The Jamestown College Convocation Committee is hosting astronomer and Discovery Channel personality Dr. Phil Plait for a multimedia presentation and lecture at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Reiland Fine Arts Center's DeNault Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
Plait is host of the Discovery Channel's "Phil Plait's Bad Universe," a program exploring topics and misconceptions in astronomy with hands-on experiments.
In his presentation, "Death From the Skies," Plait will take a scientifically-based and fun look at giant impacts from asteroids and other cosmic objects, how these events have shaped history, how they may do so again in the future, and why Hollywood always seems to get them wrong.
After earning his doctorate in astronomy at the University of Virginia, Plait worked as a contractor at the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, working with the Hubble Space Telescope. He began a career in public outreach and education with his "Bad Astronomy" website and blog, debunking bad science and popular misconceptions. His book "Bad Astronomy" was released in 2002, and "Death From the Skies" was published in 2008.
Plait has given talks about science and pseudo-science across the United States and around the world. He has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, the SciFi Channel, NPR, and other venues. His writing has appeared in Sky and Telescope, Astronomy magazine, Night Sky magazine, Space.com, Maxim, the Skeptical Inquirer and the Huffington Post.
