Twelve Scholars and Investigators Elected Fellows of Committee For
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SI Mar Apr 11 (PL) _SI new design masters 1/21/11 10:59 AM Page 5 Twelve Scholars and Investigators Elected Fellows of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Outstanding skeptics from five countries honored for ‘distinguished contributions to science and skepticism.’ The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry an- the Australian Skeptics. 106. They come from Australia, Belgium, nounces the election of twelve outstanding The Committee, established in 1976 and Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Mex- scientists, scholars, writers, and investigators still popularly known as CSICOP, publishes ico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, as Fellows. Election as a fellow recognizes the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, the magazine for the United Kingdom, and the United States. “distinguished contributions to science and science and reason. The Committee “pro- Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardner, Philip J. skepticism.” motes scientific in quiry, critical investigation, Klass, Carl Sagan, B.F. Skin ner, and Nobel All of the newly elected fellows have made and the use of reason in examining controver- Laureates Francis Crick and Glenn T. Seaborg major contributions to science and reason, sial and extraordinary claims.” Fellows serve were all fellows of CSICOP. critical inquiry, and public education. They as formidable intellectual re sources for the Current fellows include such luminaries hail from the United States, the United King- Com mittee and for the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, dom, Australia, Canada, and India. “We are pleased that so many distin- philosopher Daniel C. Den nett, physicist The new fellows include science writers guished scholars, re searchers, academics, and Lawrence M. Krauss, philosopher (and CSI- Sandra Blakeslee and Simon Singh; psychol- people fighting for science and reason in the COP founder) Paul Kurtz, cognitive scientist ogists Anthony R. Prat kanis and Keith E. trenches as part of their daily lives and profes- Steven Pinker, magician/investigator James Stanovich; physicist Mark Boslough; physi- sions have joined with CSI,” said CSI Execu- Randi, physical anthropologist Eugenie C. cian and alternative medicine critic Edzard tive Director Barry Karr. “We look forward to Scott, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ernst; and investigator/writers Benjamin a busy and rewarding future and incorporating biologist E.O. Wilson, and Nobel Laureate Radford and Karen Stollznow. Several other these new fellows into our activities.” scientists Murray Gell-Mann, Sir Harry prominent leaders of the skeptical movement Potential new fellows are nominated by Kroto, Leon Leder man, and Steven Wein - have also been elected: Sanal Edama ruku, existing fellows or by members of the Com- berg. A full list of fellows appears on the inside president of the Indian Rationalist Associa- mittee’s governing executive council, and they cover of this and every issue of the SKEPTICAL tion and Rationalist Inter national; Wendy M. are then elected by the executive council. INQUIRER and is also on our website at Gross man, founder of the United Kingdom’s Combined with the sixteen new fellows www.csicop.org/about/csi_fellows_and_staff. The Skeptic magazine; Barry Karr, executive announced last year (SI, March/April 2010), Here are biographical sketches of the director of the Committee for Skeptical In- the new class brings the number of present 2011 class of Committee for Skeptical Inquiry quiry; and Richard Saunders, vice president of Committee for Skep tical Inquiry fellows to fellows: Sandra Blakeslee Mark Boslough Sanal Edamaruku Science writer; author; Physicist, Sandia President, Indian New York Times science National Laboratories, Rationalist Association correspondent Albuquerque, and Rationalist New Mexico International Blakeslee has spent nearly all of her career writing Boslough is regularly seen Sanal Edamaruku is a about science for the New in science documentaries prominent writer, colum- York Times, both as a staff writer and on and news reports both explaining his re- nist, and television personality who is con- contract. For about the past fifteen years search on planetary impacts and participat- sidered the most outspoken and dynamic she has been specializing in the brain sci- ing in expeditions to remote impact sites advocate of rationalism in India. He is pres- ences. Her latest book is Sleights of Mind: around the world. Exotic scenery and com- ident of the Indian Rationalist Association What the Neuroscience of Magic Says About puter animations of catastrophic cosmic and the founding president of Rationalist Our Everyday Deceptions (2010), with neu- events make for good television, but Inter national. Explaining the science behind roscientists Stephen L. Macknik and Su- Boslough has become an advocate for ob- all kinds of “miracles” and exposing godmen, sana Martinez-Conde. The book uses neu- jective assessment of all risks to humanity, astrologers, faith healers, bigoted politicians, roscience to explain how magicians deceive including those that are self-inflicted. He and fraudulent “modern” therapists on air, us, why we are so vulnerable to sleights of passionately defends climate science from Edamaruku has broken the spells of count- mind, and how deception is part of what political attacks and enjoys debunking the less paranormal and pseudoscientific claims makes us human. Her previous books in- extraordinary claims of global-warming and shaken deep-rooted beliefs in astrology, clude The Body Has a Mind of Its Own deniers. He advocates the use of humor as reincarnation, and tantric powers. Some of (with her son Matthew Blakeslee, a fourth- a weapon against pseudoscience. his interventions have led to the arrest of generation science writer), On Intelligence Boslough’s most widely read piece is a holy charlatans or helped control outbreaks (with Jeff Hawkins), and Phantoms in the thinly disguised spoof of creationists in the of mass hysteria. For example, in 1996 he Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human form of a satirical April Fools’ Day news debunked the legendary “monkey-man” who Mind (with V.S. Ramachan dran). Blakeslee story, in which he wrote about a supposed had terrified New Delhi. In what is perhaps lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. vote of the Alabama legislature to change his most spectacular action so far, Eda - pi to its “biblical value” of exactly 3. It was maruku challenged one of India’s leading widely mistaken as real. Boslough has a tantriks to prove his claimed black-magic PhD in applied physics from Caltech. powers by killing Edamaruku with mantras and rituals on live television. Skeptical Inquirer | March / April 2 01 1 5 SI Mar Apr 11 (PL) _SI new design masters 1/21/11 10:59 AM Page 6 Edzard Ernst Wendy M. Grossman Barry Karr Professor, complemen- Writer; founder and first Executive director, tary medicine, Peninsula editor, The Skeptic Com mittee for Skeptical Medical School, Universi- magazine (U.K.) Inquiry, Amherst, ties of Exeter and New York Plymouth, Exeter, Grossman founded United Kingdom the United Kingdom’s Karr, the longtime The Skeptic magazine executive director of Ernst, who holds both MD and PhD in 1987 and has served twice as its editor the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, is de grees, came to the University of Exeter (1987–1989 and 1999–2001). She also currently a member of the management in 1993 from Hannover Medical School writes its column “A Skeptic at Large.” committee of the Center for Inquiry and (Germany) and the University of Vienna Along with current The Skeptic editor-in- has served as the Center’s executive to establish the first Chair in Complemen- chief Chris French, she co-edited the director. A SKEPTICAL INQUIRER consult- tary Medi cine. He is one of the world’s 2010 book Why Statues Weep: The Best of ing editor, Karr has also contributed to leading and best-informed critics of The Skeptic. A freelance writer specializing or edited several books, including alternative medicine. He has been awarded in science and technology, Grossman is a The UFO Invasion, Science vs. Religion, thirteen scientific prizes and awards and frequent contributor to the Guardian’s Skeptical Odysseys, The Outer Edge, and has more than one thousand publications technology section and has written for Bizarre Cases. He has served the Commit- in the peer-reviewed literature. Ernst has Scientific American, New Scien tist, Wired, tee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly written more than forty books including, Wired News, and the Philosopher’s Magazine. CSICOP) for nearly thirty years with with British science journalist Simon She has authored several books, including dedication and distinction. In addition to Singh, the much-embattled 2009 book 2001’s From Anarchy to Power: The Net speaking and writing on skeptical issues, Trick or Treat ment? Alternative Medicine Comes of Age. Her 1998 book net.wars Karr works tirelessly behind the scenes. on Trial, which forthrightly defends was one of the first to have its full text He deals with management and evidence-based medicine and assesses published on the web. She sits on the organizational matters, helps raise funds, popular practices like homeopathy, executive committee of the Association tracks budget and finances, plans acupuncture, and chiropractic. Ernst of British Science Writers as well as the conferences and other events, edits reports frequently about alternative advisory councils of the Open Rights the Committee’s website (www.csicop.org), medicine in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Group and Privacy International. oversees media interactions, and keeps Gross man also has what she calls “a the organization moving forward. disreputable past as a fulltime folksinger.” Anti-Vaccine Doctor’s ‘Deliberate Fraud’ Benjamin Radford fraud,” according to Dr. Fiona Godlee, children and families who live with it.” editor in chief of BMJ, formerly known In “Secrets of the MMR Scare,” the as the British Medical Journal. The second part of a BMJ series of special re- statement appeared in a January 5, ports on the scandal, Deer showed how 2010, editorial on BMJ’s website. Wakefield exploited the vaccine scare for Author of the now-retracted article his personal financial gain.