October 11, 1999
Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853.
LAWRENCE -- The author of the best-selling "Beyond Star Trek" will speak on "Nonsense, Non-Science, and Science: From Aliens to Creationism" at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 25 in the auditorium at Central Junior High School, 14th and Massachusetts streets.
Lawrence M. Krauss, chair of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, will talk "about various dangers facing modern society if we fail to learn the lessons science has taught us about the world." The University of Kansas physics and astronomy department and chancellor's office are sponsoring Krauss's talk. His speech is free and open to the public.
In addition to being the Ambrose Swasey professor of physics at Case Western, Krauss is internationally known as a theoretical physicist with wide research interests. Krauss is becoming known for his ability to relate physics to popular culture. His popular books include "Beyond Star Trek," "The Physics of Star Trek" and "Fear of Physics."
Krauss will discuss the difference between science and fiction and explore how the distinction between sense and nonsense is becoming blurred in popular discourse, said Hume Feldman, KU assistant professor of physics and astronomy.
"We must not be timid about offending sensibilities when those sensibilities are based on nonsense," Krauss says. "In March 1996, the U.S. presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said on national television that he wasn't descended from apes, and he didn't think children should be taught that they are. Not a single U.S. journalist questioned him on this position."
Three years later, the Kansas Board of Education voted to make evolution and discussions of the Big Bang theory options for local school boards to offer. Krauss says that the evolutionary and Big Bang theories are not controversial scientific issues, and moreover, their alternatives disagree with observation.
Krauss is writing a new introductory physics text for nonscience majors in association with Prentice Hall, to be released in 2000, and has contracted with Little Brown and Company to produce a new book titled, "Genesis: The Lives of an Atom," to appear in 1999. Public television is currently undertaking to produce a TV series hosted by Krauss and based on his Genesis book.
His book "The Physics of Star Trek" was the selection of five book clubs including Book of the Month and was serialized in the November 1995 issue of Wired magazine. "Fear of Physics" has been translated into 12 languages and was nominated for the American Institute of Physics 1994 Science Writing Award. His first book, "The Fifth Essence: The Search for Dark Matter in the Universe," was named Astronomy Book of 1989 by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.