Fringe science organizations
Fringe science organizations are organizations committed to promoting theories that disagree with mainstream scientific beliefs.
Flat Earth Society[edit]
The Flat Earth Society is an organization which aims to further the idea that the Earth is flat instead of an oblate spheroid. The modern organization was founded by Englishman Samuel Shenton in 1956[1] and was later led by Charles K. Johnson, who based the organization in his home in Lancaster, California. The formal society was inactive after Johnson’s death in 2001 but was resurrected in 2004 by its new president Daniel Shenton.[2]
Academy of Nations[edit]
In the 1920s the engineer and anti-relativity activist Arvid Reuterdahl and his associates founded a society called "The Academy of Nations", which was "a group of scientists and engineers... with the ostensible objective of fighting the specialization of the different branches of science so as to achieve an overall unity and uniformity of all of science. But the leading participants in this endeavor had an ulterior motive: they believed in daft pseudoscientific theories of their own..."[3] Reuterdahl presented his objections to relativity in newspaper articles with headlines such as "Einstein Branded Barnum of Science", and "Minnesota Man Calls Relativity Bunk". In 1921 Ernst Gehrcke founded a German branch of the Academy of Nations, which promoted the publication of articles disputing relativity.[4]
Study Group of German Scientists for the Preservation of Pure Science[edit]
This "ragtag but mysteriously well-funded" organization was formed by the German engineer (and later convicted con man) Paul Weyland in 1920, for the purpose of discrediting Einstein's theory of relativity. It is unclear if the organization ever had any actual members other than its founder. Ernst Gehrcke participated in the group meeting organized by Weyland and held in the Berlin's Philharmonic Hall on Aug 24, 1920. Einstein dubbed the organization "the Anti-relativity Company, Ltd."[5]
"Crisis in Cosmology" Conferences[edit]
In a 2007 article in Cosmos Magazine, Bryan Gaensler, a professor of physics at the University of Sydney, says “there has just begun a new series of conferences, held by anti-relativity cranks, called ‘Crisis in Cosmology’. I think the first one was held in Spain [in 2005] and they’re planning another [which was held in Vancouver in 2007]. It looks exactly like a legitimate scientific conference, with the difference that everyone delivering a talk there is insane.” According to Gaensler, the conference planners sent out invitations to him and hundreds of other physicists. “Before registering, you had to fill out this 10-point, bulleted manifesto, agreeing to all sorts of propositions from the start. For example, ‘I do not accept that the universe is expanding’, and so on, the kind of thing you would never see at a real scientific conference. It was hilarious.”[6]
National Institute for Discovery Science[edit]
The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDSci) was a privately financed research organization based in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and operated from 1995 to 2004.
It was founded in 1995 by real-estate developer Robert Bigelow, who set it up to research and advance serious study of various fringe science, and paranormal topics, most notably ufology.[7] Deputy Administrator Colm Kelleher, Ph.D. was quoted as saying the organization was not designed to study UFO's only. "We don't study aliens, we study anomalies. They're the same thing in a lot of people's minds, but not in our minds."[8]
Society for the Advancement of Autodyamics[edit]
This was a society formed to promote the pseudoscientific idea of autodynamics. David de Hilster, the founder of this "society" (although it is unclear if it ever had any members other then himself) subsequently took a leadership role in the Natural Philosophy Alliance (see below).
Natural Philosophy Alliance[edit]
The Natural Philosophy Alliance (NPA) is an organization that advocates the position that some ideas thought well-settled in contemporary science (particularly physics and cosmology) are fundamentally flawed.[9] At its peak, the NPA had hundreds of members who worked to discredit such ideas as general and special relativity, quantum theory, the Big Bang, and plate tectonics. However, as a result of internal dissension and fragmentation, it is now a much smaller organization.
NPA was founded in 1994 by John E. Chappell Jr., a historian and anti-relativity activist. Since the beginning of 2014, the organization has been engaged in a dispute with former members who left the group due to disagreements over the NPA's direction, database of articles, and finances. This group that left has re-banded as the John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society, seen below. Both sides have posted their versions of the nature and details of the dispute on competing websites.[10][11] According to Chappell faction, prior to the departure of most members due to the dispute, the NPA counted 850 people as members,[12] 132 of whom paid dues.[10] However, the current NPA accuses this group of having listed people as "members" against their will, and has vowed to discontinue this practice.[10]
NPA hosted a database, now hosted on the web site World Science Database, see below. NPA also holds yearly conferences[13] with published proceedings, which provide a forum for those seeking wider distribution and acceptance for ideas excluded from mainstream scientific conferences.[14]
Journalist Margaret Wertheim, herself an NPA member and friend and associate of one of its founding members (Jim Carter, inventor of the fringe theory of circlons),[15] speculated in a 2012 essay that much of the interest in this area is a response to the heavy mathematical content and abstract ideas underlying conventional scientific theories, which, she says, makes them inaccessible to the general public.[16][17][18] She compares NPA with the revolt of Martin Luther against the Catholic church.[16][17][18] However, journalist John Horgan, a friend of Wertheim's, reported that "When [Wertheim] attended an NPA meeting... it reminded her of an experiment in which three schizophrenic patients, each of whom believed he was Christ, were introduced to each other... Each concluded that the others were crazy. Watching presenters at the NPA meeting, Wertheim comments, was like 'watching thirty Jesus Christs.'”[19]
World Science Database[edit]
A web site and database where authors can post materials not generally accepted and published by scientific journals. As of mid-2014, the database contained 6406 abstracts[20] and 1799 papers.[21] Note, however, that the current official NPA organization claims that some of these works are included in the data base without the consent of the authors.[10] This database is operated by David de Hilster,[22] who also helped found the SAA and NPA, above, and the JCNPS below. According to an essay by this individual, "the mainstream believes that [the former NPA members who now participate in the World Science Database] do not understand or study mainstream [science]", but that "this could not be further from the truth". Instead, the essay says, these individuals "have studied very thoroughly mainstream science", indeed "know it [mainstream science] better than the mainstream".[23]
John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society[edit]
The spin-off of the Natural Philosophy Alliance, above.[24] This group was co-founded by David de Hilster, as a founder of the SAA, NPA, and World Science Database, all listed above.
General Science Journal[edit]
A journal explicitly designed without peer review, so any theory may be published. From the web site:[25]
The original and continued purpose of these pages is to provide an opportunity for public presentation of scientific theories without prior and arbitrary assessment, criticism or rejection by the recipient. Judgement by the few runs counter to the spirit of scientific exploration. The internet provides a potential world of criticism and support. Authors who make their theories known in this manner will probably find both.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Flat Earth Society". howstuffworks.com. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
- ↑ David Adam (February 23, 2010). "The Earth is flat? What planet is he on?". The Guardian.
- ↑ Ohanian, Hans, "Einstein's Mistakes, the Failings of Genius" p. 279, 2009.
- ↑ Ohanian, Hans, "Einstein's Mistakes, the Failings of Genius" 2009.
- ↑ Isaacson, Walter, "Einstein, His Life and Universe", 2008.
- ↑ Farrell, John, "Was Einstein a Fake", Cosmos Magazine, 2007.
- ↑ Dorio Mark (2005) "Ufology: A Very Short Introduction", Trafford Publishing, ISBN 1-4120-6473-2
- ↑ Mercer, Brandon M. "The UFO Hunters - Scientists at the National Institute for Discovery Science study anomalous phenomena". UFO Evidence. Retrieved 2007-06-30.
- ↑ "Natural Philosophy Alliance". (Archived version as of 13 April 2014)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 NPA Board of Directors (January 2014). "Statement by the NPA Board of Directors regarding recent controversy".
- ↑ "Letter from NPA Membership for Resignations". 8 August 2014.
- ↑ "Recent Member Activity".
- ↑ "NPA Conference Update & Call for Papers".
- ↑ "Conferences". Natural Philosophy Alliance. 13 April 2014.
- ↑ [1][dead link]
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Margaret Wertheim (6 Jan 2012). "Other Theories of Physics: Amateurs around the world take on the priesthood of mainstream science". Slate.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Outsider physicists and the oh-my-god particle", published 24 December 2011 in New Scientist
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Margaret Wertheim (2011). Physics on the Fringe: Smoke Rings, Circlons, and Alternative Theories of Everything. Walker & Company. ISBN 978-0-8027-1513-5. Search this book on
- ↑ Scientific American, John Horgan, "In Physics, Telling Cranks from Experts Ain’t Easy", December 11, 2011.
- ↑ "World Science Database - Abstracts".
- ↑ "World Science Database - Abstract with Full Paper".
- ↑ Wertheim, 2011, Chapter 10.
- ↑ This essay is no longer hosted on the official NPA web site, due to the dispute discussed in the NPA section of this article. "Problems in Mainstream Science". Natural Philosophy Alliance. Retrieved 18 Aug 2014. (Archived version from 29 July 2013.)
- ↑ "John Chappell Natural Philosophy Society".
- ↑ "Science Journal - Purpose".
External links[edit]
This article "Fringe science organizations" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
