Karen Douglas received her PhD in social psychology from the Australian National University and has worked in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. She is currently a senior lecturer at the University of Kent. Karen's research examines the psychological factors underlying people's beliefs in conspiracy theories. She is also interested in language and communication, persuasion and attitude change, and justice beliefs. Karen's research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy. She has published her work widely in social psychological journals and books.

TV21
10 Thomas St, Manchester M4 1DH, UK

Martin Robbins is a science writer and freelance journalist covering science, skepticism and politics at The Guardian, The Lay Scientist and beyond!

In this talk Martin will give us a more global view of homeopathy, crackpots abroad and Bad Science in the developing world. He will cover Homeopaths in Haiti and Africa, AIDS denialism, how alt med props up the Cuban healthcare system, anti-vaccination movements in Africa and Asia, dodgy bomb-detectors, and a plethora of other stories about quacks amok in the third world.

layscience.net
mjrobbins.net

Jan Swammerdam, mystical materialist.

Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680) was a renowned microscopist, anatomist and experimenter who lived in the Dutch Republic, and is now largely forgotten. But he helped contribute to one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of science - understanding where life comes from. Not only did he show that "all animals come from an egg laid by a female of the same species", he was also part of a small group that made the amazing discovery that women have eggs. But Swammerdam was not a modern day life scientist transposed back to the time of Rembrandt and Vermeer. He was a product of his time, profoundly mystical and deeply religious - he even gave up science for a couple of years, in order to join a bizarre sect that believed that Adam and Eve were hermaphrodites. By looking at his life, work and opinions, we can see that the road to the full development of scientific, rational thinking was not straightforward, and involved people who simultaneously believed in completely contradictory things.

Matthew Cobb is an acclaimed science-communicator, scientist and writer who spent most of his adult life living in Paris, where he worked as a scientist and spent a great deal of time active in far-left politics. His day-job is studying the sense of smell in fruitfly maggots, and being in charge of Manchester University's Zoology degree. He also studies the history of science, and recently published a book ("Generation" in the US, "The Egg & Sperm Race" in the UK and Commonwealth). He also writes regularly on science and historical issues for the LA Times and the Times Literary Supplement.

Skeptical Activism and the Quacklash

Simon is an active campaigner against nonsense. Using the ASA, Trading Standards, other regulatory bodies and even gaining help from MPs, his campaigns have helped shut down dodgy allergy test services, prevented traditional chinese medicine salesmen from claiming to cure cancer and exposed psychic scams.

His largest involvement in a campaign, coined the "Quacklash" by Jack of Kent involved almost 600 separate letters being sent to trading standards to report claims to treat childhood diseases with a back rub. 60 of the letters gained 500 signatories. Further complaints were issued with the General Chiropractic Council.

Simon will be explaining the techniques he's used to fight woo, what works and what doesn't and tell stories about some of the crazy nonsense he's encountered along the way.

Simon runs Leicester Skeptics in the Pub, blogs at http://adventuresinno... and writes a skeptical column in the Leicester Mercury. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Si....