The New England Skeptical Society (NESS) is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting science and reason. It was originally founded in January 1996 as the Connecticut Skeptical Society. The group later joined with the Skeptical Inquirers of New England (SINE) and the New Hampshire Skeptical Resource to form NESS.
The NESS (in association with NYC Skeptics) runs the North East Conference for science and skepticism, NECSS (pronounced "nexus"), an annual conference with the most recent one having taken place on April 5 through 7, 2013.
The NESS produces a weekly science podcast — The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe — featuring discussions of myths, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and the paranormal from a scientific point of view. The show also features discussions of recent scientific developments in laymen's terms, and interviews authors and other prominent skeptics. On September 20, 2006, James Randi joined the podcast providing a weekly commentary segment.
In addition the NESS hosts local lectures on a spectrum of skeptical topics, conducts investigations into local paranormal claims and screens local applicants for the James Randi Educational Foundation One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. The group publishes a newsletter of original skeptical articles that can also be found on its website.
Its president Steven Novella is a neurologist now teaching at Yale, and is one of the original founders of NESS. Novella authored the Weird Science column in the New Haven Advocate, was an associate editor of Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and a contributing editor of Quackwatch. He has appeared on several television programs (such as Penn & Teller: Bullshit!) advocating the skeptical position.
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“Suicide , moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented, and really nice English people; and what do you always find? That the stables are the real centre of the household.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Suicide , moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“In abnormal times like our own, when institutions are changing rapidly in several directions at once and the traditional framework of society has broken down, it becomes more and more difficult to measure any type of behavior against any other.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)