Short Talk and Film Schedule for Fall 2004: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

English 302:N13: Monday, 7:20-10:00 pm, Robinson A101
Dr Ellen Moody

On Feynman, SYJ & WDYC and Sacks, Best Science Writing 2003:

Session 1: Mon, Aug 30th

• The class will watch Ralph Leighton's The Last Journey of a Genius.

Session 3: Mon, Sept 20th

• Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Jennifer Traylor
  
• Short talk 2: RFeynman's criticisms of abuses of authority particularly at Los Alamos (i.e., his stories about counterproductive uses of secrecy), but you may include stories exemplifying this theme from elsewhere in the book thus far (so from SYJ, Parts 2 & 3, especially "Los Alamos from Below" and "Safecracker Meets Safecracker"): ________________________
  
• Short Talk 3: RFeynman's ideas on what is real scientific learning: what ought to go on in a classroom, be in a book &c (e.g.,"O Americano Outre Vez" and "Judging Books by Their Covers" in SYJ and relevant Letters in WDYC). WDYC Part 1): Bill Gould
  

Session 4: Mon, Sept 27th

• Short Talk 4: RFeynman's Adventures in Areas Outside Physics: Biology, Psychology, Art, Music and Anthropology ("A Map of the Cat", Always Trying to Escape", "But Is It Art?"; "O Americano Outra Vez!," "Bringing Culture to the Physicists", "Found Out in Paris", "Altered States" in SYJ, and "It's as Simple as One, Two, Three " and relevant "Letters" in WDYC): Gavin Mead
  
• Short Talk 5: Exploitation and Casualties in Science (From Best Science Writing Brendon I. Koerner's "Disorders Made to Order," pp. 194-203, Jospeh D'Agnese's "An Embarrassment of Chimpanzees", pp. 204-212): Josh Barlas
  
• Short Talk 6: Phony Science and Science with Integrity (from Best Science Writing Leonard Cassuto's "Big Trouble in the World of 'Big Physics," pp. 228-37, and Richard C. Lewontin and Richard Levins's "Stephen Jay Gould: What Does It Mean to be a Radical?," pp. 237-249): Hassana Durham
  

Session 5: Mon, Oct 4th

• Short Talk 7: Mr Feynman Goes to Washington: Why some NASA officials are driven to delude themselves and mislead the public ("Mr Feynman Goes to Washington" and "Appendix F" in WDYC): Aakshi Sehdave
  
• Short Talk 8: A World of Pseudo- and Corrupt Science and the Value of Science (Feynman's "Cargo Cult Learning" and "The Value of Science": Patrick Daderko
  
• The class watches Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.

Session 7: Tues, Oct 18th

• The class watches In Search of a First Language

On Olson Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and Our Common Origins and Sacks, Best Science Writing 2003

Session 8: Mon, Oct 25th

• Short Talk 9: Olson: "The Human Pageant" and "The End of Evolution" (pp. 1-31); Short Talk 10: Olson: "Individuals and Groups" and "The African Diaspora" (pp. 32-69): Sami Omer
  
• Short Talk 11: Olson: "Encounters with the Other" and "Agriculture, Civilization and the Emergence of Ethnicity" (pp. 73-105): Mia Burke
  
• Short Talk 12: "Creatures and Their Earth" (from Best Science Writing Peter Canby, "The Forest Primeval" (pp. 1-26) and Michelle Nijhuis, "Shadow Creatures" (pp. 123-31): Tsuyoshi Tsuda
  

Session 9: Mon, Nov 1st

• Short Talk 13: Olson: "The Great Migration and "Who are the Europeans" (pp. 123-36, 157-74): Chris Barber
  
• Short Talk 14: On the film, In Search of a First Language and Olson, "Sprung from a Common Source" (pp. 137-54): ___________________________________
  
• Short talk 15: Olson: "Settlement of the Americas" and "The Burden of Knowledge" (pp. 193-220): Lino Cassimo
  
• Short Talk 16: Nature and Capitalism (from Best Science Writing Trevor Corson, "Stalking the American Lobster," pp. 138-159 and Lawrence Osborne's "Got Silk," pp. 186-93): Nelson Paredes
  
• The class may watch an excerpt from David Attenborough's 1979 Life on Earth: A Natural History.

Session 10: Mon, Nov 8th

• Short Talk 17: Olson: "Immigration and the Future of Europe" and "The end of Race" (pp. 175-90 and pp. 223-38): Harmony Brown
  
• Short Talk 18: Nature's Beauty and Strangeness: (from Best Science Writing Michael Klesius, "The Big Bloom," pp. 168-75, Susan Milius, "Why Turn Red?", pp. 176-81, Thomas Eisner, "The Mosquito's Buzz", pp. 182-84): David Creeden
  

On Konner, Becoming a Doctor and Sacks, Best Science Writing

Session 11: Mon, Nov 15th

• Short Talk 17a: The Origin of Konner's Journey, His Thesis and First Encounters: Melvin Konner's Becoming a Doctor: Preface, Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2: Umarah Uiftikha
  
• Short Talk 18a: The Trenches (Chapters 3-5: "Emergency Ward Surgery," "Anesthesiology: The Technicians of Sleep" and "Ward Surgery): David Shapiro
  
• Short Talk 19a: What is the Doctor's Responsibility to the Patient? (from Best Science Writing Atul Gawande, "The Learning Curve," pp. 49-67 and Danielle Ofri, "Common Ground," pp. 213- 222): Karina Vera-Lopez
  

Session 12: Mon, Nov 22nd

• Short Talk 20: The Problems in Treating Mental Illness (Chapters 6-7: "Neurosurgery and Neurology" and "Psychiatry"): Chazity Johnson
  
• Short Talk 21: How Women's Health is Treated (Chapters 9-10: "Obstetrics" and "Gynecology"): Junghye Chung
  
• The class watches two-third of Mike Nichols' and Emma Thompson's film adaptation of Margaret Edson's play, Wit.

Session 13: Mon, Nov 29th

• Short Talk 22: The Difficulty of Judgement (from Best Science Writing Liza Mundy, "A World of Their Own," pp. 68- 87, Floyd Skloot, "The Melody Lingers On," pp. 88-95): Junghye Choe
  
• : Short Talk 23: Death and the Overuse of Technologies (Chapters 11-12: "Pathologies" and "Medicine I: A Failure of the Heart"): Tayo Lawore
  
• We finish seeing Nichols' and Thompson's Wit.

Session 14: Mon, Dec 6th

• Short Talk 24: Why Doctors are Distrusted and a Failure of Common Sense: (Chapters 13- 14: Medicine II and III: "Deathwatches and "Healing and Hope"): _____________________________
  
• Short Talk 25: Optimism and Synthesis (Chapters 15- 16: "Fourth Year: Highlights and Heroes" and "Conclusion"): _______________________________