Short abstract:
The Internet is awash with fake science and pseudoscience, and societies that depend on science and technology for their prosperity have citizens without a good understanding of science and the methods for creating new knowledge. The talk will briefly survey public science literacy and misinformation online, and present a machine learning approach to boost the former and combat the latter. The challenges of science communication in the age of fake news are summarized.
Brief biography:
Chris Impey got his Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. He is a University Distinguished rofessor of Astronomy and Associate Dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona. He has 80 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and 30 refereed publications on educational topics. His two massive open online classes (MOOCs) have enrolled 180,000 people. He has written over 50 popular articles on cosmology and astrobiology, two introductory textbooks, a novel, and eight popular science books.
Most recent books: Dreams of Other World, Humble Before the Void, Beyond: The Future of Space Travel, Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes.