Speaker Series: The Narrative Overruns Facts - Alchemy, Ancient & Modern

800 West University Parkway,Orem UT 84097

09 February, 2023

Description

"When the Narrative Has Overrun the Facts: Alchemy, Ancient and Modern," presented by Dr. Bruce WilsonThe ideas behind alchemy, the four-element theory and the idea of transmutation, were the dominant theory of matter for 2,000 years, but the ideas were never true and never worked as a functional description. So why did it last? I think the fundamental reason is that people tend to believe the story over their own observations. I'll try to demonstrate this in a review of the history of alchemy, then examine how prevalent storytelling is in the modern sciences.About Dr. Bruce WilsonBruce Wilson earned a PhD from Texas A&M in bioinorganic chemistry and gained a passion for the history of the sciences at BYU before that. After a brief stint at South Dakota State University, he came to UVU 20 years ago.______________________About Roots of KnowledgeRoots of Knowledge is a sweeping stained-glass panorama of history and human drama. The intricate details incorporated into every window represent years of painstaking research on the events and people that shaped humankind from the days of wooly mammoths and cavemen to the iPhone. Created by Holdman Studios and installed at the UVU Fulton Library in 2016, this artistic landmark comprises 80 individual panes and took 12 years to complete.For information on where to park at UVU, please visit https://www.uvu.edu/parking/visitor-parking.html.