Short Talk and Film Schedule for Fall 2005: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

Tues/Thurs, Aug 30th/Sept 1st

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

Tues/Thurs, Sept 13th/15th

• Tues, 9/13: Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Robert Misleh/Michael Gagnon
  
  
• Tues, 9/13: 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"): Doran Cavett/___________________________
  
  
• Thurs, 9/15: 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): Alexandr Gumbar/Steven Mouring
  
  
• Thurs, 9/15: 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): Michael Chatman/Tabinda Ashfaq-Kanwal
  
  

Tues/Thurs, Sept 20th/22nd

• Tues, 9/20: Short Talk 5: Exploitation and Casualties in Science (From Best Science Writing Brendon I. Koerner's "Disorders Made to Order," pp. 194-203, Joseph D'Agnese's "An Embarrassment of Chimpanzees", pp. 204-212): Eunice Scott/Laura German
  
  
• Thurs, 9/22: 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): Amanda Turner/Demestrios Bursenos
  
  

Tues/Thurs, Sept 27th/29th

• Tues, 9/27: 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): Bryan Myrick/Jonny (Steven) Perez
  
  
• Tues, 9/27: 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:" Joe Hix/Zachary Martin
  
  
• Thurs, 9/29: The class watches Peter Jones and David R. Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.

Thurs/Tues, Oct 13th/18th

• Thurs, 10/13: Short Talk 9: Olson: "The End of Evolution" and "Individuals and Groups" (pp. 11-53): Rio Patel/Julieanna Deluce
  
  
• Tues, 10/18: Short Talk 10: Olson: "The African Diaspora" and "Encounters with the Other" (pp. 53-89): Rachel Dripps/Alicia Vipperman
  
  
• Tues, 10/18: Short Talk 11: Olson: "Agriculture, Civilization and the Emergence of Ethnicity" and "The Great Migration" (pp. 90-105, 124-36): Mary Washington/Patrick Mackinnon
  
  

Thurs/Tues Oct 20th/25th

• Thurs, 10/20: Short Talk 12: Imagination and Ethics in Archealogy: Wallace's "Romancing Stones" and "Unearthing Bodies" (pp. 27-77): Matthew Cipriani/Nurten Abdul-Rahim
  
  
• Thurs, 10/120: Short Talk 13: "Creatures and Their Earth" from Best Science Writing: Peter Canby, "The Forest Primeval" (pp. 1-26) and Michelle Nijhuis, "Shadow Creatures" (pp. 123-31): Nouri Hacene-Djaballah/_________________________
  
  
• Tues, 10/25: Short Talk 14: 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): Ryan Wilharm/________________________
  
  
• Tues, 10/25: The class watches Hale's In Search of the First Language

Thurs/Tues, Oct 27th/Nov 1st

• Thurs, 10/27: Short Talk 15: The Unity and History of Languages: On the film, In Search of a First Language and Olson, "Sprung from a Common Source" (pp. 137-54): Bobby Lobo/Toan Vu
  
  
• Thurs, 10/27: Short talk 16: Who are the Europeans" and "The Settlement of the Americas" (pp. 158-74, 194-207): Kevin Fahrendorff/___________________________
  
  
• Tues, 11/1: Short talk 17: Pompeii and Troy: Wallace's "Fulfilling Desires" and "Fundamentalism" (pp. 79-128): Jason Youngblood/Matthew Haun
  
  
• Tues, 11/1: Short Talk 18: The Politics of Knowledge: Olson's "The Burden of Knowledge" and (from Best Science Writing), Mann's "1491:" Bobby Lobo/____________________________
  
  

Thurs/Tues, Nov 3rd/8th

• Thurs, 11/3: Short talk 19: Ethical Difficulties in Medical Science: from Best Science Writing, Gawande's "The Learning Curve" and Mundy's "A World of Their Own" (pp. 68-87): Carolyn Casey/Lien Nguyen
  
  
• Tues, 11/8: Short Talk 20: Archeaology and Knowledge: Wallace's "Rock Bottom" and "Trashing Our Future" (pp. 129-50, 179-204): _________________________________/Robert Bennington
  
  

Thurs/Tues, Nov 10th/15th

• The class watches Mike Nichols's film, Wit

Thurs/Tues, Nov 17th/22nd

• Thurs, 11/17: Short talk 21: Ethnicity, Class and Status in medicine: from Ofri, "Possessing Her Words", "AA Battery," "Change of Heart" (pp. 1-4, 17-32, 53-70): Ivy Larios/Ava Neil
  
  
• Thurs, 11/17: Short talk 22: When Knowledge Doesn't Help: from Ofri, "The Professor of Denial," "The Burden of Knowledge," "Immunity" (pp. 89-112, 138-60): Mary Washington/Pasha (Amir) Belat
  
  
• Tues, 11/22: Short talk 23: The Abuse of Vivian Bearing: from the film and screenplay: Kathy Psihas/Erin Winkler
  
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Tues/Thurs, Nov 29th/Dec 1st

• Tues, 11/29: Short Talk 24: What is the Doctor's responsibility towards the patient and patient's towards the doctor?: from Best Science Writing, Ofri's "Common Ground," and from Singular Intimacies, "July 1st," "In Charge" (pp. 213-21, 71-88, 113-29): Aileen Aponte/Megan Noss
  
  
• Thurs, 12/1: Short Talk 25: Theories Matter: Ofri's Singular Intimacies, "Merced," Ch 15, pp. 222-23; from Sacks's Best Science Writing, Ronald Hoffman's "Why Buy That Theory" (pp. 222-27) Nour Al-Ghafari/Nurten Abdul-Rahim
  
  

Tues/Thurs, Dec 6th/8th

• Tues, 12/6: Short talk 26: When Doctors Make Mistakes: Ofri's Singular Intimacies, "M&M" and "Intensive Care" (pp. 188-221): Amenda Kong/Hiba Aziz
  
  
• Tues, 12/6: Short Talk 27: 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): _____________________________/Sheena Villagomez
  
  
• Tues, 12/6: Each member of the class reports his or her progress on Essay #3.
  
  
• Thurs, 12/8: Continuation of Progress reports.