Polymath World Channel

Something a bit different this week. This is another issue close to my heart and a conspiracy theory that is so problematic and disappointing. Candace Owens is a political commentator who doesn't believe we landed on the moon. I love Bill Maher and he has a lot of patience here and handles this pretty well. Her reasons are abysmal and it is tragic that she uses her huge platform to propagate such nonsense.

The Apollo era moon landings are perhaps humankind's greatest achievement and the space programs of the world are so beneficial to humanity in ways the majority of people don't understand. The cancellation of the Apollo program by Nixon was a terrible mistake and who knows where we would be right now if he hadn't.

I do believe that the biggest reason we see moon landing denial today is simply because we have not returned for so long despite having the technological capabilities. Hopefully the Artemis program changes that.

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EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS

Dr Zachary Ardern is an evolutionary geneticist at the world-famous Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre in Cambridge. His work investigates the 

evolution and functions of young genes in pathogenic bacteria and viruses, working as a SEED fellow (Sanger Epidemiological and Evolutionary Dynamics) as part of the Thomson group. Tracing the genetic changes of organisms over time, and how genes evolved (and are evolving) is a relatively new field and helps inform work on human disease and problems such as antimicrobial resistance as well as telling us a great deal about the development of life on earth. You could consider Zach to be something of a molecular archaeologist.

Zach and I go back many years and it was wonderful to catch up with him again to talk science. I am immensely jealous that he gets to work at the Sanger, one of the homes of the Human Genome Project and my favourite science place in the world. Zach also has a background in philosophy so we have always been able to bond over that too. I hope you enjoy our discussion.

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Of all the creationist pseudoscience videos I have seen, this was the one that tipped me over the edge. In this skit by Genesis Apologetics we have the worst collection of everything I struggle to tolerate: misinformation and basic factual errors wedded to massive overconfidence, immense disrespect for science and scientists, painting science as a homogenous collective enemy whose agenda is anti-religious, cherry picking and ignoring any evidence against your position, pretending to care about science when you actually despise it, gross ignorance of where biology is right now, biblical literalism with no consideration for its historical problems (not to mention the theological ones!), oversimplification of complex things whilst making actually simple things complicated, and brainwashing hundreds of thousands of followers into an abyss. Honestly this was awful. Apologies for losing my cool as the video went on.

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GENETICS, CANCER AND SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

Why is cancer so hard to cure in humans?

Dr Kat Arney is a geneticist and an award-winning science communicator. 

Kat tells stories about science. She is the founder and director of First Create The Media: a communications and media consultancy for people who do science, offering consultancy, copywriting, media production, training and one-to-one coaching. She is an award-winning science writer, author, presenter, broadcaster, podcaster and public speaker based near London. She is the author of Herding Hemmingway's Cats and Rebel Cell. Kat is gifted in explaining complex problems in science in a manner accessible and exciting to the ordinary person. Her broadcasts include the wonderful Genetics Society Podcast and a TED talk. She is one of the most talented communicators of cancer in the world.

https://katarney.com/

https://firstcreatethemedia.com/

Kat Arney TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdtqZCRDGQ0

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I finally have a look at a video by Answers In Genesis (Canada). It is a short explaining why evolution is false, apparently. There have been some poor videos from young earth creationism and intelligent design that we have looked at, but I was caught off guard by how mad this was!

There are better, truer and more satisfying answers out there for the religious and non-religious alike. Creationists and those in intelligent design attempt to appear sophisticated and educated but this thinly veiled exterior is trying to hide a deep contempt and disrespect for science and the pursuit of truth.

Thanks for joining me on these videos. Not too much to say about this one!

The Polymath World Channel brings you interviews with extraordinary researchers and academics working on the frontiers of their disciplines. Meet and hear from scientists, professors, lecturers, researchers, engineers, philosophers and astronauts.

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PARTICLE PHYSICS: THE BAD BOY OF SCIENCE

Dr Sam Gregson is a particle physicist and science communicator who did his PhD at Cambridge University with the world-famous Cavendish Laboratory. After working at CERN and pursuing postdoctoral fellowships in particle physics he moved into science communication as the "Bad Boy of Science" where he performs live demonstrations and mixes in stand up comedy all over the world.

I had a blast with Sam in Poland last year at Europe's 2nd largest science festival at the University of Silesia. Sam is so much fun and a real genius.

Check out his channel at: https://www.youtube.com/@BadBoyofScience

Find him here at https://www.badboyofscience.com/about

X - x.com/Samuel_Gregson

See his TED talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peZeDlWPznI

Instagram: @thebadboyofscience

The Polymath World Channel brings you interviews with extraordinary researchers and academics working on the frontiers of their disciplines. Meet and hear from scientists, professors, lecturers, researchers, engineers, philosophers and astronauts.

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PHILOSOPHY 

Dr Max Baker-Hytch is Senior Tutor in philosophy at Oxford University. He specialises in epistemology and philosophy of religion, is the author of the Cambridge Elements work God and the Problem of Evidential Ambiguity and has published many research articles in philosophy. He is a teaching fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He did his PhD at Oxford University and did a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Notre Dame in the USA.

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Here I respond to another pseudoscience video, this time by an American religious apologetics ministry called Reasons For Hope. These two men come across as warm and likeable and are quite talented wordsmiths, but as is so often the case their science is woefully inadequate and misinformed. Like much American apologetics they recite the incorrect mantras of Intelligent Design verbatim without any idea of how wrong it is. The desire to pit science against religion is unnecessary and a false endeavour.

I share a little bit from my own research as well as a few observations of what creationist pseudoscience all has in common.

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#evolution #intelligentdesign #scienceandreligion #creationism #pseudoscience #evolutionarybiology #youngearthcreationism #christianapologetics #apologetics #biology #dna #christianity #atheism #PolymathWorldChannel #PursueExtraordinary

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Polymath World # Episode 20 - BRITISH INTERPLANETARY SOCIETY

I interview former president of the British Interplanetary Society, Alistair Scott, about the history and work of the oldest space advocacy group on the planet. BiS has been active for almost a century, founded by the legendary Arthur C. Clarke. As meetings, research and publications grew, BiS was discussing moon landings 30 years before Apollo even happened. Today BiS continues to bring together and publish world-leading research on human spaceflight and exploration of the universe. Alistair tells us about its origins, growth and all that happens today. We hope you will be inspired and consider joining this historic organisation and pursuing the cause of human space exploration.

Find out more at https://www.bis-space.com/

You can book your place at REINVENTING SPACE 2025 here: https://www.bis-space.com/reinventingspace/

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PLANT GENETICS

Solving world hunger through potatoes! Dr Compton is associate professor of genetics at the University of Birmingham where she is based at the Centre for Computational Biology. Her research is in plant genetics using the potato as her model organism. Using modern genetics her hope is to tackle world hunger and malnutrition through efficient genetic research. This work has spanned the globe with collaborations in North and South America. She is on the board of the Genetics Society UK and has published much research in her field.

Through the use of modern genetic tools we can tackle serious challenges of drought, pests, unnecessary food wastage, viruses and climate change. Lindsey's amazing work is at the forefront of this effort.

The Polymath World Channel brings you interviews with extraordinary researchers and academics working on the frontiers of their disciplines. Meet and hear from scientists, professors, lecturers, researchers, engineers, philosophers and astronauts.

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