Annual Congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists: York University
Renowned American Pseudo-Science Skeptic Robert Park Sticks it to Little Green Men Theories, Alternative Medicine During Lecture on Voodoo Science

TORONTO, May 31, 2000 -- University of Maryland Physics Professor Robert Park will discuss how we can differentiate between science and pseudo-science during his lecture entitled Voodoo Science, to be held at York University, Sunday, June 4, 7 p.m.

Park, an outspoken critic of pseudo-scientific claims, miraculous cures, and wasteful government spending, has taken aim at everything from the existence of UFOs, to Deepak Chopra's New Age spiritualism, to the US National Aeronautics and Space Agency's (NASA) costly programs.

Park's lecture will examine how many scientists and would-be scientists -- in their eagerness to share speculative new ideas at the frontiers of science -- have conveyed the message that the universe is so strange that anything is possible. Park will argue that the universe is much more predictable than it use to be, and not nearly as strange. This, he argues is why alien abductions and miraculous cures are not plausible.

"A best-selling health guru insists that his brand of spiritual healing is firmly grounded in quantum theory; half the population believes Earth is being visited by space aliens who have mastered faster-than-light travel, and educated people are wearing magnets in their shoes to draw energy from the Earth," says Park. "Did we set the public up for this? What can we tell people that will help them judge which claims are science and which are voodoo?" he asks.

Park's lecture is one of the keynote plenary addresses at the Annual Congress of the Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) being held at York University June 4 - 7. The CAP Annual Congress is the most important all-around physics conference in Canada. Every year, hundreds of Canadian and international physicists meet at the host Canadian university to communicate the results of their recent research in areas ranging from atomic and molecular physics, to medical and biological physics, to optics and photonics.

Park is director of the Washington Office of the American Physical Society, and is the author of What's New, a controversial weekly electronic commentary on science policy issues which he ends with the disclaimer: "Opinions are the author's and are not necessarily shared by the A.P.S., but they should be." In 1998, he received the Joseph A. Burton Award of the American Physical Society for his contributions to the public understanding of issues involving the interface of physics and society. His just-released book is entitled Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Park's lecture will take place in Burton Auditorium, Centre for Film and Theatre, York University, 4700 Keele Street.

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For more information on either Park's lecture or the CAP Annual Congress visit: www.science.yorku.ca/CAP2000?CAP2000.html, or contact:

Prof. Allan Stauffer
Physics & Astronomy Dept.
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 77742
stauffer@yorku.ca

Ken Turriff
Media Relations
York University
(416) 736-2100, ext. 22086
kturriff@yorku.ca
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