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This is not your typical PPD seminar talk. I will not present anything
you do not already know yet. Instead, I would like to request your
feedback on the prototype of a public lecture on the nature of science
itself. Tim Durkin, Sophy Palmer and I had concluded over a year ago
that we should have a few add-on slides for outreach events, extending
our usual programme for school visits from "this is what we do" by a
short section about "and this is why you should believe us and not
random people on the internet".
However, in times where high profile scientific topics such as climate
change and covid-19 have become very politicised, and where conspiracy
theories about almost everything are proliferating, we decided we
should become more proactive in presenting our case to the general
public. We need to explain the methods of science, the strengths, the
limitations. We need to help people distinguish between real science
and pseudoscience, between scientific arguments and political
arguments. We need to work towards rebuilding some of the trust in
science that seems to have been lost recently. This is why Sophy and
Julie asked me to prepare a standalone lecture on the topic.
The aim is to have a roughly 45 minute long presentation that is
suitable for an audience of age 15+. This is aimed at people with
little actual scientific education but probably strong opinions on the
subject. So please come and tear my arguments apart like any decent
conspiracy theorist would!