EVENTS

Dr Ben Goldacre, 'scientist, doctor and guardian columnist'

Information and Misinformation - Science in The Press - 31/01/2005 17:30

Dr Ben Goldacre, author of The Guardian's weekly 'Bad Science' column, will talk on 'How the Media Promotes the Public Misunderstanding of Science, and Why'.

"Magnetic Therapy? Wine and Chocolate for a Healthier You? Vitamin C cures AIDS? What do YOU believe?"

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Science at the University of Leicester, in collaboration with Café Scientifique, will explore this in its first evening science event.

The guest lecturer for the evening is Dr Ben Goldacre, author of The Guardian's weekly 'Bad Science' column, for a talk on 'How the Media Promotes the Public Misunderstanding of Science, and Why' with examples taken from scare stories, selection bias in news stories, ridiculous factual errors, alternative therapy coverage, and more.

In his own words, Dr Ben Goldacre is a 'scientist, doctor, and guardian columnist, who reads every paper every day, has seen how the media works from the inside, and who gets into big fights about it with humanities graduate journalists at parties.'

Venue Ken Edwards Lecture Theatre 1

More information about Dr Goldacre's work, is available from The Guardian's Bad Science website at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/

For more information about the University of Leicester's Centre for Interdisciplinary Science and its undergraduate course offerings, please visit the website at http://www.le.ac.uk/i-science/

Further information is available form Tania Ruiz, Manager of the University of Leicester’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, tel 0116 252 2534, email str3@le.ac.uk