At the November 14 meeting of the CDHS, Dr. Sherrie Lyons (BA in Genetics (Berkley)) and Ph. D in the History of Science (University of Chicago), treated a large and enthusiastic audience to a summary of her latest book, Species, Serpents, Spirits and Skulls: Science at the Margins of the Victorian Age. Her presentation was preceded by an interactive session that attempted to answer the question, “How many humanists does it take to get a Mac laptop to communicate with the digital projector?”

Dr. Lyons’ presentation described the explosion of scientific investigation and discoveries in the fields of biology, chemistry and geology during the Victorian Age and the coincident proliferation of all sorts of pseudoscience and false science. Her book starts with an ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times”, an invocation, Dr. Lyons noted, could apply to both the Victorian era and today.

“We live in a society in which science is permeating every aspect of our lives and we’re being asked to think about issues from global warming to stem cell research, which has important ramifications for society. At the same time, the public is vulnerable to all sorts of scam artists who are preying on peoples’ fears. People are grieving over lost loved ones, and so people promise to come and make contact with them. People are very ill and they are vulnerable to scam artists who offer all kinds of cures. It’s not that people are just uninformed; people really are not aware of what distinguishes science from nonscience. “

This long trail of conflict with what is science and what isn’t and how the two have been continually intertwined and at odds is best illustrated by the belief in the presence of sea serpents, phrenology (the reading of bumps on and the shape of the skull to infer an individual’s behaviors, deficiencies and talents) and the whole world of spirituality. Phrenology, although initially presented as science-based, eventually degenerated into the realms of pseudoscience accompanied by practices that can only be described as quackery.

Although alleged sightings of sea serpents have been much a part of recent human history, there have been several periods of abundant sightings such as the “Sea Serpent of Cape Ann” in 1819. Such sightings and the veracity with which their authenticity was defended was in part a response to a flood of expanding awareness of geological history and the fossil record, especially the of Plesiosaurs and Icthyosaurs from the Cretaceous. The resulting conflict arose as to who gets to be believed: the people attesting to the sightings or scientist who were casting doubt on these mariners’ tales and clamoring for hard evidence.

The large body of ‘evidence’ from eye witness accounts for sea serpents was paralleled by the popular belief in spiritualism, in particular, the use of séances to commune with spirits of the departed. This whole process was first foisted on the public by the Fox sisters who lived near Rochester, NY and tried to demonstrate that they were able to communicate with the spirit of a man who had been murdered in their home.

Often yesterday’s heresy becomes today’s science and conversely, today’s science becomes tomorrow’s pseudoscience. “I’m someone who is in the trenches teaching evolution and I am continually struck by having to deal with people who are not just ignorant of the facts but have no understanding of the process of science. That is why people can be so easily persuaded that a concept such as intelligent design can be viewed as an alternative theory to Darwin’s.”

“These case studies show that the distinction between pseudoscience and science is really not sharp.” The term science did not exist until the middle of the 1800’s and Dr. Lyons noted that she does not like to use the terms ‘pseudoscience’ for her studies ..,. because it means ‘false science’…she prefers to use the term ‘marginal science’ because each one of these movements did attract the attention of prominent scientists as well as the general public.

Dr. Lyons currently teaches courses on evolution, biology and nutrition at Empire State College and is the “academic Mom” for the men’s ice hockey team of Union College. We thank Steve Barnes of the Albany Times-Union for the splendid publicity preceding the talk.