NE 24: Freshman Seminar Series (1 Unit)
Course Topic: Scientific Frauds and Hoaxes, Spring 2004

Instructor: Prof. Don Olander, 4169 Etcheverry Hall 642-7055; fuelpr@socrates.berkeley.edu

Text: Voodoo Science” by Robert Park

Presentation Schedule

Organization of seminar

The seminar will start off with a couple of lectures by the instructor, Thereafter, students will present informal talks on a specific topics chosen from the attached list (two talks per class period), Grade (S/U) will depend on:

(a) quality of oral presentation
(b) thoroughness of research supporting the presentation
(c) quality of short (~ 3 pages) paper on the topic
(d) attendance at and participation in seminars

Components of your investigation

  1. The instigator’s idea
  2. When it started
  3. The instigators personality
  4. Personality traits of believers/supporters
  5. The role of religion, if any
  6. How the idea was promoted
  7. Extent of acceptance, and by whom
  8. Reason for idea’s demise

Guidelines for Presentations

  • Make rough notes of your material. You may refer to them but do not read from them
  • Engage the entire audience; do not always look at one or two persons
  • Do not put hands in pockets
  • Speak loudly enough for all to hear
  • Do background research in depth (not just one web site)

Presentation Topics (Presentation Schedule)

General review: Ref. 3, Chap. 1)

PseudoArcheology and Anthropology

  1. The Piltdown Man, The Piltdown Man is Revealed as Fake
  2. The Cardiff Giant, The Skeptic's Dictionary; The Cardiff Giant
  3. Drake’s Plate

Pseudohistory

  1. Atlantis: The Land of Paradise (Ref 3, Chap. 14)
  2. Pyramidology (Ref 3, Chap 15)

Inheritability of intelligence; (Ref. 1, Chaps 6, 8; Ref. 2, Chaps. 8, 10, 11)

  1. Equalitarians vs hereditarians
  2. The case of Cyril Burt (Ref 1, Chaps 11, 12)

Mental Illness and Childhood Memories

  1. Recovered Memory Therapy (Ref. 1, Chap 9)
  2. Freud’s Seduction Theory (Ref. 1, Chap 10)

Perpetual Motion Machines; violation of the laws of thermodynamics

  1. Newman and Fludd, (Ref 2, Chap. 1)
  2. The Fisher Engine
  3. And many, many more (see web - Google “Perpetual Motion Machines)

Delusional Beliefs

  1. Flying Saucers/Space aliens (compare with the search for extraterrestrial life)(see paper by Langmuir)
  2. Health effects of electromagnetic fields from power lines, microwaves (Ref. 2, Chap. 7)

Health Cures

  1. Homeopathy (Ref. 3 p. 188)
  2. Naturopathy (Ref. 3, p 191)
  3. Osteopathy (Ref. 3, p 199
  4. Alternative medicine – (acupuncture, faith healing,) (Ref. 2. p. 63)
  5. Magnetic Therapy (Ref. 2, p. 58)
  6. Ancient Oriental cures: qigong,
  7. L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics (Ref. 3, Chap 2)

Extranormal Powers of the Mind

  1. Transendental Medition (Ref. 2, p. 28)
  2. Extrasensory Perception (Rhines, see index. Ref. 2, Ref. 3, Chap 11)
  3. Psychokenisis (Ref. 2 p 198)
  4. Telepathy
  5. Banish Aging (Ref. 2, p. 192)

Predicting the Future

  1. Astrology (Ref. 4 Chap.21, Ref. 5)
  2. Palmistry
  3. Crystal Ball

Character analysis: Phrenology and graphology (Ref 3, Chap 24)

Advocacy Research, Emotive Statistics and Wooly Calculations (Ref. 1, Chap. 4)

The role of the media in pseudoscience (Ref. 2, scattered, Ref. 3, p. 97, Ref. 4 p. 3)

Egomaniacal Pseudoscientists: Charles Fort and Alfred Lawson (Ref. 3, Chap 4)

Hollow Earth, Flat Earth (Ref. 3, Chap 2)

Scientific Topics

  1. The day the earth stood still (Ref. 4, Chap 18)
  2. Creationism and Albiogenesis (Ref. 3, Chap 10, Ref. 4, Chap 19)
  3. Dowsing and Doodlebugging (Ref. 3, Chap 9)
  4. Gravity: From Newton to Babson to current cosmology (Ref. 4, Chap. 8)
  5. Cold Fusion (Ref. 2, p.11; p. 92, p. 118, Ref 6)
  6. Flying Saucers, UFOs and Space Aliens – the Roswell Incident (Ref. 3, Chap 5, Ref. 4, Chap 20)
  7. When Ideology Infects Science: the Lamarckian theory of evolution, Mendel and Lysenko (Ref. 3, Chap 12)

References

  1. N. J. Pallone and J. J. Hennessy, “Fraud and Fallible Judgment in the Social and Behavioral Sciences” (1995)
  2. R. Park, “Voodoo Science” (2000)
  3. M. Gardner, “Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science” (1957)
  4. P. Plait, “Bad Astronomy” (2002)
  5. Gayatri Devi Vasudev, “Astrology and the Hoax of Scientific Temper” (1998)
  6. Gary Taubes, “Bad Science: The Short Life and Weird Times of Cold Fusion”, (1993)