Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>]

Special Sneak Preview (and subject to change): 
http://www.csicop.org/groups/world-congress.html


1) AAAS Meeting In Boston (CSICOP Members as Speakers)
2) CSICOP Notes - New at the Skeptiseum
3) Kudos To Uncle Sam: FTC Says Psychic Hot Line Is Fraud   


1) AAAS Meeting in Boston

Three CSICOP-affiliated speakers will be presenting this weekend at the 
annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meetings 
in Boston, Massachusetts.  Presenters include CSICOP fellows Eugenie Scott 
and John Allan Paulos, as well as CSICOP on-line columnist Matt Nisbet.

Scott is director of the National Center for Science Education.  Paulos is 
professor of mathematics at Temple University.  Nisbet is a doctoral 
student in science and political communication at Cornell University.

All presentations will be held at the Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton 
Boston, and the Hynes Convention Center. The venues are connected by an 
indoor shopping mall and climate-controlled sky-bridges. Details on topics, 
dates, and times are listed below.

**DETAILS FOR EUGENIE SCOTT:

2002 Genome Seminar
Genomes Around Us: What Are We Learning?
Saturday, February 16 - Sunday, February 17, 2002
ORGANIZED BY: J. Craig Venter, Celera Genomics; Claire Fraser, The 
Institute for Genomic Research; Barbara Jasny, Science Magazine

The completion of a draft sequence of the human genome has heightened 
awareness ofthe importance and vast potentials for genomic studies. As 
information accumulates about an increasing variety of organisms, our 
knowledge of the natural world, humans in particular, and an array of 
diseases and disease processes will continue to expand. This continuing 
annual seminar brings together leading researchers to examine the many 
avenues for study and learning that derive from our greater understanding 
of human and other genomes. Areas to be addressed include new ways of using 
genomic information, the genome and society, genomics and developing 
countries, genomes and food, and the many "genomes around us."

Saturday, February 16, 2002
3:00PM - 6:00PM

Genomes, Evolution, and Society Interpretive Genomics with Sophisticated 
Evolutionary Models:
Steve Benner, University of Florida, Gainesville

How Many Human Genes?:
Victor Velculescu, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Race, Genomics, and Medicine:
J. Craig Venter, Celera Genomics

Genomics, Evolution, and Anitevolution:
Eugenie Scott, National Center for Science Education

Clinical Evolution of Genomics Applications:
Judy Garber, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute


**DETAILS FOR JOHN ALLAN PAULOS:


TRACK: Science and Society
TITLE: Show Me the Data! Wanted: More Accuracy in Media Reporting
DATE: Friday, February 15, 2002
TIME: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
ORGANIZERS: Leon H. Seitelman, University of Connecticut

PARTICIPANTS:
Leon H. Seitelman (Speaker),University of Connecticut: The Minefield of 
Reporting Scientific Data: What's Needed, and Why
John Allan Paulos (Speaker),Temple University: A Mathematician Reads the 
Newspaper
Constantine J. Maletskos (Speaker),Gloucester: The Saga of the U.S. Radium 
Toxicity Studies
Donald Rubin (Speaker),Harvard University: The Use of Surrogate Outcomes in 
Experiments of Anthrax Vaccine
Michael O. Finkelstein (Speaker),Columbia Law School: The Legal Reception 
of Statistical Evidence in the Implant Cases
Terrence Moran (Speaker),New York University: Science in the Media

SYNOPSIS:
Applications of mathematical and statistical modeling are pervasive in 
modern society, from interpretations of sociological and epidemiological 
studies in professional journals, to reporting of economic data and 
projected trends in the Wall Street Journal, to presentation of polling 
data and bar graphs in USA Today. When this information is incompletely 
understood or incorrectly interpreted, the consequences can be more than 
simply inconvenient; the bankrupting of Dow Corning as a result of the 
breast implant controversy, and the economic hardship to apple growers in 
Washington State as a result of the alar scare, are two examples that 
spring to mind. Many other subjects, including the fairness and 
completeness of the Florida vote in the 2000 Presidential election, and the 
validity of perceived linkages between cancer cases and cell phone usage, 
or proximity of power lines, beg further scrutiny. The scientific 
community's technical expertise, by helping the public to distinguish fact 
from fiction in the interpretation of data, can inform and improve public 
policy choices. This symposium is organized by the principle that citizens 
need to be made aware of the limitations in models, and the misuse of 
statistics, where they occur. Experts in mathematical modeling and 
statistics and subject areas will provide insight into use (and abuse) of 
these techniques, using examples and case studies from a broad range of 
applications. The discussion includes observations about how recent 
cultural change, particularly television, has redefined reality, and the 
presentation and perception of information, and has affected this process 
of public education.

**DETAILS FOR MATT NISBET:

TRACK: Science and the Public Trust
TITLE: Biotechnology Policy in Europe and North America: A Roundtable 
Discussion
DATE: Friday, February 15, 2002
TIME: 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
ORGANIZERS: Susanna Hornig Priest, Texas A&M University
PARTICIPANTS:
Helge Torgersen (Speaker),Institute for Technology Assessment, Austrian 
Academy of Sciences, Austria: Austria and the European Mainstream: Parting 
Company
Timo Rusanen (Speaker),University of Kuopio, Finland: Challenging the Risk 
Society: The Case of Finland
Suzanne de Cheveigné (Speaker),Laboratoire Communications et Politique, 
France: Biotechnology Policy in France: Centralized Government or Citizen 
Governance?
Jüergen Hampel (Speaker),Center of Technology Assessment in 
Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany: Biotechnology in Germany: Between Boom and Bust
Urs Dahinden (Speaker),Universitat Zurich, Switzerland: Biotechnology in 
Switzerland: From Street Demonstrations to Regulations
Edna F. Einsiedel (Speaker),University of Calgary: Food Labeling as 
Battleground in the GMO Food Debate
Martin Bauer (Speaker),London School of Economics, United Kingdom: Ethics, 
Ethos, and Trust in the Global Biotechnology Debate: The UK Experience
Bruce V. Lewenstein (Speaker),Cornell University: Biotechnology in the U.S. 
Public Sphere, 1970-1999: Media and Policy Interactions
Matthew C. Nisbet (Speaker),Cornell University: CO/W Bruce Lewenstein

SYNOPSIS:
The volatile public response to emerging biotechnology, both agricultural 
and medical, has challenged policymakers and members of the scientific 
community to consider issues of public trust and accountability across 
national boundaries in new ways. Policy development in Europe and North 
America has taken place in diverse media and public opinion climates, 
within divergent political cultures, producing different strategies and 
outcomes. The widespread perception in the U.S. has been that national 
differences in media reports and other cultural factors are largely 
responsible for differing policy outcomes, but this perception may mask 
other possible explanations. Different approaches to managing uncertainty, 
assessing technologies, and providing for public participation in policy 
development also exist. Heavy industrial investment in biotechnology-based 
research may strain the existing social contract between the scientific 
community and the public, and these dynamics may play out in different ways 
in particular national contexts. Like perhaps no other contemporary set of 
scientific developments, the emergence of biotechnology has forced the 
scientific community to reexamine its relationship to society. This panel 
examines some of the factors shaping biotechnology policy development in 
specific cases involving Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, 
Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Two panels address the view from 
continental Europe and from North America and the U.K.


2) CSICOP Notes

Contact: Kevin Christopher, PR Director, CSICOP
press@csicop.org

February 15, 2002

ITEMS:
Skeptiseum Feature Gallery on Creationism, In Time for Darwin's Birthday
Correction on CSICOP In the News

In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday on February 12, CSICOP Announces the
opening of its new Feature Gallery, devoted to the subject of Creationism.
Check it out at www.csicop.org/skeptiseum and click on the "Feature Exhibit"
link in the side bar. Anyone interested in finding out more about the nearly
100 celebrations of Darwin's birthday worldwide should visit the
www.darwinday.org Web site. 

I'd like to correct an error of omission in that January 28, 2002, CSICOP In
the News. The author of the article "Nauka, Antinauka, i mi Rovoy Krizis"
which covered the Skeptic's Conference in Moscow last year and appeared in
the Russian magazine "Nauka i Zhizn" (Science & Life) was  Tatyana Zimina. 

3) Kudos To Uncle Sam: FTC Says Psychic Hot Line Is Fraud 

She Didn't See It Coming
FTC shuts down Miss Cleo's psychic hotline for fraud.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9812-2002Feb14.html