chemistry

Paul Connett

Paul Connett is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paul Connett rather than just read about it. In short: Paul Connett is a prominent water fluoridation critic, executive director of the Binghamton, New York based Fluoride Action Network (FAN), one of the largest organizations opposing water fluoridation worldwide. Critics have stated that The Fluoride Action Network is funded, at least in part, by Joseph Mercola, who has been identified by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate as a leading purveyor of COVID-19 disinfo…

Key takeaways

Paul Connett belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paul Connett to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paul Connett from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul Connett is a prominent water fluoridation critic, executive director of the Binghamton, New York based Fluoride Action Network (FAN), one of the largest organizations opposing water fluoridation worldwide. Critics have stated that The Fluoride Action Network is funded, at least in part, by Joseph Mercola, who has been identified by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate as a leading purveyor of COVID-19 disinformation. FAN executive director Stuart Cooper has stated, "Mercola is among thousands of donors and his money accounts for a single-digit percentage of FAN's contributions". Connett has been invited by environmental organizations opposing fluoridation to lecture on the subject in fluoridating countries such as Canada, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. Connett has stated, "It’s politics that is interfering with science in this issue...It’s a matter of political will, and you cannot change political will if you don’t get the people. We must involve the people."

Early life Connett is English, and is a graduate of Cambridge University. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Dartmouth College.

Political activism Connett became involved in political activism in 1968. He volunteered for Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign, where he met Allard K. Lowenstein. Lowenstein and Connett founded the American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive, in response to the famine caused by the Biafran War. In 1971, Connett co-founded Operation Omega, a non-violent group taking humanitarian aid into East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Paul's wife Ellen was arrested during one of Omega's trips into East Pakistan and spent two months imprisoned there.

University career After teaching chemistry and toxicology for 23 years at St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, he retired from his full professorship. He is currently also the director of the American Environmental Health Studies Project (AEHSP).

Fluoridation campaign In 2004, Connett published the paper 50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoridation in Medical Veritas, a pseudoscientific journal described by QuackWatch as "fundamentally flawed". In 2010 he coauthored; The Case against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There along with Dr. James Beck and Dr. H. Spedding Micklem. He also wrote the book in 2013; "The Zero Waste Solution". and assisted the city of Naples in pursuing its zero waste strategy.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paul Connett

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paul Connett claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paul Connett before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paul Connett ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paul Connett

In research: Paul Connett appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paul Connett in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paul Connett is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American chemists, Alumni of the University of Cambridge, Dartmouth College alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paul Connett outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paul Connett in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paul Connett means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paul Connett out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paul Connett in simple terms?

Why does Paul Connett matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paul Connett?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paul Connett.