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.
Famous quotes containing the words skeptical society, england, skeptical and/or society:
“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)
“We have been able to have fine poetry in England because the public do not read it, and consequently do not influence it. The public like to insult poets because they are individual, but once they have insulted them, they leave them alone.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Don Juan tries not to see the skeptical winks that greet his boasting.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)