Office: 256 AEC

Office Phone: (610) 330-5587

Email: hummels@lafayette.edu

This course may be used to satisfy the ES 225 requirement.

Course Description: Can you get cancer by living too close to a power line? For years, people have been told so, but the scientific evidence clearly suggests otherwise. Through examining this power line "scare", and other scenarios such as the millennium bug, Mad Cow disease, and of course Global Warming, we will gain insight into the ways the media packages and distributes scientific information to the public. There are many participants in the dissemination of scientific information. We will look closely at the roles of scientists, engineers, media, and public officials and subsequently discuss their ethical and professional obligations in that regard.