'Scientists and Citizens' Lecture Series

For Immediate Release: August 30, 2005
Contact: Marsha Mullan
610-328-8535

http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/

Lecture Series on “Scientists and Citizens: The Public Understanding of Science” to Be Offered at Swarthmore

“Scientists and Citizens: The Public Understanding of Science,” a lecture series, will be presented at Swarthmore College on Monday, Sept. 12, Wednesday, Sept. 28, and Wednesday, Feb. 8. Three noted science writers of differing backgrounds will speak. The series is sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundation and is free and open to the public.

Recent debates in our educational system are indicative of the misperceptions of science rampant among the American public. Although scientists are taking more direct roles in conveying science to the public, popular media outlets are still the main source of scientific information for most Americans. Only through open dialogue among scientists, journalists, and science writers can we hope to understand and better appreciate scientific pursuits and their implications for society, according to series organizers.

Robert Root-Bernstein, professor of physiology at Michigan State University, will speak on “Beyond Scientific Method: The Art of Science in the Making” on Monday, Sept. 12, at 7:15 p.m. in the Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall. Root-Bernstein is the author of Discovering (Harvard, 1989; reprinted by Replica Books, 1998) and Rethinking AIDS (Free Press, 1993); he is coauthor, with Michele Root-Bernstein, of Honey, Mud, Maggots and Other Medical Marvels (Houghton Mifflin, 1997; Macmillan, 1999) and Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People (Houghton Mifflin, 1999).

Read about Prof. Root-Bernstein's lecture in the Daily Gazette.

On Wednesday, Sept. 28, author and science writer Carl Zimmer will discuss “Discovering Your Inner Chimp: Human Origins in a Controversial Age.” His talk will be at 7:15 p.m. in the Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall. Zimmer is the author of four books about science. His first book, At the Water's Edge (Touchstone, 1999), followed scientists as they tackled two of the most intriguing evolutionary puzzles of all: how fish walked ashore and how whales returned to the sea. It was followed in 2000 by Parasite Rex (Free Press/Simon & Schuster), which explores the bizarre world of nature's most successful life forms. In 2001 he published Evolution: The Triumph of An Idea (Harper Collins). Soul Made Flesh (Free Press, 2004), Zimmer's latest book, chronicles the dawn of neurology in the 1600s.

His honors include the American Association for the Advancement of Science's 2004 Science Journalism Award. Zimmer has also won the Pan-American Health Organization Award for Excellence in International Health Reporting, the American Institute Biological Sciences Media Award, and the Everett Clark Award for science writing.

The final speaker of the series is Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology at Brown University, on Wednesday, Feb. 8. He will present his talk, “Time to Dump Darwin? Evolution, God, and America’s New Anti-Evolutionism” in the Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall, at 7 p.m. Miller has become known as an outspoken advocate of teaching evolution in public schools and one of the foremost scientists addressing the interface of science and faith. His research work on cell membrane structure and function has produced more than 50 scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL, Nature, and Scientific American. Miller is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of three different high school and college biology textbooks. He is also the author of Finding Darwin’s God (A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution) (Harper Collins, 1999).