Short Talk and Film Schedule for Summer 2008: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

Tuesday/Thurs, June 3rd and 5th

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

Tues/Thurs, June 10th and 12th

• Tues, 6/10: Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): ___________________________
  
  
• Tues, 6/10: Short talk 2: RFeynman's criticisms of counterproductive uses and 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"): ________________________
  
  
• Tues, 6/10: 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)SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Ryan Skousen
  
  
• Thurs, 6/12: 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: Mohammed Nachawati
  
  
• Thurs, 6/12: Short Talk 5: RFeynman's Investigations into the Conscious and Unconscious Mind and Antagonisms towards Modern Psychiatrists and Psychology ("Mee", "Always Trying to Escape", "Uncle Sam Doesn't Need You!", "Altered States" from SYJ and "It's as Simple as One Two Three" from WDYC): Saman Berenji
  
  

Tues/Thurs, June 17th and 19th

• Tues, 6/17: Short Talk 6: 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, pp. 113-227): Danny Weekes
  
  
• Tues, 6/17: Short Talk 7: A World of Pseudo- and Corrupt Science and the Value of Science (Feynman's "Cargo Cult Learning" and "The Value of Science," SYJ, pp. 338-46, WDYC, pp. 239-48): Antoinette Hudson
  
  
• Thurs, 6/19: Short Talk 8: Sobel's Longitude, Needs and Troubles at Sea in the 17th and 18th Centuries (Chapters 1-4): Jessie Magee
  
  
• Thurs, 6/19: Short Talk 9: Harrison's and others solution to the problem; the prize and Harrison's first encounters in London (Chs 5-8 of Sobel's Longitude): __________________________________
  
  Thurs, 6/19: The class watches as much of Part 1 of Selwyn Roberts, Charles Sturridge and Dava Sobel's Longitude as time permits
  
  

Tues/Thurs, June 24th and 26th

• Tues, 6/24: Short Talk 10: Sobel's Longitude, John Harrison's inventions (Chs 9-11): Aaron Whitlock
  
  
• Tues, 6/24: Short Talk 11: Sobel's Longitude, How John Harrison was mistreated and the story of Robert Gould (Chs 12-15): ________________________
  
  
• Tues, 6/24: The class watches as much of Part 2 of Selwyn Robert, Charles Sturridge and Dava Sobel's Longitude as time permits.
  
  

Tues, July 1st

• The class watches the Mereilles, Channing-Williams, and Caine film, The Constant Gardener.

Tues/Thurs, July 8th and 10th

• Tues, 7/8: Short Talk 12: LeCarre's The Constant Gardener: Describe the characters of the different narrators of the story and try to say how their telling of their part of the story shapes our experience of the novel: Sandy Woodrow, Justin Quayle, Ghita Pearson, Tom Donahue, Gloria Woodrow: Jessie Magee
  
  
• Tues, 7/8: Short Talk 14: LeCarre's The Constant Gardener: The themes of betrayal, regret and loss, and people's experience of the business world in the novel: Tina de Mariano (given 7/15)
  
  
• Tues, 7/10: Short Talk 13: LeCarre's The Constant Gardener: The quest and landscapes: how is Africa a central character and how it is made to appear? with comparisons of how London, Italy, Germany, and Canada are made to appear and what they stand for. For this please use both the book and film (if you have it, you can quote from the shooting script): __________________________
  
  
• Thurs, 7/10: Short Talk 15: Drug Companies, Health, and American Culture (online course materials, Marcia Angell, "The Body Hunters" and "Your Dangerous Drugstore"): Tina de Mariano
  
  

Tues/Thurs, July 15th and 17th

• Tues, 7/15: Short 16: The Problem of Having to Practice and Lack of Unbiased Review Boards (Gawande's Complications, Part I, "Education of the Knife", "When Doctors Make Mistakes," and "When Good Doctors Go Bad): Alex Strube
  
  
• Tues, 7/15: Short Talk 17: What makes for a good doctor (Gawande's Complications, Part I, "The Computer and the Hernia Factory" and from (online course materials) Gawande's The Bell Curve: What happens when patients find out how good their doctors really are?": Christina Salina
  
  
• Tues, 7/15: The class watches 2/3s of the Nicols, Thompson, and Bosanquet film Wit.
  
  
• Thurs, 7/17: Short Talk 18: The real uncertainties of medicine (Gawande's Complications, from Part II, "The Pain Perplex","The Man Who Couldn't Stop Eating", and from Part 3, "The Final Cut"): Danny Weekes
  
  
• Thurs, 7/17: Short Talk 19: Conflict of interests: gravid (pregnant) women and the fetus, doctor's outlook and patient's understanding (Gawande's Complications, from Part II, "That Queasy Feeling," Part III, "Whose Body Is It, Anyway?", and (online course materials) Gawande's "The Score: How childbirth went industrial": Sheila Walker
  
  
• Thurs, 7/17: The class finishes watching Wit
  
  

Tues, July 22nd and 24th

• Tues, 7/22: Short talk 20: How we regard doctors and money and how this affects the way we treat aging people (Atul Gawande's (online materials) "Piecework: Medicine's Money Problem" "The Way We Age Now": Saman Berenji
  
  
• Tues, 7/22: Short Talk 21: The Neglect and Exploitation of Vivian Bearing (on the film and stageplay, Wit): __________________________