Mike Epstein is currently a government chemist, and an associate of the college
and adjunct professor at Mount Saint Mary's College. He was formerly an assistant
professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Hood College. Besides
his interest in pseudoscience and pathological science, he is interested in
developing innovative methods of chemical education, including problem-solving
and cooperative learning methodologies. More information is available from
his home page.
At the time of this paper, Maggie Bullard was a graduating senior
at Mount Saint Mary's College. This summer, she received her
Masters Degree in Analytical Chemistry from the University of
Minnesota and plans a career in forensic science. Maggie's special
project for the Mount Saint Mary's College analytical chemistry
class involved the investigation of the pseudoscientific claim
of "biotransmutation", the tranmutation of elements
in biological systems. She compared the elemental content of
seeds and plants grown from seeds using atomic absorption spectroscopy,
and found no significant difference and therefore, no "biotransmutation".
At the time of this manuscript, Brad Buehler was a graduating
senior at Mount Saint Mary's College. Brad graduated with a Masters
Degree in Forensic Science from the George Washington University
and is now working for a law firm in Washington DC, specializing
in patent law. Brad's special project for our analytical chemistry
class involved the investigation of the trace element profile
of a brass foil that purportedly appeared on the skin of a Florida
medium named Katie. Using ICP-MS, Brad attempted to establish
a pattern in the collection of foil samples that could be related
to date of collection over a two-year period.
At the time of this manuscript, Robin Kloster was a graduating
senior at Mount Saint Mary's College. She is currently entrolled
in graduate school in organic chemistry at the University of
Arizona. She, along with two other students from the analytical
class, Maggie and Brad, attended the meeting of the Society
for Scientific Exploration held in Charlottesville, VA in
1996 and wrote a paper describing her reactions to the science
and pseudoscience presented at the conference.
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