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Re: [Phys-l] Flurry of LHC "End of the world" nonsense

When people have strong fears, rational presentations do very little to
convince them. A large part of the blame has to lie with the education
community, namely us, because the general public has not understood the
scientific method. So all of these good sources will generally not be
watched by the fearful public, and will not be helpful in quieting the fear.
After all end of the world fears have been around for a long time. They may
be useful to us and to fellow scientists.

BTW from talking to a well trained geologist, apparently there are a number
of fundamentalist schools that have indoctrinated their science graduates in
their anti-evolutionist doctrines. They have also promoted the idea that
oil is produced in the mantle, so we will never run out. I wonder how these
poorly trained scientists can get good jobs?

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

Chuck,
Actually, the more appropriate xkcd is http://xkcd.com/401/

---- Original message ----
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:58:04 -0400
From: chuck britton <cvbritton@embarqmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Flurry of LHC "End of the world" nonsense
To: Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>

http://xkcd.com/474/

this sums a lot of it up for the physics grad student scene


On Sep 10, 2008, at Sep 10(Wed) 10:22 , Marty Weiss wrote:

The History Channel had a nice hour long show on CERN and LHC last
night. They will probably repeat it soon.

Marty


On Sep 10, 2008, at 9:26 AM, Pat Viele wrote:

Two faculty members at Cornell gave excellent presentations for the
public last night. There was quite a good turnout for the event,
and I
hope it helped allay fears.

Pat