Episode #91

News Items

    Interview with Susan Blackmore

    • www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. She practices Zen and campaigns for drug legalization. Sue Blackmore no longer works on the paranormal. She writes for several magazines and newspapers, a blog for the Guardian newspaper and is a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television. She is author of over sixty academic articles, about forty book contributions, and many book reviews. Her books include Beyond the Body (1982), Dying to Live (on near-death experiences, 1993), In Search of the Light (autobiography, 1996), and Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis, 1997).The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into 13 other languages.Her textbook Consciousness: An Introduction was published in June 2003 (Hodder UK, OUP New York), and A Very Short Introduction to Consciousness in 2005 (OUP). Her latest book is Conversations on Consciousness (November 2005 OUP Oxford) due out in the USA in January 2006.

    Science or Fiction

    • Item #1 Science

      For the first time researchers have reconstructed protein sequences from the fossil remains of a dinosaur – specifically a T-rex.

    • Item #2 Fiction

      Long awaited results from a decade-long neutrino experiment show that the so-called standard model of physics is no longer tenable.

    • Item #3 Science

      New research suggests that ethanol, touted as being more eco-friendly than gasoline, would actually create an increased environmental health risk.

    Skeptical Quote of the Week.