***Edit 04/10/2009 – added more to this post***
I’m attending TAM (The Amaz!ng Meeting) London this weekend, and I thought I’d write a minipost about today – there’ll be more later.
Today’s speaker’s, in order of appearance, were:
Brian Cox – particle physicist, writer and TV personality. He discussed the Large Hadron Collider and the cutting edge of particle physics, and why he won’t be destroying the earth anytime soon.
Jon Ronson – befriends psychics, extremists and people with weird beliefs to better understand and investigate them. His book, The Men who Stare at Goats, is now a motion picture starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor.
Simon Singh – popular science author. He discussed how he went from writing about codes and mathematics to pseudoscience, and about fighting the notorious libel case brought by the British Chiropractic Association.
Ariane Sherine – writer and Guardian columnist promoter of the ‘Atheist bus campaign’ which raised £150,000 and spread worldwide. There is now a book of essays by various well-known freethinkers, called The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas.
Ben Goldacre – Guardian columnist and writer of bestselling Bad Science. He discussed themes from his book and columns in condensed formed. He also made a more informal appearance at the comedy evening.
James Randi (via skype from US) – stage magician and pseudoscience debunker, founder of JREF, the foundation organising the event. He took a number of questions from the audience and received a standing ovation.
Other writers, like Mil Millington, and blogosphere personalities such as Crispian Jago and Jack of Kent (his post on today here) were present in the audience.
Simon Singh with his award (right) and his wife Anita (left)
Most exciting event of today:
Simon Singh receive the TAM Award UK 2009 – presumably for his courage in battling his legal case. He received a standing ovation. Upon receiving the award, he announced the happy news that he and his wife are expecting a child. We here at blue genes wish him all the best. Apologies for iPhone photo quality!
October 16th, 2009 at 12:16 am
Can’t believe you saw Ben Goldacre! Jealous!