How Science has Confronted Ufology and "The UFO Problem"

September 3, 2021
Speaker: Professor Greg Eghigian, Penn State History
Title: How Science has Confronted Ufology and "The UFO Problem"
Abstract:
Science is a verb. It is a knowledge-producing, knowledge-distributing, and knowledge-consuming set of activities. And it’s worth bearing in mind, it is only one of many such enterprises. How then has science tried to maintain its integrity in the face of fields deemed to be “pseudoscience?” This talk explores the relationship between ufology and the academic sciences by tracing the social history of how scientists have addressed what atmospheric physicist James McDonald referred to as “the UFO problem” and the research it inspired.