Skeptics in the Pub, Oxford

It’s easy to make fun of many creationist claims, but what are their strongest arguments?

Creationism often takes a lot of flak for the kind of wild claims made by hoards of ALL-CAPS creationists on blogs and YouTube comments. But of all the claims and arguments made by creationists, which are the most impressive? Do they pose a threat to creationism-denying scientific fields? Forget the usual tired canards. Peter has spent a year collaborating with top creationist organisations and groups to collate and bring to you their most powerful arguments yet…

Peter Harrison has worked with many organisations on both sides of this debate, including his former role as volunteer coordinator for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Neil Denny is the producer and presenter of the Little Atoms Radio Show and podcast. Neil was the recipient of a Travelling Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and in May 2012 he embarked upon a month long, 6614 mile road trip across America. The aim of the trip was to produce a series of podcasts which present a wide-ranging overview of science and skepticism from an American perspective. While many in Europe consider America to be the home of conspiracy theories, creationism and climate scepticism, the USA is also a scientific powerhouse.

However many of those involved in science in the US are also fighting encroaching irrationality. To be an atheist in America is still considered to be a brave and transgressive act. Creationists continue to push for the teaching of "intelligent design" alongside evolution in science classes. Campaigners are fighting to protect the right to legal and safe abortion, for the use of stem cells in medical research, and are fighting against the growing anti-vaccination movement.

Driving from San Francisco to Boston and calling in at Phoenix, Santa Fe, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York along the way, Neil recorded 39 interviews with scientists and science writers including Ann Druyan, Leonard Susskind, Kip Thorne, Priya Natarajan, Paul Davies, George Church, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Mary Roach, Edward Stone and Sara Seager. He recorded interviews at some major sites of scientific interest, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Los Alamos National Laboratory, and The American Museum of Natural History. He also spent a less scientific day visiting Kentucky's Creation Museum. The podcasts from Neil's trip can be found at the following website: http://feeds.feedburner.com/littleatomsroadtrip/. Find out more about Little Atoms here: http://www.littleatoms.com/, and follow Neil on Twitter: @littleatoms.

If you Google ‘dyslexia’ you will find a confusing array of information about diagnosis and treatment. Many websites claim that their intervention is neuroscientifically-based, and many propose ways of treating dyslexia that do not involve training children to read. I will consider some general rules of thumb that can help sort out the good, the bad and the frankly weird from among this wide range of possibilities.

Dorothy Bishop is Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, where she heads a programme of research into children’s communication impairments funded by the Wellcome Trust. As well as publishing in conventional academic outlets, she writes a popular blog with personal reactions to scientific and academic matters, and she tweets as @deevybee.