Trottier Symposium — Confronting Pseudoscience: Investigating pseudoscientific and paranormal claims

What this episode covers

The 6th annual Trottier Symposium focuses on the difference between science and “pseudo” science. While real science accumulates facts and formulates testable theories to gain a unified understanding of the physical world, pseudoscience relies on anecdotes, ideology and cherry-picked data to support preconceived notions. Pseudoscience masquerading as real science can lead to troublesome consequences, particularly when it comes to matters of health. Unfortunately, aided and abetted by the Internet, pseudoscience has been growing by leaps and bounds. Outstanding, world-famous science communicators discuss various aspects of pseudoscience and provide guidance for separating sense from nonsense. James Randi first rose to fame as The Amazing Randi, performing magic and escapes in the tradition of Houdini. His background as a conjurer led to a second career as the world’s premier investigator of paranormal and pseudoscientific phenomena. Randi’s investigations of medical frauds and purported psychics are legendary. [flashvideo file="http://podcasts.mcgill.ca/pods/scienceandtechnology/P110401TRInvestigating.m4v" height=344 image="http://podcasts.mcgill.ca/files/2011/04/P110401TRInvestigating.jpg" /]

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