Short Talk and Film Schedule for Spring 2007: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Jan 22nd/24th/25th

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

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Feb 5th/7th/8th

• Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Kadejh Naebgadeh/Niroj Shrestha/Amin Tora
  
  
• 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"): Mehrab Erfani/Mobeen Vaid/____________
  
  
• 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): Matthew Thompson/Courtney Vinik/Binod Sharma
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Feb 12th/14th/15th

• 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: Cyrus Edjlali/_____________/Daniel Zook
  
  
• Short Talk 5: 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): Stephen Margrave/Arash Ebrahimi/Chris Suarez
  
  
• Short Talk 6: 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): John William Douglas/Harleen Kaur/Tom Cansanay
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Feb 19th/21st/22nd

• Short Talk 7: 17th Century Needs and Troubles (Chapters 1-4 of Sobel's Longitude): Xaing Li/Matthew Jones/Nazia Javed
  
  
• Short Talk 8: Solutions to the Problem and young John Harrison goes to London (Chs 5-8 of Sobel's Longitude): Lamees Assimidi/Maryam Arfang/U Hyon Son
  
  
• Short Talk 9: The Instruments and the Ordeal (Chs 9-11 of Sobel's Longitude): Kathryn Storck/Hossein Solimany/____________
  
  
• 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"): ________________/_____________/Myhank Do
  
  
• The class watches Peter Jones and David R. Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Feb 26th/28th/Mar 1st

• Short Talk 10: The politics and money to be made; intellectual property issues; and the story of Rupert Gould (Chs 12-15 of Sobel's Longitude): Gary Pearce/_____________/Amin Tora
  
  
• The class watches central scenes from Episode 3 of Charles Sturridge's Longitude
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Mar 19th/21st/22nd

• Everyone in the class watches the whole of Fernando Mereilles and Jeffrey Caine's film, The Constant Gardener on his or her own.
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Mar 26th/28th/29th

• Short Talk 11: Early history of modern people: from Olson, Mapping Human History, "The African Diaspora" and "Encounters with the Other" (Chs 3-4, pp. 54-89): Mark Sum/__________________/Mohamed Al-Fehaid
  
  
• Short Talk 12: Development of agriculture and anatomically modern people spread across the globe: from Olson, Mapping Human History, "Agriculture, Civilization and the Emergence of Ethnicity" and "The Great Migration" (Chs 5 & 7, pp. 90-105, 124-36): Jason Lloyd/Sarah Dangerfield/Theresa Le
  
  
• Short Talk 13: The importance of climate and geography and puzzling questions: from Olson, Mapping Human History, Who are the Europeans" and "The Settlement of the Americas" (Chs 9 & 11, pp. 158- 74, 194-207): Muhammad Farooq/Toni Green/Chris Leonard
  
  

Mon/Wed//Thurs, Apr 2nd/4th/5th

• Short Talk 14: The Complicated Politics of Tracing Our Real Histories: "Sprung from a Common Source," "The Burden of Knowledge," "The End of Race" (pp. 158-74, 207-238): Shawn Logan/Shana Bradley/Kevin Fentress
  
  
• I will review in class Marcia Angell's two online essays about the drug trade in the US and abroad: "The Body Hunters", "Your Dangerous Drugstore".
  
  
• The class watches Christopher Hale's In Search of the First Language
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Apr 9th/11th/12th

• Short Talk 15: Describe the characters of the different narrators of the story: Sandy Woodrow, Justin Quayle, Ghita Pearson, Tom Donahue, Gloria Woodrow, and the omniscient narrator (aka the author or LeCarre himself): Chandler Coleman/Web Bist/Mohamed Al-Fehaid
  
  
• Short Talk 16: Describe the effect of learning the story gradually from the police people's questioning and reports; from emails and records and documents and letters left by Tessa Quayle and Arnold Bluhm; from investigative reporting in conversations by Birgit, Lara Emrich and Dr Lorbeer and reports given (to Justin Quayle, the novel's prime reader): John William Douglas/Priyank Vira/Erik Morton
  
  
• Short Talk 17: The quest and landscapes: how is Africa a central character? with comparisons of how London, Italy, Germany, and Canada are made to appea (compare the landscapes in the book Quayle travels to): Kasia Trebska-McGowan/Gaurav Singh/Myhank Do
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Apr 16th/18th/19th

• Short Talk 18: Does Justin atone and recover his soul; or has he gone mad: the pessimistic ending and political inferences: Roy Follendore/Inchol Park/________________
  
  
• Short talk 19: On Atul Gawande's three online articles: Mistakes, Money, and Technology in Medicine "The Bell Curve: What happens when patients find out how good their doctors really are?", "Piecework: Medicine's Money Problem", "The Score: How childbirth went industrial": Ryan Kirk/Yash Thakkar/Emily Lawson
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Apr 23rd/25th/26th

• Short Talk 20: The doctor and patient's responsibilty (Ofri, Singular Intimacies, Prologue through Chapter 4, plus "Common Ground" online): Kadejh Naebgadeh/Derek Satz/Marleah Amos
  
  
• The class watches as much of Mike Nichols' film, Wit as we can.
  
  

Mon/Wed/Thurs, Apr 30/May 2nd/3rd

• The class finishes watching the film, Wit.
  
  
• Short Talk 21: When Technical Knowledge doesn't help: from Ofri's Singular Intimacies, Chs 5-9, pp. 70-129 ("July 1st" through "In Charge"): Jason Lloyd/Carrie Thomas/Mary Cantu
  
  :
• Short Talk 22, Chs 10-13, pp. 138-207: Tortured patients and doctors, Chs 10-14 ("Immunity" through "M&M"): Mehrab Erfani/Marie Diamond/Rose Armoo
  
  
• Short talk 23: The Neglect of Vivian Bearing (from both Mike Nicols' film and Margaret Edson's stage play, Wit): Eugene Kim/Susie Mueller/____________