Short TalkSchedule, Fall 2011

• 302N11 (T/R,9-10:15am, East 134);N12 (T/R,10:30-11:45 am, Kruge 210);N15 (T/R,12-1:15 pm Kruge 205)
  

9/13 & 9/15

• 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): ________________________________/Kevin Perro
• 9/13: 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"): __________/Ian Barfield/___________________
• 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): ______________________________________/Terence Dang
• 9/15 Short Talk 4: RFeynman's Adventures in Areas Outside Physics: Biology, Psychology (Investigations into the workings of his mind), 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): ___________________/Alex Marr/Joseph Patterson

9/20 & 9/22

• 9/20: Short Talk 5: Mr Feynman Goes to Washington: Why some NASA Shuttle officials are driven to delude themselves and mislead the public ("Mr Feynman Goes to Washington" and "Appendix F" in WDYC, pp. 113-227): Brian Hall/Chris Mazullo/Zach Pignaloso
• 9/20: 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): Megan Greenwood/Steven McWhite/Don Ma
• 9/22: Short talk 7: The value of "holistic" study: allowing onself to "relinquish control" and study animals in their own habitats (Walking with Great Apes, Chapters 1-3): Stania Shaw/Kara Curtain/Chelsea Whiddon

9/27 & 9/29

• 9/27: Short Talk 8: From Walking with Great Apes: How Louis Leakey came to select these women; Joan Goodall's work as a defense of the "individual" and subjective humane approach to science observation on Mongomery (Walking with Apes, Chs 4-5): ___________/Daniel Hong/________________________
• 9/29: Short Talk 9: How Dian Fossey and Birute Gildakas had to defy the norms of several societies (western, academic, African) to do good work as scientists ("The Sacrifice of Nyiramachabelli and A Study in Patience") Chapters 6 and 7): Shakia Mason/Brian Fuentes/_________________________

10/4 & 10/6

• 10/4: Short talk 10: The different ways Goodall and Fosse extended their science into protecting and valuing their animals in the local and across western populations ("Crusader," "Sorceress" and "Diplomat", Chapters 8 and 9): Brianna Quimby/Emily Lambach/______________________________
• 10/6: Short Talk 11: Gildikas's remarkable success and Montgomery's argument that all three women have become (or became) shamans ("Diplomat" and "Shamans," Chapter 10, Epilogue): __________________________________________________________

10/18 & 10/20

• 10/18: Short Talk 12: Olson's Mapping Human History: Discuss the use of genetic studies in "The End of Evolution" and "Individuals and Groups" (pp. 11-53): Mikey Chanchu/Steven McWhite/Hirsham AzAldeen
• 10/18: Short Talk 13: Early history of modern people: from Olson, Mapping Human History, "The African Diaspora" and "Encounters with the Other" (Chs 3-4, pp. 54-89): Ladipo Oluwole/Rachel Allani/Angela Stewart
• 10/20: Short Talk 14: 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): Brandon Smith/Bryan Zalaskus/Writesh Maulik

10/25 & 10/27

• 10/27: Short talk 15: 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): Kevin Judson/______________________________/Dan Coleman
• 10/27: Short Talk 16: How studying language patterns and history reflects the same story we find archealogy and genetics tell us; the identity politics of studying languages (from Olson's "Spring from a Common Source," Ch 8, pp. 138-54, and the film, "In Search of the First Language"): Amna Tehreen/Jonathan Bannick/Nate Campbell

11/1 & 11/3

• 11/1: Short Talk 17: The Complicated politics of tracing our real history (Olson, Mapping Human History, Chs 6,8, 12-13): Arsenie Jurgenson/Edward Donaldson/Adam Irvine

11/8 & 11/10

• 11/8: Short Talk 18: Systems gone rotten: based on Angell's "The Body Hunters" and "Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption": __________________________________________________________
• 11/8: Short Talk 19: LeCarre's The Constant Gardener: Analyze the characterization of Le Carre/Caine characters and explain how these characterizations enable LeCarre and Cain to expose truths about the way drug companies behave and testing is done in order to project the film's theme (s): Megan Greenwood/Logan Lofgen/Wiswa Pinit
• 11/10: Short talk 20: How does what happens in the story of The Constant Gardener conveys the film's moral and political message. Do not just retell the story; show how the story exemplifies the film's message (you can use what the directors and film-makers say in the features as well as the essays in the shooting script): ______________/Tasman Hossain/Adam Irvine
• 11/10: Short Talk 21: 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: __________________/Chris Mazzullo/Lula Ghidey

11/15 & 11/17

• 11/15: Short Talk 22: The Problem of Having to Practice on Patients, Lack of Unbiased Supervision (Complications, "Introduction: and Part I, "Education of the Knife," "When Doctors Makes Mistakes", "When Good Doctors Go Bad" (from Gawande's Complications, pp. 11-35, 47-106): Muhammed Mansoor/Jessica Cooper/Eric Robinson
• 11/15: Short Talk 23: The problem of uncertainty and how social pressure deforms what patients want (Complications, Part 2; "The Pain Perplex," "Crimson Tide," "The Man Who couldn't Stop Eating," and online: "Childbirth goes industrial"): Amna Tehreen/Darren Green/Sarah Ramsey
• 11/17: Short Talk 24: American medicine: The present situation, values and the history of how the doctor came to be an independent businessman (Money Driven Medicine: The Preface and "The Road to Corporate Medicine" [Chapter 1]): Muhammed Manson/Daniel Hong/Regina Hechinger
• 11/17: Short Talk 25: How and why competition does not improve, but makes health care for individual worse (Money-Driven: "Cost of Competition" and the "For Profit Hospital" [Chapters 2 and 3]): Samantha Hansen/Veronica Artige Guandique/Tyler Clark

11/29 & 12/1

• 11/29: Short Talk 26: How uncontrolled profit motive deforms what happens (Money-Driven: "Not For Profit Hospitals" and "When More Care Is not Better Care"):Benjamin Chieu/Ciara Johnson/Writesh Maulik
• 11/29: Short Talk 27: The Obstacles for coping with Death (on what we see of Near Death and from Complications:" "Whose body is It Anyway?"): Kelsey Seate/Dania Shahzad/Wiswa Pinit
• 12/1: Short Talk 28: How we treat our vulnerable and aging (Money Driven Medicine: "Too Little, Too Late" and online, Gawande, "The Way We Age Now"): Marc Espos/Faisan Ahmed/Don Ma
• 12/1: Short Talk 29: How not to improve and/or how to improve American health care (Money Driven Medicine: "Doing It Less and Doing It Right" and Gawande's "Bell Curve"): __________/Darren Green/Naseem Khayat

12/6 & 12/8

• 12/6: Short talk 30: The feeble FDA: drugs, devices, uncertainty (Money-Driven Medicine: "Device Makes, Drugmakers and the FDA," Complications, Part 3, "Final Cut"): _____________/Rachel Allani/Chris Swift