Peter Gleick

The Beacon of Science in a Fact-Free Fog

Good scientific information on issues of critically important policy is vital if policymakers are to make informed thoughtful decisions. Yet we are faced today with an unprecedented threat to the collection, interpretation, and use of science in precisely those areas where good science is needed: national security, global environmental threats, and the protection of democratic institutions. Perhaps no issue better exemplifies today’s challenges than global climatic change, where the science is tremendously strong and clear and national and international policy is inadequate and weak. Why? Peter Gleick will explore this mismatch between what we know and what we’re doing about it in the context of the misuse and abuse of science, in the belief that knowledge and facts are the vaccines that can help inoculate us from the illnesses of ignorance and bad governance.

Dr. Peter Gleick is a scientist, innovator, and communicator on water and climate issues. In 1987 he co-founded the independent think-tank Pacific Institute, which he led as president until mid-2016, when he became president emeritus. Dr. Gleick received the prestigious MacArthur “genius” Fellowship and is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, winner of the Ven Te Chow Award from the International Water Resources Association, and the United States Water Prize from the US Water Alliance. In 2018 he received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization from Wonderfest. Dr. Gleick holds a B.S. in Engineering and Applied Sciences from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California, Berkeley.

Elisabeth Bik

Misconduct in Scientific Papers:
Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification

Science builds upon science. Inaccuracies in scientific papers - either as the result of honest mistakes or intentional - can make other researchers follow the wrong leads. Research misconduct includes plagiarism, manipulation, or omitting data that does not fit a hypothesis. Here, I will present some examples of research misconduct, such as image duplication and manipulation in scientific papers, and predatory publishers, which publish research with little or no peer review. I will also discuss how science vigilantes, including myself, try to fight science misconduct by reporting flawed papers to journal editors, institutions, and on social media. 

Dr. Elisabeth Bik received her PhD at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She worked for 15 years in the School of Medicine at Stanford, where she studied the microbiomes of humans and marine animals. In May 2014, she founded Microbiome Digest, an almost daily compilation of scientific papers in the rapidly growing microbiome field. From 2016-2018, she worked at uBiome as a Science Editor, and later as the Scientific and Editorial Director. In 2018, she joined Astarte Medical as their Director of Science. In March 2019, she became a Microbiome and Science Integrity consultant. She can often be found discussing science papers on Twitter at @MicrobiomDigest, or searching the biomedical literature for inappropriately duplicated or manipulated photographic images and plagiarized text.

Glenn Branch

Flat Earth Rising?

When Charles K. Johnson, the president of the International Flat Earth Research Society, died in 2001, he seemed at the time to be the last apostle of his unusual creed. Eighteen years on, however, the flat earth is alive and well, especially on line. In his talk, Glenn Branch will sketch the history of the flat-earth movement, from its source in the ancient Near East through its coalescence in Victorian Britain to its modern rebirth on the Internet. Highlights include the identification of the author of the 1819 pamphlet that inspired the founder of the flat-earth movement and a critical discussion of a 2018 public opinion poll on the shape of the earth.

Glenn Branch is Deputy Director of the National Center for Science Education. He is the co-editor, with Eugenie C. Scott, of Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong for Our Schools (2006), and the author or coauthor of numerous articles on creationism, evolution education, and climate change education in such publications as Scientific American, The American Biology Teacher, and Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. He is a long-time student of pseudoscience of many types.

Bill Patterson
Skepardy!

We had so much fun last year when Bill Patterson hosted Skepardy! at SkeptiCal that we invited him back to the stage for more skeptically-themed Jeopardy. Bill has been quizzing clever people for years, and for this event we'll have some special guests as contestants along with one lucky audience member.

Bill Patterson was a high school physics teacher for ten years, a Peace Corps volunteer and youth agency executive. He currently is a radiation therapist living in Sonoma County, California. He loves all things rational, and is a board member of BAS and a regular attendee at SkeptiCal.

Special Guests are Jim Underdown and Mick West. One lucky audience member will round out our players!

Joey Fabian
The Skeptic's Jukebox

Joey Fabian began his music career in Atlanta playing and recording with several prominent bands, some including members of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Sea Level, and the Glenn Phillips Bands. Since arriving in the Bay Area in 1991, he has performed almost every conceivable genre of music from Blues to Bluegrass, Jam-Rock to Jazz, Soukous to Samba-Reggae.

Currently Joey plays bass with BMA nominated singer Paula Harris, guitar wiz Terry Hiatt as well as various sub gigs. He played with critically acclaimed fusion quartet The Bartron Tyler Group for many years, recording 3 albums with them. He has backed up recording star Alana Davis and guitar hero Will Ray of the Hellecasters.

Joey runs a small production studio in Mountain View called the Tomato Farm. There he produces music, a couple of podcasts, edits audio for a radio show and last year, his first film score/sound design; a short psych horror called “The Knock”.

"The Skeptic's Jukebox" is Joey's attempt to give something back to the skeptical community. Over the last several years he has performed at SkeptiCal, Sacramento Freethought Day, SF Library's "Darwin Day" and shared the stage with skeptical comedian Ian Harris. Songs of reason are a reason to sing! He will play songs by They Might Be Giants, Monty Python, George Hrab, Randy Newman, George Gershwin, Frank Zappa and more.