It may seem a big claim, but knowing how to think clearly and critically has literally helped save the world. In September 1983, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s early warning system showed five US missiles heading towards the country. Stanislaw Petrov knew his duty: to inform Moscow that nuclear war had begun so that they could launch an immediate and devastating response. Thankfully for all of us alive today, he instead assessed the situation and reasoned -correctly- that an error was more likely than a limited attack. We may not have to save the planet from nuclear annihilation, of course, but our ability to think critically has never been more important. In a world where fake news, mistrust of experts, prejudice, and ignorance all too often hold sway, we can all too easily be misled over issues such as vaccinations, climate change, or conspiracy theories. We live in an era where access to all the knowledge in the world is at our fingertips, yet that also means misinformation and falsehoods can spread further and faster than ever before. But fortunately, we can learn from our mistakes, and by critical thinking and the scientific method we can discover how to apply these techniques to everything, from deciding what insurance to buy, to averting global disaster.
David is a physicist, cancer researcher, and author. His work encompasses everything from how tumors use oxygen to the impact of disinformation and conspiracy theory on public understanding. He has a strong focus on public understanding of science and medicine, contributing to BBC, RTE, The New York Times, Scientific American, The Guardian, The Irish Times, and PBS. He received the 2014 Maddox prize for communicating science.
This talk took place on June 24, 2021, at 7:00 pm EDT.