Category Archives: Uncategorized

19th July | Chris French: “Putting Paranormal Claims to the Test”

[Eventbrite registration required. Free to attend but donations to running costs welcome]

On Wednesday 19th July PubSci is delighted to welcome back Professor Chris French, renowned head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London.

A Victorian stage magician demonstrating mind reading for money

1900s theatre poster advertising a mind reading act

Prof. French’s unit explores non-paranormal explanations for experiences that people have reported as paranormal. His team has also devoted considerable time and effort over the years to directly testing paranormal claims

In this talk, Chris presents an overview of these investigations, including claims of psychic ability and mediumship, “human magnetism”, dowsing, and precognitive dreams. Join us for a fun and fascinating evening exploring the claims people make, the beliefs they hold, and what happens when they are subject to scientific enquiry.

Spoiler alert: He is still a sceptic.

Two men with metal forks and spoons apparently stuck to their bodies

‘Human magnets’ in Vietnam compete to stick the most items to their bodies. Image © Ryan Hinkson

Join us upstairs at the Old King’s Head near London Bridge station. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. The Old King’s Head has a happy hour before 7pm, and the kitchen serves excellent pub grub. We anticipate a large turnout for this event and are using Eventbrite to manage numbers. Please reserve your spot ASAP to avoid disappointment.

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Professor Chris French. Image © Bill Robinson

Chris French is Emeritus Professor and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a Patron of UK Humanists.

Chris has published well over 150 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics. His main current area of research is the psychology of paranormal beliefs and anomalous experiences. He frequently appears on radio and television casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims.

His most recent book is Anomalistic Psychology: Exploring Paranormal Belief and Experience and his next book, published by MIT Press, will be The Science of Weird Shit: Why Our Minds Conjure the Paranormal, is out next year.

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Hands around a crystal ball

Join us for a mind-bending evening as Chris French describes testing claims of the paranormal. Will you be you convinced by the science?

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Please support PubSci.

There is no charge for attending PubSci talks, but we have a whip-round to cover expenses. Because so few of us carry cash these days, you can contribute digitally too. Please help PubSci continue to put on events.

We aim to keep PubSci accessible for all, although it is unsuitable for under 18s as we meet in the function room of a pub. Regrettably, there is no wheelchair access. 

Please check our Future Events page where you can also subscribe to our iCal feed. The Spring/Summer talks programme will also be announced at this event. You can find all our links on our LinkTree.

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We used to meet on the first Wednesday of the month but PubSci is now on the third Wednesday.

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Address:

The Old King’s Head (upstairs room)
King’s Head Yard
45-49 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NA

“Nuclear Now” – Invitation to Oliver Stone Documentary Screening + Director Q&A | Weds 14th June (Exclusive PubSci Discount)

As fossil fuels continue to drive climate change, Oliver Stone confronts the influence of oil companies whose tactics have enriched a small group of corporations and individuals for generations, and argues that the solution to the combined climate and energy crises is found in nuclear power.

Whether we are inclined to agree or disagree with him, The Royal Institution presents this unique opportunity to see Stone’s campaigning documentary at its first UK screening and make our own minds up, followed by a live panel Q&A with the legendary film director himself.

All details on the Royal Institution website. Enter the code PubSci25 at checkout for an exclusive discount only made available to PubSci friends and followers.

NB This is an external event, organised by our friends at the Ri, which PubSci is sharing due to general interest.

News and Events Update

A huge thank you to everybody who came to yesterday’s talk and discussion on myths, misinformation and logical fallacies in the context of Covid-19. Despite the last minute change of speaker and topic, it proved to be a great night all round. Your support makes running PubSci worthwhile.

Event news:

Wanna Know what spacetime sounds like…?

Our friends at the Royal Institution have a fantastic event tomorrow called Sounds of Spacetime.

What better way to spend your Friday evening than in the Ri‘s world famous theatre, travelling through the history of gravity and discovering how we hear the universe? Join cosmologist and gravitational wave astronomer Tessa Baker for a talk that could change your perspective on the cosmos.

Tickets are available on the Ri Website.

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Talking of the Royal Institution, our friends in the Cosmic Shambles Network are making a new podcast, hosted by Robin Ince and Helen Czerski, and it’s being recorded live at the Ri.

It’s called ‘They’ve Made Us’ and features two brilliant guests per episode. I’ve been at the first two recordings and can highly recommend getting hold of tickets for the remaining two on 26 May (Kwame Asante & Chris Jackson + Anjana Khatwa & Mark Miodownik) and 2 June (Dame Sue Black & Saiful Islam + Sir Tom Shakespeare & J. Wilgoose Esq).

Next PubSci

Finally, back to PubSci, our next event will be on Wednesday 21st June with the truly extraordinary mathematician, Eugenia Cheng. Eugenia has the ability to make maths fascinating, understandable, and relvant to eveybody, no matter how much they think they hate maths. Love it or hate it, come to the Old King’s Head to have your whole understanding of maths changed, as Eugenia asks: Is Maths Real?

Details on this site shortly.

PubSci Lives!

Hello PubSci community.

Profuse apologies for months of radio silence. It’s been a difficult year for a number of reasons, and with the added uncertainty of live or not-live events as we recovered from the pandemic, PubSci has had to take a back seat for a while. But we didn’t forget you – and I hope you didn’t forget us.

Even as I write, we are planning to restart events within a very few months. We’ll probably be in a new venue (TBC) for live events, but for those who still want to join us online, we are planning to run most talks as hybrid events from now on, live-streamed from a pub, with recordings available on our YouTube channel afterwards.

It’ll take a bit of technical jiggery-pokery and some logistical wizardry but I tested my tech kit on a small event recently and the picture and sound were great.

Please keep watching this space for further announcements. In the meantime feel free to join us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube where you can watch past online talks.

May the Facts be with you!

Richard

Announcement: July PubSci Postponed

We’d planned to welcome Dr Anna Morgan for an online PubSci on July 7th, however it has been necessary to postpone this event to a later date.

We apologise to those who were looking forward to Anna’s talk. It will be rescheduled at a later date – hopefully to take place in an actual pub, with a livestream for those who can’t attend in person.

On the plus side, those of you who were torn between science and football can now watch the England-Denmark match with a clear conscience!

Please watch this space for further announcements.

Richard

No PubSci in June – Next event 7th July

In case you missed the announcements at May’s PubSci, there will be no PubSci in June 2021. This is because we are switching back to our traditional date, the first Wednesday of the month.

We’re not back in a physical pub yet – that won’t happen until all covid restrictions are lifted – but with pubs reopening, the summer arriving (sort of), and even the possibility of a gradual return to the office, I realised some people have better things to do on a Friday night than stay in and watch Zoom!

So, we’re skipping June, to allow the transition from the last Friday to the first Wednesday. Hopefully it won’t be long until that means we can actually meet on the first Wednesday in a pub. I still hope to offer an online presence for PubSci talks, but the logistics of live-streaming a real world event will prove quite a challenge. Watch this space.

For now, please put Wednesday 7th July in your diary, when Dr Anna Morgan from Kingston University will talk about Toxins: Friends or Foes…?

See you in July,

Richard

Reminder: Book now for PubSci on Friday 30th April with Dr Brock Craft

Apologies for the extra email, but we’re aware that the previous PubSci email went out before tickets were available on eventbrite. Mea culpa!

So here’s a gentle reminder that tickets are available to book right now for the next PubSci online, Friday 30th April at 7pm BST.

Forget about going to the actual pub – it will be cold and damp outside! Come to the virtual pub for some real science – like the vital lesson that NASA should have learnt from Florence Nightingale.

Follow the link for a fascinating look at the beautiful, terrible, powerful role of data visualisation in the modern world with Dr Brock Craft – it could literally save your life!

PubSci Online | Dr Brock Craft: Picture This – Why Data Visualisation Matters

On 28th Jan 1986 the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. Could better data visualisation have prevented this disaster? (AP Photo/Bruce Weaver, File)

Announcing the Return of PubSCi

Apologies for the radio silence – it’s been a peculiar year – but PubSci is back!

Following the same format as our Virtual PubSci in June 2020, we are pleased to announced the return of PubSci as a regular, live, online event (until we can meet again in a real pub).

Friday is the new Wednesday

As we now have a PubSci in New Zealand (run by former London PubSci-er, Hannah), we have scheduled our first few online events for Friday evenings so our friends in the antipodes can join us on a Saturday morning. This might vary in the future, depending on speaker availability. Events will be hosted live on Zoom and streamed on the PubSci YouTube channel, where they will remain for at least 28 days.


We are delighted to begin our new season on Friday 26th February with our good friend Paolo Viscardi, co-founder of PubSci and Curator of Zoology at the National Museum of Ireland, on Dismantling the Dead Zoo.

We continue the zoological theme on Friday 26th March with PubSci favourite Dr Erica McAlister, Senior Keeper of Diptera (flies) at London’s Natural History Museum and author of nonfiction bestsellers, The Secret Life of Flies and The Inside Out of Flies.


Scheduled start time is 7pm. You’ll need to register in advance to watch the Zoom events (to prevent Zoom-bombing) but anybody can watch the YouTube streams. Full event details will be published shortly on all the usual channels, where you will also find instructions on how to attend.

Thank you for your patience. It’s good to be back.

Richard and all at PubSci

How to Join Virtual PubSci Tomorrow (With or without Zoom)

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Our very first Virtual PubSci goes live at 7:30 pm on Weds 3rd June
and we’re delighted to welcome Dr Caspar Addyman, director of the InfantLab at Goldsmiths, University of London with the talk that was originally scheduled for 1 April: Life Lessons from Laughing Babies.

The Zoom meeting will be active from around 7pm so you’ll have plenty of time to make sure you’re up and running before the talk begins. Those who have registered on Eventbrite will be sent an email with the Zoom link details before 5:30pm. It’s a pain to have to do it like this, but since Zoombombing became a problem for online events – and friends have had their events horribly interrupted – we need to make sure that everybody who joins the Zoom meeting is bona fide. Hope you understand.

However, not everybody wants to use Zoom, even in a browser window, so we will also be streaming the event live on YouTube. I’ve set up a PubSci YouTube channel where anybody can view the event without having to register on Eventbrite or use Zoom.

Just go to our YouTube Channel from 7pm on Wednesday and look for the livestream under VIDEOS > LIVE STREAMS. AT the moment there is just a test stream which you can watch to make sure your speaker settings are correct. It also has some notes that might be useful. When the stream goes live (around 7:15pm) it should appear on the list but you might need to refresh the page to see it. We will have chat active on YouTube (though moderated) so you can submit questions in the break.

All times are BST (GMT+1)

Finally, in case you want to make a small donation towards our web and Zoom hosting costs or contribute towards PubSci’s support of the wonderful Metafact science fact-checking project, we now have a PayPal “Money Pool” where you can do that, administered by PubSci host Richard Marshall.

Hope to see you tomorrow.

Richard

PubSci is postponed until further notice

Dear friends, apologies for the lack of earlier communication. It will, however, come as no surprise that all PubSci events are suspended for the time being.

Of course the implications of the current pandemic are more serious and far-reaching than the mere suspension of our events but we will miss our monthly gatherings in the Old King’s Head.

We hope to reschedule the planned April and May talks for a later date, but we will only restart when scientific, medical and government advice recommend that it is safe and sensible to do so.

As the lockdown and ban on social gatherings continue, we are looking into the possibility of hosting events online and will explore other ways to give you your monthly science fix through the internet.

Please watch out for announcements and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter (@pubsci) and on the PubSci Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PubSci/).

In the meantime, all of us in the PubSci family wish you all the very best over the coming months.

Good health.

Richard and the London PubSci team.