Science and Society

Mid-term Exam

Spring 2008

DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON THURSDAY, MARCH 27

Hand in one copy of your responses to questions 1 and 2 stapled together, and one copy of your responses to questions 3 and 4 stapled together. Any outside sources consulted or cited should be noted. Quotations from Sagan should be clearly noted (with page number).

Students may not consult with any living Homo sapiens sapiens other than Drs. Feder and Larsen. Consulting the dead, or alien beings, is allowed.

This means that students are not allowed to work together on this exam, and any evidence of such will be taken as proof of plagiarism and dealt with accordingly.

1)      In Chapter 13 of The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan describes a purposefully faked pseudoscientific claim (The Carlos Affair). Here is your chance to be creative. Create your OWN faked pseudoscientific claim (make sure it is unique!). Explain what you are proposing, how you will sucker in people into believing your claim, and how it could be successfully debunked. Be explicit and detailed.

2)      Consider the various pseudosciences discussed so far in class (and other examples you may be aware of) and use concrete examples to answer the following questions:

a)      How do pseudoscience practitioners use the ignorance of the public to their advantage?

b)      How do pseudoscience practitioners use the emotional or mental state of certain members of the public to their advantage?

c)      How are scientists sometimes their own worse enemy when it comes to the battle between science and pseudoscience?

3)      Consider the construction of megalithic monuments like Stonehenge and the pyramids as discussed in class (although you can feel free to use outside sources as well). Using a deductive approach, what should the archaeological record show IF the construction of such monuments was introduced by a group of technologically advanced extraterrestrial aliens? What evidence does the archaeological record actually provide concerning the development of such structures?

4)      Apply the research and thinking skills you have learned in this class so far to assess the following assertion:

A curse placed on the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen killed many (in fact, a statistically significant proportion) of those involved in opening and, therefore, desecrating that tomb.