Cambridge Skeptics

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Scientists often have strong intuitions about science communication, what's good or bad, what works and what doesn't. Social scientists who study science communication, however, have decades of evidence directly relevant to these questions. But scientists are not always aware of this evidence and therefore run the risk of communicating based on seemingly reasonable assumptions, particularly about the relationship between knowledge of science and attitudes towards science, which can turn out to be faulty, therefore wasting time, effort, and perhaps even credibility. In this talk, we'll explore the single biggest assumption which scientists often make—that to know science is to love it—and see how the evidence stacks up for and against this "deficit model". And we will explore the consequences of the evidence for good or bad, more or less effective, science communication, not only as scientists and science communicators but also as intelligent consumers of science communication.

Dr James Dolan is a Fellow in Physics at King's College and Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy. An engineer, physicist, and occasional science communicator, when he isn’t teaching James researches how scientists have used improvised comedy as a form of science communication.

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https://www.tickettailor.com/events/cambridgeskeptic

Trust has to be warranted, and it seems reasonable for audiences to be sceptical if they suspect that 'experts' have their own agendas; there are many examples of how scientists have selected evidence and its interpretation to order to advocate for specific policies. I will argue that the primary principle behind communicating evidence should be trustworthiness, and suggest some guidance as to how this can be achieved.

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE is Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge. He is a regular media commentator on statistical issues, and was very busy over the Covid crisis. His bestselling book, The Art of Statistics, was published in 2019, and The Art of Uncertainty in 2024. His career highlights include appearing on Desert Island Discs in 2022, and in 2011 coming 7th in an episode of BBC1’s Winter Wipeout. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005, awarded an OBE in 2006, and knighted in 2014 for services to medical statistics. He was President of the Royal
Statistical Society for 2017-2018, and has been a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority since 2020.

Confirm attendance by booking through our box office:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/cambridgeskeptic

What happens in your brain when you make eye contact, read a room, or lose yourself in deep focus? Beneath every social instinct and attentional shift lies an intricate web of neural circuits — ancient, precise, and surprisingly flexible. How do our biases factor into social attention and the social groups we pay attention to, or choose to avoid? In this talk, we'll explore how specific brain regions orchestrate who we pay attention to, how we respond to others, and why these systems sometimes go awry.

Spatika Jayaram is a Ph.D. student and Gates-Cambridge Scholar in neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Her research examines mood disorders, and how they develop in the brain during adolescence. She was the runner-up in the international finals of FameLab in 2025, a worldwide science communication event held at CERN in Geneva, after winning the UK Nationals at the Cheltenham Science Festival.