climate Change: What's Taking So Long?" (September 9th) Video of the Presentation
A panel discussion on "Prospects for Nuclear Power: What Have We learned?" (October 14th)
Nicholas Lamar Soutter on the Election, the Future of Science, and More! (Nov. 11th)
Ben Radford on New Book, "Big - If True: Adventures in Oddity" (Dec. 9th) Video of the Presentation

2019

An Evening of Science and Magic (Jan. 9th)
Mick West of Metabunk, on his new book, "Escaping the Rabbit Hole" (Feb. 13th)
Creve Maples, Ph.D. on "Search for Atlantis?" (March 14th)
John Covan on "Some Thoughts on Risk" (April 10th)
Dave Thomas on "Why We Do Seismology" (May 8th)
Ben Radford on "Organ Theft Urban Legends" (June 12th)
Dr. Stewart Thompson on A Diatribe on Fluoride" (August 14th)
Ken Frazier on "From Darwin to Today: Thoughts on How We Honor Our Scientists and Thinkers" (Sept. 11th)
Milton Vernon on "US production of medical diagnostic isotopes” (Oct. 9th)
Ben Radford, on "The Long Island Medium" (Nov. 13th)
Dave Thomas, on "The War of the Weasels: How an Intelligent Design Theorist was Outfoxed by a Genetic Algorithm." (Dec. 11th)

2018

Mark Fraser, on "The Cosmic Distance Ladder - How do we really know the distance?" (Jan. 10th)
Valorie Aquino on "Organizing March for Science: From Moment to Movement" (Feb. 21st)
Chris Witt, on "Life, elevated" (March 21st)
Susan Gerbic, on "Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW): It's About Time" (April 11)
Lee Skinner on "Exploration in New Mexico's Fort Stanton Cave and Snowy River Passage" (May 16th)
Dave Straub, on "Building Models of Historic Structures" (June 13th)
Benjamin Radford, on "The Blue Whale Game: Moral Panic or Public Threat?" (August 8th)
Larry Crumpler, with News from Mars (September 12th)
Allen Robnett, on "Astronomy: A Humanist Perspective" (October 10th)
Dave Thomas, on Scientific Animation (November 14th)
Bruce Lacey on "A Flat Earther's Journey and Perspective." (Dec. 12th)

2017

Rob Kryder on "Field studies and the UNM controversy regarding the study of an unrecognized, large bipedal omnivore in New Mexico, fact and fallacy" (Jan. 11th)
J. Pace VanDevender, PhD, on "Detection of quark-nugget candidate for dark matter." (Feb. 8th)
Dave Thomas, on "What's New in Creationism?" (March 8th)
March for Science, New Mexico! (April 12th)
"Discovery and analysis of a long-hidden Soviet biological weapons accident: Lessons for modern day bioterrorism and preparedness." - Alan Zelicoff (May 10th)
Ben Radford on "Was the Orlando Gay Club Shooting Homophobia?" (June 14th)
Hillard Kaplan on “Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane: a cross-sectional cohort study.” (August 9th)
Matthew Lee Loftus on "Genetically Engineered Food Opposition: the Gap between Science and Public Perception." (September 13th)
William Fienning with Diabolical Illusions, and Dave Thomas on the Flat Earth Movement (October 11th)
Kim Johnson & Jesse Johnson, on “The NM Science Standards Kerfuffle” (Nov. 8th)
Ben Radford, on "New Mexico UFO Conspiracies" (December 13th)

2016

John Fleck on "Beyond the Cadillac Desert: How myths of crisis and conflict stand in the way of solving the West's water problems" (Jan. 13th)
Mark Taylor on "Climate Models: What are they made of and what can they do?" (Feb. 10th)
Trish Henning of UNM on "Hidden Galaxies" (Mar. 16th)
Stan Chou, Sandia National Labs, on "Catalysts for producing hydrogen" (April 13th)
Ben Radford, on his new book, "Bad Clowns" (May 11th)
Dave Thomas, on "The Amazingly Deceptive World of Body Building Supplement Advertising!" (June 8th))
Lawrence Krauss, Saturday, June 25th, 2016, joint CESE/NMSR Meeting
Mike Hightower, Sandia, on "The SMART Grid - Challenges and Emerging Directions" (Aug. 10th)
Dr. Ian Palmer, on Fracking and Earthquakes in Shale-oil-gas. (Sept. 14th)
Ben Radford, on Psychics and Mediums (and John Edward). (November 9th)
Ken Frazier and Dave Thomas on "CSICON Las Vegas. (December 14th)

2015

NMT Prof. Becky Reiss on "Beyond Genetics: Epigenetics, Eugenics and More!" (Jan. 14th)
Michael Shermer, director of the Skeptics Society and prolific author (Feb. 21st)
Victor Polyak, UNM, on "Paleoclimate from speleothems." (March 11th)
Jason Wheeler of Sandia on "A Better Prosthesis" (April 8th)
NMSR's 25th Anniversary! (May 13th)
Bruce Winchell on "Public vs Private Tech Transfer" (June 10th)
No Meeting (July 8th)
John Geohegan on new paradigms in probability, and Dave Thomas on NMSR's new Dowsing Challenge. (August 12th)
Coffee Brown, on Illusions and 3D (Sept. 9th)
James Gover on "Innovations Models and Public Research Policy" (October 14th)
Dave Thomas on "Illusions Part II " (November 11th)
Mark Fraser on "Debunking Climate Denialists" (December 9th) Complete Presentation (PDF, 4MB)

2014

Dale Murray on "The Quadro Tracker" (Jan. 8th)
February 9th and 12th: Darwin Days 2014, Many Speakers and Events!
Barry Spletzer will speak on "History of the Astronomical Unit." (March 12th)
April 9th, 2014 NMSR Meeting - NMSR's Silver Jubilee (24th Anniversary!), Membership Meeting, and Elections
Alfred Russel Wallace - Was He Robbed? With Bill Bailey (May 14th)
Dave Straub on "Remembering Underground Testing Days at the Nevada Test Site: Traveling with the Thundering Herd" (June 11th)
Milton Vernon on "Medical Isotope Production" (August 13th)
Benjamin Radford on "The Loretto Staircase" (September 10th)
Bill Fienning and Dave Thomas, "An Evening of Magic, Relativity, and Bat Boy!" (October 8th)
Mike Donohoe, "Heat Death of the Universe" (November 12th)
Dr. Steven B. Bradfute, Ebola Update (December 10th)

2013

James Gover, "Job Creation, Innovation and Competitiveness" (January 9th)
Robert Bartholomew, Champ Lake Monster (February 13th)
John Geohegan on "Mathematical Mysteries Solved and Unsolved," and Dave Thomas on "Set Theory and Skepticism (Polygraphs, Bell's Inequality, Hidden Variables in Quantum Mechanics) (March 12th)"
Carl Agee "Water-rich Meteorite from Mars" (April 10th)
Dave Thomas on "AGW and the Monckton Debate Challenge" (May 8th)
Ellen Stechel on "Solar Energy and CO2" (June 12th)
Dagmar Llewellyn on "Upper Rio Grande Climate-Change Impacts Assessment: Presentation of Projected Hydrologic Impacts and Discussion of Potential Adaptation Strategies." (July 10th) Dagmar's presentation is online at the NMSR website, here.
Mark Boslough on "The Chelyabinsk Meteor." (August 14th)
Michael Roberts on "Creationism Across the Pond" (September 11th) (Slides)
ILLUSIONS - with Rocky Stone, Dave Thomas, John Geohegan, Bill Fienning and Keith Gilbert (October 9th)
Professor Ruediger Schack on 'Quantum Bayesianism' (November 13th)
Mel Baer, "The Facts and Misconceptions of the TWA 800 Accident" (December 11th)

2012

Sandia's Mike Hightower, "Water and Energy – Emerging Issues and Challenges" (Jan.11th)
Sandra Blakeslee of the New York Times, on "Helping Scientists Communicate with the Public" (Feb. 8th)
John Geohegan on Neuroscience, and Dave Thomas on Shakespeare vs. Anonymous (March 14)
James Carlson on "UFOs and Nukes? The Malmstrom AFB 'UFO Incident'" (April 11th)
James Brown, Distinguished Professor of Biology at UNM, speaking on "Energetic Limits to Economic Growth." (May 9th)
Gary Morgan, NMMNHS, speaking on "What's New in Bat Evolution?" (June 13th)
David Blair and Roger Kennedy of The Albuquerque Astronomical Society, and NMSR's Dave Thomas and Rocky Stone, on "Astronomy Show'n'Tell" : Venus Transit, Eclipses and More (July 11th).
JW Madison on "What's so (damn) important about trains?" (August 8th)
Vickie Peck on "Connecting the Climate Dots from New Mexico to the Amazon" (Sept. 12th)
Ben Radford, "Crystal Skulls" (Oct. 10th)
Ted Spitzmiller, "Space Exploration after the Shuttle" (Nov. 14th)
Mark Boslough, "Too Hot For Heartland: Censored in Chicago" (Dec. 12th)

2011

Linda Delker and David Fletcher, "Therapeutic Massage: What It Is and the Evidence for What It Does." (Jan. 12th)
Jim Dixon, professor of Anthropology at UNM, "Science Offers New Insights into the Origins of the First Americans." (Feb. 9th)
Ben Radford, "The Real Life X-Files Lecture Series: Tracking the Vampire, My Search for the Chupacabra" (March 9th)
John Fleck, "Chasing Water: Climate Change, Drought and the Implications of the Disappearing Lake Mead." (April 13th)
Lind S. Gee of the US Geological Survey, speaking on the Japan earthquake and the USGS response. (May 18th)
Milton Vernon of Sandia National Laboratories, on the Brayton Cycle and Supercritical Fluids in Power Generation (June 8th)
Science Toys (July 13th)
Sandra Begay-Campbell of Sandia National Labs, on Wind and Solar Power (August 17th)
Ken Frazier, Ben Radford, and Dave Thomas, speaking on CSICON, "The conference dedicated to scientific inquiry and critical thinking," (September 14th)
Ellen Roberts Young of Las Cruces, speaking on her book "John Emerson Roberts: Kansas City's 'Up-to-date' Freethought Preacher." (October 12th)
UNM geologist Wolfgang Elston, and UNM grad student Eric Tegtmeier, speaking on "The Two Billion Year Old Bushveld Igneous Province of South Africa: a Product of Two Catastrophes." (November 9th))

2010

Steve Cather, NM Tech, on "Explosive volcanism, oceanic iron fertilization, and their relationship to global cooling episodes." (Jan. 13th)
NMSR member Jim Middleton, on "A Patent Primer for Non-Lawyers" (Feb. 10th)
Benjamin Radford, on "Behind the Scenes on a TV Ghost Show" (March 10)
Mark Boslough, talking on "Hockey Stick Politics: Climategate or Clusterpuck?" (April 14)
Dave Thomas, talking on "The 9-11 'Truth' Movement: Why did the towers Fall?" (May 19th)
Science Toys, Business Meeting (June 9th)
No Meeting, July 2010
Benjamin Radford on "Paranormal Investigation (Aug. 11th)
James Thiel, M.D., on "Free Will and Merit" (Sept. 8th)
John Geohegan, on "Foucault's Pendulum and other such fascinating devices." (Oct. 13th)
Anders Björkman, on the Heiwa Challenge (Nov. 10th)
Julia Galef on Intuition and Reason (Dec. 5th)

2009

Prof. John Geissman, "Open Access and the Future of Science Publishing, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (Jan. 14th)
Anne H. Weaver, Ph.D. author of "Voyage of the Beetle" on "The E-word: Teaching Evolution in the Land of Enchantment" (Feb. 14th)
NMSR President Dave Thomas on "The Age of the Earth" (March 11th)
UNM geologist Mousumi Roy, on "Tectonic Deformation at the Rio Grande Rift - What We Know, What We Don't Know, and What We Hope To Learn" (April 8th)
Sandia Physicist Mark Boslough, on "Explosions in the Sky: How Dangerous are Asteroids?" (May 20th)
Al Zelicoff, on "More Harm than Good: Is Health Care Out Of Control?" (June 10th)
Ben Radford, on "The Psychic and the Serial Killer: Examining the 'Best Case' for Psychic Detectives." (August 12th)
Dave Thomas, on "Dave's Canadian Adventure: Science of Batholiths of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia." (Sept. 9th)
Dinesh Loomba, UNM Physics, on "Shedding some Light on Dark Matter" (Oct. 14th)
Socorro astronomer Lisa Foley, on "Interstellar Bar Codes: Spectroscopy for the Rest of Us" (Nov. 11th)
U. Michigan professor Henry N. Pollack, on "A World Without Ice: The Human Impact on Earth's Climate" (Dec. 2nd)

2008

Dave Thomas and John Geohegan: "Media Fumbles and Strange Letters on Chemtrails, Bumblebee Flight, Sea Monsters, History of the Speed of Light and More! A 2007 and Beyond Retrospective." (Jan. 9th)
Marshall Berman "The 'Intelligently Designed' Attack on Science and Society" (Feb. 13th, Darwin Day) SUMMARY
Benjamin Radford on "Lake Monsters I Have Known" (Mar. 12th)
Ted Cloak on "A Scientific Anthropology: Natural Selection CAN Explain Cultural Progress, and Here's How" (April 9th)


Cosmic Carnival (April 20th, 2008)
Wayne Bundy, speaking on his new book, Out of Chaos: Evolution from the Big Bang to Human Intellect: Intellect's Essential Nature to the Survival of Modern Humans. (May 21st, 2008)
Prof. John Geissman, Chair, UNM Dept. Earth & Planetary Sciences, on "Five Million Years from Now, Mina, Nevada, Should be Great Beachfront Property!, or How the Western US Will Evolve in the Geologic Future" (June 11th, 2008)
Prof. Peter Fawcett, UNM Dept. Earth & Planetary Sciences, on "Drilling the Valles Caldera for a Long Mid-Pleistocene Paleoclimate Record" (July 9th, 2008)
Sarah Lathrop, Asst. Professor of Pathology, UNM, on "Listing Listeria and Counting Campylobacter: Monitoring Foodborne Illness in New Mexico." (August 13th, 2008)
John Geohegan, NMSR Vice president, on "Albert Einstein's Cosmic Religion" (September 10th, 2008)
Benjamin Radford and Mike Smith, on "Albuquerque's KiMo Ghost: The True Story." (October 15th, 2008)
Trish Henning, Associate Professor of Astronomy at UNM, on "The Square Kilometer Array: A New Telescope for the 21st Century. (November 12, 2008)
Physicist Marshall Berman, on "Civilian Nuclear Power" (December 3rd, 2008)SUMMARY

2007

Dr. Jon Aase on "Dysmythology: Should Unborn Babies Fear the Environment?" (Jan. 10th)
Darwin Day at NMT, UNM (Feb. 9th, 12th) - no 2nd Weds. Meeting this month.
Dr. Bill Doleman on his involvement in the "Sci-Fi Investigates" program (Mar. 14th)
Dr. Richard M. Berthold, on "Greeks: Why These Dead White Males Discovered Rationalism." (April 11th)
John Holmes on "Climate Change: Deal or No Deal" (May 9th)
Ben Radford On "Reflections on a Decade of Paranormal Investigation" (June 13th)
Randy Thornhill and Corey Fincher On "The Evolutionary Biology of Political Values" (July 11th)
Science Toys (August 8th)
Dave Thomas on "Alien Fauna of New Mexico" (September 12th)
Ben Radford on "How to Investigate a Haunted House" (October 10th)
Dr. Gary Overturf (UNM Pediatrics),on "The Issue of Thimerosal in Vaccine: The Science and the Hysteria"(Nov. 14th)SUMMARY
Mel Strong, UNM Dept E and PS, "Isotopes, Water Vapor, Flying Machines, and the Border Patrol: Adventures in Tracking New Mexico's Elusive Monsoon Moisture" (Dec. 12th)

2006

Spencer Lucas, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, on "Survivor Chicxulub - Were There Dinosaurs After the Meteor Impact?" (Jan. 11th)
Pedro Irigonegaray, Kansas attorney, on "Darwin Day 2006" (Feb. 12th)
John Fleck, Alb. Journal, on "Drought, Hurricanes and Global Climate Change." (March 8th)
George C. Loehr, eLucem*, on "Blackouts & Blunders: the 'Brave New World' of Electric Power Deregulation." (April 12th)
Jerry Brody on "Evolution, Schmevolution and Didactic Museum Exhibitions - How Museums Teach What?"(May 10th)
Carolyn Meinel on "Computer Security Research -- In Need of Adult Supervision." (June 14th)
Carolyn's Site, Carolyn's Wikipedia Page, Happy Hacker Site
Dr. Al Zelicoff on "One Flu out of some Cuckoo's Head: Why Pandemic Influenza isn't a problem (unless you are a chicken)." (July 12th) Al's Web PageSUMMARY
Dr. Mark Boslough on King Tut's Necklace: The Extraterrestrial Connection (Aug. 9th)
Dr. Cosette Wheeler on "Now that we have a means to prevent cancer, Will We?" (Sept. 13th)
"A Night of Magic" - Wayne Hicks, Donnie Marchi, and our own Bill Fienning & Dave Thomas (Oct. 11th)
"Stem Cells" with Dr. Lee Anna Cunningham and Dr. Xinyu Zhao of UNM HSC (Nov. 8th)
December Meeting - Snowed Out! (Dec. 20th)

2005

 Brian Sanderoff of Research and Polling, Inc., on "The Science of Polling." (Jan., 12th)SUMMARY
"Paleoclimate & Global Warming." Prof. Peter Fawcett (Feb. 9th)
"Folsom Sites on Albuquerque's West Mesa." Bruce Huckell (Mar. 9th)
Hank Beechhold on "How Weird is English, Really?" (April 13th)
Professor E. D. Remoff (prof. emeritus, Miskatonic University, Arkham, MA) on "My Visit to the Institute for Creation Research," and Dave Thomas on "The Bible Code: Data Mining for God." (May 11th)
Prof. Les McFadden, Chair, UNM Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, on "The Role of the Sun in Formation of Desert Pavements." (June 8th)
Prof. Carlton Caves on "Quantum Cryptography: Secret Communication Courtesy of Quantum Mechanics." (July 13)
Len Duda on "The Cassini Spacecraft at Saturn" (August 10)
Prof. McAllister Hull (UNM) on "Wartime Los Alamos and Beyond: Nuclear Weapons and Public Policy." (Sept. 14)
"A Night of Magic" (Oct. 14th)
General Meeting and Elections (Nov. 9th)
Pace VanDevender, Sandia National Labs, on "Ball Lightning--New Physics, New Energy Source, or Just Entertainment?" (Dec. 14th)

2004

Shenda Baker (Harvey Mudd Chem. Dep't)  on "Fun with Strange Matter" (Jan. 14th)
Barbara Forres(Southeastern Louisiana University), on
"Moving the Discussion of Intelligent Design in a New Direction." (Feb. 14th)SUMMARY
Prof. Forrest's new book, Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design,
with Paul R. Gross, Oxford University Press, November 2003 can be ordered here
Review by Michael Cavanaugh, President, Institute on Religion in an Age of Science

"This book is chilling. It lets one see how totalitarian religious thought can begin to take hold even of a multi-cultural free society. We already knew that religious fundamentalists and many evangelicals think teaching evolutionary principles is not only erroneous, but evil. We knew they objected to teaching evolution in the schools. We knew they had concocted various intellectual constructs to deny the truth of evolution, and we knew that the most recent of these constructs, 'Intelligent Design,' was subtle and sophisticated enough to attract the attention of many ordinary citizens. Since 1954, with the founding of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (of which I am the current president), many scientists and religion scholars have countered such claims by enthusiastically accepting mainstream science and exploring the implications for a modern understanding, for example in journals like Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science. Our effort has been to affirm the advances of science while preserving the ethical and philosophical insights of traditional religious traditions. And we thought we were doing our part at helping keep the society on track. Then comes this book. It shows what we did NOT already know, namely that there is a concerted and organized plan, 'The Wedge Strategy,' whereby this putative 'scientific' construct called Intelligent Design seeks to give itself a patina of respectability, thereby to make politicians look more credible when they try to remove legitimate science from our schools. But there is no mistaking the true goal of this movement-the Discovery Institute, through its Center for Science and Culture, seeks to 'renew' American culture through the enshrinement of evangelical religious doctrines as public policy. This is a development that every person interested in the science/religion dialogue needs to be aware of and needs to give serious thought to. It is not just the general wedge strategy that needs to be understood, but the detailed tactical maneuvers as well; thus, this is a book that must be read thoroughly, and not just skimmed. Fortunately it is easy and compelling reading, and many of us will want to put copies in the hands of those in a position-whether academically or politically or otherwise-to make a difference in the future of science education. "

Dr. Gregory Cochran on "The Natural History of Ashkenazi Intelligence." (March 10).
Workshop on "How will the new Science Standards affect the way evolution is taught?" (April 14th)

Goals of the standards: Producing scientifically literate students - Dr. Steve Sanchez, former SDE Staff
Teaching evolution in New Mexico - Dr. Richard Reif, PED
Strategies for teaching evolution - Sharon Dogruel, Santa Fe, former SDE staff
Evolution and the university curriculum - Prof. Timothy Moy, UNM.
Teaching evolution in the high school classroom - Lisa Durkin, Los Lunas
Intelligent Design's "Scientific Evidence" Against Evolution: Not scientific and not evidence - David E. Thomas, Peralta

WEBSITE: http://www.nmsr.org/workshop.htm

Bryan Styble , "Radioactive Albuquerque" (KKNS 1310 AM), on "Talk Radio: Medium of the Millennium" (May 12)
Brian Lanter, UNM, "Just Because They're Drowning Straw Men With Old Wine from New Bottles Doesn't Mean We Have To Throw the Baby Out With the Bath Water." (June 9th)
"An Evening of Magic" with Larry Marken, Richard Searle, Dusty Cravens, Bill Fienning, Robert Copeland, John Geohegan and Dave Thomas. (July 14th)
"Where do the laws of physics come from?" with Vic Stenger (August 25th)
Andrew Heckert, Ph.D., on "Dinosaur Record Holders." (Sept. 8th)
DDDV: Lessons Learned. (Oct. 13th)
"Tides on the Bay of Fundy." Walter L. Punke (Nov. 10th)
"Mt. St. Helens." UNM vulcanologist Wolf Elston (Dec. 8th)

2003

Dr. Rebecca Reiss (New Mexico Tech) on "Molecular Evolution: Studies in Microbes, Middens, and Man." (Jan. 8) SUMMARY
Cosette Wheeler (UNM HSC) and Spencer Lucas (NMMNHS), Darwin Day -
"How would my career be different if Darwin had never lived?" (Feb 12th)
Dr. William Doleman (UNM, Archeology Dep't) on "The Sci-Fi Channel Roswell Dig." (March 12) SUMMARY
Dr. Alan Zelicoff (Sandia Nat'l Labs) on "Lies, Damned Lies, and Polygraphs." (April 9th) SUMMARY
Jim Oberg, CSICOP Fellow, "Lessons of the 'Moon Hoax Myth'" (April 13th) http://www.jamesoberg.com/
National Astronomy Day (May 10) 
Hosted by:LodeStar Astronomy Center and The Albuquerque Astronomy Society
Dr. Steve Gregory (UNM), on "Empty Universes and Empty Heads,
Musings on Cosmic Voids and Catastrophe Predictions." (May 14th)
Dr. Ken Stoller, Simply Hyperbarics, on "Hyperbaric Chambers." (June 11th) http://www.simplyhyperbarics.com
Dr. Diana Northup (Associate Professor, UNM's Biology Department), on
"Snottites, Phlegmballs, and Deadly Gases, Oh My! Microbes in Sulfur Caves ."(July 9th)
See http://www.i-pi.com/~diana/
John Geohegan on "The Discovery of Stellar Aberration,"
and Dave Thomas on "The Illusions of Intelligent Design: Smoke and Mirrors Gone Wild." (August 13th)
Dr. Giday WoldeGabriel on "Geological Perspectives and the Hominid Record in Ethiopia" (Sept. 10th)
M. Kim Johnson (President, NM Academy of Science), on "History of New Mexico's Science Standards." (Oct. 8th)
In addition, Ken Frazier (Editor, Skeptical Inquirer) and Amanda Chesworth (local conference coordinator) preview of
the upcoming CSICOP conference on Hoaxes, Myths and Manias (Oct. 8th)
CSICOP CONFERENCE Hoaxes, Myths and Manias (Oct. 23-26). [website]
Dr. Eugenie Scott, Ph.D., Executive Director, NCSE, "Intelligent Design Creationism: Not Ready for Prime Time."
(Smith-Brasher Hall, TVI, Oct. 27th)
Christopher Whittle (UNM) , "Paranormal Belief: Bull Hockey or Cultural Imperative?" (Nov. 12th)
Gene Franchini (Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico), on "Science and the Law." (Dec. 10th)

2002

Bob Baker of NMSR speaking on "Is There a Fuel Cell in Your Future?" (Jan. 9th)
Stuart Kauffman of Santa Institute & BiosGroup, speaking on "Investigations" (Feb. 13th) SUMMARY
Cody Polston & Bob Carter of the Southwest Ghost Hunters Association on "Hunting for Ghosts." SUMMARY
see: http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news01/112301_news_ghosts.shtml (March 13th)
Dr. Galen Knight of Vitaletherapeutics speaking on
"Close Doesn't Count in Biochemistry, No Matter How Many Tax Dollars You Throw At It." (April 10th) SUMMARY
Ted Cloak, NMSR, "You Can't Re-invent the Wheel Because It Was Never Invented in the First Place!" (May 8th)
Peter Feibelman, Sandia, "What Water Wets, and Why!" (June 12th)
Jim Moseley and Karl Pflock on their new book,
Shockingly Close to the Truth : Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist (July 10th)
Dr. Adrian Brearley of UNM, "Mars, Magnetite, and Microbes: Lessons Learned and New Perspectives." (August 14th)
More Info: http://skyandtelescope.com/news/current/article_534_1.asp
Science Toys & Demos (Sept. 11th 2002)
Biology Professor Randy Thornhill (UNM), Retired Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus) Hank Beechhold, and
Anthropologist Ted Cloak, on "Implications of a New-Found 'Language Gene.' " (Oct. 9th 2002) SUMMARY
Associate Professor Trish Henning (UNM) on "The Structure of the Universe." (Nov. 13th 2002) SUMMARY
Dick Burcham (Sandia Nat'l Labs) on "Strategic Indirect Warfare-The Metamorphosis of War."

2001

Dr. Mohammed Mojahedi, UNM, "Superluminal Velocities and Einstein Causality" (January) SUMMARY
Dave Thomas, NMSR president, "Technical Problems with Intelligent Design Theory" (February)
Prof. Henry Beechhold, "The English Language and its Discontents" (March) SUMMARY
Dr. Gus Simmons, "Proof of Knowledge, Knowledge of Proof." (April) SUMMARY
Dr. Jeff Brinker , UNM / Sandia Nat. Labs, "Self-assembled materials...From Dishwashing to Nanostructures." (May) SUMMARY
Dr. Dave Gutzler, UNM, "Global Warming : Science and Policy Perspectives" (June) SUMMARY
Dr. Adrian Melott , Univ. of Kansas physicist, "FLAT (Families for Learning Accurate Theories) : Defending Science
Through Parody." (July) FLAT's Web Page: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/5737/flat.html
Karl T. Pflock, MUFON, "Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe" (August 8th)
Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, "A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory" (Aug. 11th); see http://www.rationallyspeaking.org
Science Toys (Sept. 15th)
John Geohegan, "Misunderstanding Relativity," (Oct. 10th) SUMMARY
Larry Crumpler of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, on
"Looking for Landing Sites on Mars for Mars Exploration Rover 2003 (MER2003)" (Nov. 14th)
Gary Morgan of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science speaking on
"Early Evolution of Bats, Early Evolution of Whales." (Dec. 12th)

2000

Dr. Gregory W. Donohoe, UNM/NASA Microelectronics Research Center, on Molecular Electronics (January)
Dr. Stan Rhine, UNM, on "Dead Reckoning : The Science Behind and Reasons for Forensic Anthropology." (February)
Dr. Alan Zelicoff, SNL, Biological Weapons Treaties, Polygraph Tests (March)
Dr. Jerry Dragoo of the UNM Biology , "A Skunk By Any Other Name..." (April)
Dr. Randy Thornhill, "A Natural History of Rape" (May)
Dr. John Geissman, "Paleomagnetism - More Than Just Sea Floor Spreading!" (June)
Dr. Peter Fawcett , "The Greenland Ice Core Record: 100,000 Years of Climate Change" (August)
Toby Smith, "Here Come the Aliens...Again! Why Roswell Won't Go Away." (September)
Prof. Charles B. Moore, "Benjamin Franklin's Legacy and Lightning Protection" (October)
Prof. John Geissman , UNM, "A report on the National Conference of Teaching of Evolution, Berkeley, CA." (November)
NMSR president Dave Thomas, "Sabbath Patterns in History?" (November)
John Geohegan , NMSR vice president, "Choosing Convenient Realities." (December)

1999

Paul Gammill with the Case for Intelligent Design and Dave Thomas with the Case for Evolution (January)
Carolyn Meinel (the Happy Hacker) on Computer Hacking (February)
Prof. Carlton Caves on Quantum Mechanics (March)
Dr. Greg Cochran on a New Germ Theory (April)
Dr. Rich Rand on Galaxies (May)
Florence Wengerd on the Scopes Trial (June)
Dr. Albert Einstein, with assistance of Seance master Bill Fienning (August)
Dr. Ed Flynn on Brain Imaging (September)
Rob Weinstein on Video Technology (October)
John Geohegan on Anti-relativists and Aberration (October)
Dr. Arlin Cooper on Fuzzy Math (November)
Dr. Leonard Duda on the Galileo Mission to Jupiter (December)

1998

William Dawes of Sandia on Teaching Teachers Science Curricula (January)
Ralph Genter on The Physics of Astrology (February)
Prof. Wolfgang Elston on Volcanoes of New Mexico (March)
Dr. Keith Gilbert on Probability (April)
Neil Stammer on Giordano Bruno (May)
Prof. Gary Miller on Antarctica (June)
Bill Carlyon, Trish Judd, and Barbara Stein on Alternative Medicine (August)
David E. Thomas on the Bible Code, Ken Frazier on Skeptics World Congress (September)
Dr. Virginia Salas on Virus Detection (October)
John Geohegan on Music and Harmony (November)
Dr. Genie Scott of NCSE on Creationism (December)

1997

Dr. Spencer Lucas and Prof. John Geissmann on Paleontology Tour to China (February)
Prof. Ben Mann on Mathematics and Magic (March)
Reporter John Fleck on the Rose Parade Crowd and other tales (April)
David E. Thomas on Non-Reversing Mirrors (May)
Prof. Randy Thornhill on Symmetry and Sexual Attraction (June)
Tom Williamson and Carl Diegert on Sounds of Parasaurolophus (August)
Dr. Gary Morgan on the Evolution of Whales (September)
Teacher Cindy Chapman on Science Competency Testing (October)
Prof. Richard Harris on Significance Testing (November)
Prof. Byron Dieterle on Neutrino measurement at CHOOZ (December)

1996

Prof. Carl Popp on Chemical Magic (January)
Dr. Alan Hale on Comet Hale-Bopp (February)
Prof. Maya Elrick on Tracking Climate Changes in Rocks (March)
Dr. John McGraw on LodeStar (May)
Prof. David Gutzler on Politics of Climate Change (June)
Tom Ashcroft on Radio Fireball Observations (August)
Karina Running Horse on Science Education (September)
Evelyn Browning-Garriss on Climate and Society (October)
Prof. Chip Shearer on Evidence of Life in Martian Meteorites (November)

1995

David A. Thomas on Dinosaur Sculpting and Continental Drift (January)
Prof. Charles B. Moore on the Roswell Incident and Project MOGUL (February)
Smith Powell of Berea College, KY on Stellar Evolution (March)
John Geissman of UNM on Paleomagnetism (April)
Dick Spalding of Sandia Labs on The April 1978 Bell Island Mystery Event (May)
John Geohegan on Photographic/Painting Analysis (June)
Prof. Joe Mullins on the Taos Hum (July)
Karl T. Pflock on UFOs (August)
Mark Boslough on Planetary Impacts (October)
Brian Butler of NRAO on Radar Images of the Planets (November)
Sculptor David A. Thomas on Dinosaur Attacks (December)

1994

Spencer Lucas of the NM Museum of Natural History on Fossils (January)
Chuck Scott on the Population Explosion (February)
Dr. Ferenc Szasz of UNM on Pre-Columbian Contact in the Americas? (March)
David Crossley on Frauds and UFO's (April)
Dave Thomas on Nostradamus - the Man Who Saw Yesterday (May)
John Geohegan on Science and the New Age (June)
Dave Harmony, John Geohegan, Dave Thomas on Rejecting Relativity : Einstein's Detractors (August)
Robert Cormack on Illusions and Delusions (September)
Rex Graham of the Albuquerque Journal on Quarks, Kooks, and Fuzzy Logic (November)
Marshall Berman on "Hot Hands" and Statistics (December)

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