Comments on: Science Fare

By: A visit from Richard Saunders « Skeptic School

A visit from Richard Saunders « Skeptic School — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:40:27 +0000

[...] closed the show by reading out Phil Plait’s letter, “Welcome to science.” This was another highlight because not only is it a beautiful message, the students listened in [...]

By: zombiewind

zombiewind — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:59:01 +0000

beautiful!

By: lolli

lolli — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:54:04 +0000

the speech was great..but i hav to giv a speech to the whole school…thanks for the ideas!

By: John McCain still really hates science | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:09:49 +0000

[...] And putting that aside, astronomy is important. I don’t think I need go into that here, but you can always read this if you’re fuzzy on the details. Also, it touches the philosophical aspects of our lives, like [...]

By: AlphaOmega

AlphaOmega — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:19:41 +0000

Someone back in 2005 posted that he/she almost cried after reading your speech. May I say I just went one step further than the “almost”.

Salute skipper for your deeply motivating exorcization of human dumbness.

Regards,
The One.

By: Jeb Goodcarver

Jeb Goodcarver — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:32:44 +0000

Excellent post Dr. Plait…I trust you will allow it to be taught along with Creationism after the McCain/Palin team takes over in Janbuary 2009 and eliminates the teaching of Science from our school system.

By: geetha

geetha — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:20:45 +0000

hi phil
if it’s okay to comment after such a long time ……..

three cheers to you for such a wonderful speech. i can see a touch of carl sagan in that. lucky students and i am sure atleast some of them would have been inspired to pursue science.

i am printing this speech and filing it for my 5 year daughter to read when she grows up

love u

By: Bienvenido a la ciencia « Hazael’s Weblog

Bienvenido a la ciencia « Hazael’s Weblog — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:55:05 +0000

[...] Vía: Bad Astronomy [...]

By: Hazael

Hazael — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:34:02 +0000

Great speech, I've always found science fascinating and I would like to have your permission to translate this post to spanish and post it on my blog, of course all the credit will go to you.

By: marko

marko — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:12:36 +0000

It really pays out to follow the links you place in your blog entries, Phil: “welcome-to-caturday” to “carried-in-on-a-litter” to your great speech here, from a time where I didn’t read any blogs yet.

If it wasn’t for your well-placed links, I would have missed this!

By: sasha

sasha — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:34:51 +0000

beautiful =D

By: Joules

Joules — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 04:29:42 +0000

It truly is a visceral experience.

Marvelous.

By: ccmath

ccmath — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:57:15 +0000

As a mathematics teacher who used to be a rocket scientist and who is and forever shall be a Christian, I applaud and agree with your speech except for the implications in the statements “No creationist ever cracked the genetic code. Chemists did. Molecular biologists did.”
That paragraph implies that Science and Christianity are mutually exclusive and they are not. Many of us have no problem believing the theories of evolution and the big bang theory. Where did the stuff involved in the big bang came from?? We believe it came from God. So we are happily capable of working on “real science” since we don’t have a problem with the scientific community and the theories that seek to explain where we all came from – I think perhaps some scientists are the ones with the closed minds.

By: johnkemeny.com » Blog Archive » Best Science Blogs of 2006 = The Open Laboratory

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:57:49 +0000

[...] Bora Zivkovic from A Blog Around the Clock has created a book on Lulu containing the 50 best science blog articlesÂ (culled by committee from over 200) in 2006.Â The first article is a short essay to Science Fair entrants, by Phil Plait, that everyone should read.Â If you live in the Northeast you might want to read the article Ticks and Time, by Diane A Kelly, with surprising new results about the etiology of Lyme disease.Â And there are a lot more gems in this great anthology. [...]

By: smratmark715

smratmark715 — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 09:09:41 +0000

Jason here obviously can’t grasp the difference between being religious and being a creationist. Francis Collins has gone on the record in his books rejecting creationism and Intelligent design, and there is no evidence that Gregor Mendel would be considered a creationist. The biggest problem with creationists is that when they don’t understand something, they want to label as “God did it,” which conveniently takes away any need to find another way to explain it. Francis Behe is a relatively minor scientist whose fame comes only from his controversial views, and scientists are people too, completely able of deluding themselves in an effort to make them feel better.

By: Ben Main

Ben Main — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:49:05 +0000

Jason, Gregor Mendel and Francis Collins have made their contributions to scientific understanding, but neither they nor Michael Behe was responsible for cracking the Genetic code. Gregor Mendel may be the father of modern genetics and Francis Collins may be the leader of the Human Genome Project and Michael Behe may have pondered over his idea of irreducible complexity, but none of them “cracked the genetic code”.

I think that your objection is to an imagined view of the speech rather than what it actually says. It doesn’t say that people with creationist beliefs cannot do science…it goes more to suggest that creationism itself is not science, a point with which I agree.

By: Jason from The Sci Phi Show

Jason from The Sci Phi Show — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:00:53 +0000

Umm … not to too much, but umm … this whole thing contains a number of mistakes.

Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian Monk and he is called “The father of modern genetics”. I’m pretty sure that would qualify as a “creationist” given Francis Collins over at the Human Genome project and Mike Behe of Lehigh University are called “creationists”. Oh and did I mention Francis Collins head of the Human Genome Project ? These people contributed immesurably to the “cracking of the genetic code”.

And umm … a very large number of the units of measure in physics are named after people that would qualify as “creationists” in the way it is currently used to describe anybody who is not an ardent naturalist.

Jason

By: alessandro

alessandro — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:32:51 +0000

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWO i had to do a speech on it and then i saw the speech and its so cool :):):):)!!!!! THX ALOT now because of u i got a 100%

By: Single board computer

Single board computer — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 20:20:28 +0000

Hey Phil, congratulations for such a nice and wise blog! I agree with you in your post "Science Fare". By the way, my wife and I are running a new project about Single board computers and many other great tools. I find your work interesting and you may have the professional skills we need. Keep writing, we will contact you!

By: Jack Carlson

Jack Carlson — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 19:13:43 +0000

Phil,
I occasionally teach an Intro Astronomy course at my high school, and I confront astrology frequently. People are so credulous today and itâ€™s frustrating. This speech is inspiring to me, and I would like to use it with your permission.
I would also like permission to link to your site for various topics from time to time.
Thanks,
Jack Carlson

By: Sriram

Sriram — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:06:48 +0000

cool speech an inspiring and apt one fer students

By: Majin Vegeta

Majin Vegeta — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 00:11:37 +0000

I love the article Phil, and I really want to be unbanned on BABB / BAUT

But… Just for the heck of it, try going to Church some Sunday… You’ve got nothin’ to lose except two hours of your time. I’ve felt things in church that no man in science has ever felt, and I can gaurentee that. (It doesn’t happen in Catholic churches, remember that) Jus give it shot. You’ve got nothing to lose at all.

Love the rest of the blog, too!

By: magicSilver

magicSilver — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 06:19:07 +0000

MagicSilver

By: magicSilver

magicSilver — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 06:18:46 +0000

Well put. I enjoy writing for Night Sky, and I do have an S&T article in the works right now, I havenâ€™t written a single word yet, so itâ€™s a bit preliminary.

By: Patricio

Patricio — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:45:51 +0000

Hi,
Do you “Know”?
Our eyes had blind zones. Thomb story ..
are the instruments “blind”?
do you “know” the precise adjustment between instruments and mind (your mind read rigth instrument outputs)?
do you capture real things with instruments when you see 1.000 times smaller than you, or bigger ? maybe 10.000.000
do you believe that scale aspect is just a numeric question?
I’m really intrested in this kind of questions
The force be with you (nothing to lose, life is lovely)
anyway if science is used to stop us then it is useful
like Nike “Just do it” no science just force if homeopathy helps you THEN USE it.

Best regards