OAKLAND, November 10--Is environmental debate today, including global warming, bio-technology, and other issues, based on science or politics? Are popular accounts of such issues rooted in science or phantom risks? Are government policies focusing on the trivial while ignoring the real, and in the process wasting limited resources, crippling human innovation to address true dangers, and inviting tyranny?
Dr. Michael Crichton will deliver a major presentation at an Independent Institute forum in San Francisco, on November 15, examining whether public debate and government policies are increasingly based on politics or the objective standards of science. A panel of distinguished scientists will also discuss the increasing problem of the politicization of science.
WHAT: An Evening with Michael Crichton "States of Fear: Science or Politics?"
WHO: Michael Crichton, “the father of the techno-thriller,” is the author of 21 books including The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Prey, and State of Fear, selling more than 150 million copies and translated into 36 languages, with 12 made into films. The recipient of an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer’s Guild of America award for the TV series, ER, he is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and has been Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge University; Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellow; post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences; and Visiting Writer, MIT.
Panel:
Sallie L. Baliunas, research astrophysicist and former Deputy Director and Director of Science Programs at Mount Wilson Observatory.
William M. Gray, Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, head of the Tropical Meteorology Project at CSU, and a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society.
George H. Taylor, State Climatologist for Oregon and Professor of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University.
WHEN:
8 PM, Tuesday, 15 November 2005
Doors open at 7:00 pm. Author book signing after program.
WHERE:
Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason Street at O’Farrell, San Francisco
To cover this event or to receive a copy of the presentation, please contact:
Pat Rose/Public Affairs Director/ 510-632-1366 x116
The Independent Institute is a non-partisan, public policy research organization that sponsors in-depth studies of major social, economic, legal, and environmental issues. In order to fully understand the nature of public issues and possible solutions, the Institute’s program adheres to the highest standards of independent scholarly inquiry, without regard to any political or social biases. The results of this work are published as books and other publications, and form the basis for numerous conference and media programs. Through uncommon independence, depth, and clarity, the Independent Institute seeks to expand the frontiers of knowledge regarding public issues and foster new and effective directions for government reform.
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