NECSS In Review
April 24th, 2010
|
One week ago today I attended NECSS, the North East Conference on Science and Skepticism. The event was held in New York City and attracted several hundred local science and skepticism enthusiasts. All in all it was a great event, both for the presentations and for the general crowd and socialization which occurs between lectures and panels and after the formal event. This was the second NECSS conference, the first one being held back in October of 2009.
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe did a live podcast to kick off the event and were followed by a number of different panels and speakers. I was happy to see James Randi was able to make it to the event. Mr. Randi is one of the most outspoken and iconic members of the skeptical movement. Randi helped found what is currently the modern skeptical community back in the 1970’s, a time when a lot of questionable research was beginning to come back into vogue.
Randi is the type whose always ready and willing to attend any event that can help increase education and awareness. Last year he had planned on attending NECSS but had to cancel and appeared only in a pre-taped video due to his health problems. At the time Mr. Randi had just been diagnosed with colon cancer and had to have a section of his large intestine removed. This was followed by chemotherapy for several months. Thankfully, Mr. Randi was looking perfectly at NECSS last week and it appears that the cancer was taken care of before it could spread and become a bigger problem.
As with last year, the event was MC’ed by Jamy Ian Swiss and featured the talent of George Hrab. D.J. Gorthe, the program director of the Center for Inquiry and president of the JREF also contributed as did Steve Mirsky of Scientific American.
Of all the presentations and speakers, I personally found the presentation by the doctors of Science Based Medicine to be the most eye-opening and in many ways the most disturbing. In recent years, “alternative medicine” has managed to work its way into the halls of academia and set up shop at otherwise reputable medical schools. Indeed, none seem immune as such courses are now being taught (and sometimes even required) at medical universities as prestigious as Yale and Harvard. Alternative medicine programs managed to work their way into the curriculum a number of ways, but in general it comes from warping themselves in legitimate and apparently important concepts like giving patients choices, treating patients with respect and improving quality of life.
Of course, the good doctors of Science Based Medicine have no problem with the concepts of improving patient experiences and providing things like music and recreational activities to those being cared for. Nutrition and exercise are certainly another area that, despite being labeled as “alternative,” have a great deal of medical value. However, likening it to a “bait and switch” or to the Trojan Horse, Doctors Gorski, Novella and Snyder demonstrated all too many situations when these benign concepts allowed quackery like homeopathy or energy medicine to find their way into the curriculum of doctors in training.
Constructive Criticism:
I’m a bit apprehensive to say anything negative about the event, because I really did have a great time and overall it went off without a hitch. I’m more than aware of how difficult these events are to put together and have come off seamlessly and those involved in getting it to work deserve a lot of gratitude.
However, there is one thing that could have been a bit better and raised my rating of the event from four to five stars. I really felt it was a bit heavy on the skepticism and light on science. What I mean by that is that nearly every speaker and panel talked exclusively about skepticism, anti-quackery, anti-bad science and anti-bad reporting. These concepts are important and certainly form the core of what unites the community, but at many of the meetings I’ve attended I especially enjoyed having some informative talks on general science added in.
For example, at TAM London, Brian Cox gave an excellent talk on fundamental particle physics and some of the things that CERN is hoping to learn with the new Large Hadron Collider. At TAM-6, PZ Meyers gave an excellent talk on the current state of research into evolutionary genetics and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson gave a great opening on the history of science and its conflicts with religion. Other great talks included one at TAM-5 by the director of the Center for Bits and Atoms as well as Scott Dickers of The Onion.
As the New York and New England Skeptics have plenty of in-house talent when it comes to cutting edge science, academics and research my suggestion would be that, in the future, they consider mixing it up a little ad adding some more general and special interest talks of the nature mentioned above.
Never the less, I still want to stress that it was a well done event that came off without a hitch and was more than worth attending.
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Amazing Meeting, Announcements, Bad Science, Events, Good Science, Misc, Paranormal, media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
View blog reactions
April 24th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
I’m more than a bit jealous, to be honest. Every testimonial I hear from someone returning from one of the skeptic’s conferences sounds positively glowing. And as we all know, personal testimonials are even better than verifiable evidence! Seriously though, I think I’m gonna give some strong consideration to attending TAM now that that I’m 21 and can actually enjoy myself in Vegas.
Your criticism was a little surprising though. I don’t know much about the NYC Skeptics, but from listening to the SGU my understanding was that the New England Skeptical Society was very conscientious about balancing real science coverage with the critical analysis of bogus claims and pseudoscience. I can remember Steve Novella in particular talking about this very issue on the podcast, the point being that understanding how to properly filter our bull**** detectors will make our appreciation of good science even better. They certainly do a great job of talking about any noteworthy mainstream science story on the SGU podcast. Then again, I’m not sure exactly who was in charge of booking the speakers or deciding what the panels would discuss.
Of course it’s unfair when believers accuse us of not having any sense of wonder about the universe. We stand in awe of science and how much it’s taught us. Just as important, we’re amazed at how little we know and how much more we have to learn.
Quote Comment
April 24th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Jim said:
Yeah, there was mainstream science during the SGU podcast. I’m just saying that one of the things I especially enjoyed at some other conferences was when there was some science lecture on a cutting edge area of science – especially when we’re privileged enough to hear from someone who is talking about information that’s not out in the mainstream press yet.
I mean, I guess I should try not to be too critical. This event only had a few speakers because it was only from about 10:30 am to about 6 pm and there was also a lunch break. (It was supposed to start at 10, but there were a couple of delays)
TAM in Las Vegas is three days (officially, actually you can show up a day early to volenteer to help with the setup which is great to meet people and stuff) TAM is absolutely huge and it runs every day from like 9 AM until fairly late in the evening.
So.. there’s just more time and space for a lot of specialized stuff.
I’d HIGHLY recommend going. Of course I should warn you that it’s expensive. The conference itself is only like ~400 (discounts available for members, students etc), which is a bargain (they don’t actually make money on it – they try to break even.) However, you need to pay for airline and hotel room plus all the miscellaneous stuff like taxis, drinks at the bar and so on.
If you do it on a shoestring you can squeeze by on a grand.
It’s worth it though.. very very worth it.
Quote Comment
April 24th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
You’ll get no argument from me. I’ve pretty much been dying to go ever since I heard Penn talk about it on his radio show, which they used to broadcast here in Chicago but sadly is off the air now. That was about four years ago and I was still a sophomore in high school, but I’ve always thought that as soon as I could save up the cash to go to Vegas I’d definitely want to spend it on attending TAM. Hell, it would be worth the money just to see awesome people like Randi, Phil Plait, Dr. Shermer, P&T and the SGU guys face to face! And being a poor college kid a thousand bucks sounds like chump change compared to what I’m gonna owe in tuition. Actually, wouldn’t it be nice if Big 10 schools gave the same kind of educational bang-for-your-buck that TAM does? Oh well.
Quote Comment
April 25th, 2010 at 12:38 am
Jim said:
Yeah, Penn had to quit that because it was just too much to do a radio show every morning. He had to get up for it at like 8 AM. Yeah, getting up at 8 AM doesn’t sound like that big a deal, but remember he does a very intensive late night show in Vegas and does not get home to hit the bed until the wee hours of the morning.
Yeah, there’s a lot of great people there. Not only the ones you’ve mentioned, but Adam Savage is usually there. Tori Belechi and Kari Byron have been there years past. I think Jamie Hynamin went at least once (maybe twice?) Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park were there a couple years ago, Julia Sweenie, Neil Tyson, the editors of Reason magazine.
A lot of people there are really interesting even if they’re just there to attend the event – not necessarily talk there. Three years ago, at TAM-4 (which I didn’t attend) the guy who postulated the existence of the quark and won a Nobel prize for it was there. Unfortunately, although he had been a regular attendee, he has had some health issues since and has not been able to make it.
It’s different every year. There are a lot of great people who come but their schedules are always busy so it’s whoever can make it. Really it’s great of them to do it because none of them are paid. Also, they’re all very available during the event. Penn bought me an ice cream last year. Three years ago I had a drink with Julia Sweenie and Tori Belechi. I had breakfast at Mr. Randi’s table a couple of times.
I mean, not to come off as being star struck or anything, because I’m just so impressed by how much many of the attendees truly support the cause, which is really deeply appreciated.
The only bad thing about it: There are so many people and it’s so intense, with little sleep and quite a bit of after-hours drinking, that sometimes afterward I realize I may have said something stupid or had my foot in my mouth. It’s hard to deal with that much socialization and not slip up a couple of times.
Quote Comment
April 25th, 2010 at 10:17 am
I bet there was a lot of weird sex too. Ever wonder where the word gaythiest comes from???
Quote Comment
April 25th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Ben said:
Never heard of it. From you?
Quote Comment
April 25th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Ben said:
Don’t you wish, eh Ben
Quote Comment
April 25th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Ben said:
Yes, from what I heard there was every bit as much weird freaky perverted sex at that event as there is in your private fantasies of it. That’s right, Ben, it’s every bit as erotic as you could imagine. Now go grab an old gym sock and start thinking about what it must have been like! We won’t tell your minister or priest!
Quote Comment
April 25th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Actually Ben, I’ll let you in on a little secret. To get the best effect from your gym socks, you need three of them for the complete experience. Put one of them in your mouth, and the other two go over your hands. Have fun!
Quote Comment
April 26th, 2010 at 2:02 am
Ben, wanna cyber?
Quote Comment
April 26th, 2010 at 2:22 am
Ben said:
In my experience, gay people need little provocation to try to modify any “ay” sound to become “gay”. I have been out on more than my fair share of Tuesgay and Thursgay nights in town and even been to a Sungay lunch.
Quote Comment
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:32 pm
I’mnotreallyhere said:
And if you’re sore, rub it with some Bengay
Quote Comment