Short Talk, Film, Essay, Midterm Schedule for Spring 2009: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

• English 302N15 (Tues, 7:20 - 10:00 pm, Enterprize 174)

Tues, Feb 3rd

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

Tues, Feb 17th

• Proposal for Essay #1 is due.
• Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Lorgio (Jose) Borda
• 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"): Christopher Byers
• 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): Larry Onifade

Tues, Feb 24th

• Short Talk 4: RFeynman's Adventures in Areas Outside Physics: Biology, 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): Sergio Starikov
• 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): Mark Hildreth
• Short Talk 6: 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): Zain Malik

Tues, Mar 3rd

• Essay #1 is due.
• 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): Robinson Dalge
• Short Talk 8: 17th & 18th Century Needs and Troubles at sea (Chapters 1-4 of Sobel's Longitude): Travis Hile
• Short Talk 9: Harrison's and others solution to the problem; the prize and Harrison's first encounters in London & sea voyage (Chs 5-8 of Sobel's Longitude): William (Bobby) Taylor
• The class watches altogether 60 minutes of Roberts, Sturridge, & Sobel's film, Longitude.

Tues, Mar 17th

• Short Talk 10: John Harrison's many inventions and the struggle with Nevil Maskelyne (Chs 9-11 of Sobel's Longitude): Collin Empting
• Short Talk 11: The abuse of John Harrison, Cook & mass production, and the story of Rupert Gould (Chs 12-15 of Sobel's Longitude): ____________________________

Tues, Mar 24th

• Proposal for Essay #2 is due.
• In class midterm.

Tues, Mar 31st

• Short Talk 13: Cooling the Lava: "how things that happen alter the shape of succeeding events" from McPhee's The Control of Nature): Sabil Mehra
• Short Talk 14: Los Angeles Against the Mountains ("Cultural Aspirations of those with Money and the Natural Environment" from McPhee's The Control of Nature): Chris Rogers
• Short Talk 15: Drug Companies, Health, and American Culture (online course materials, Marcia Angell, "The Body Hunters" and "Your Dangerous Drugstore"): Kim Nguyen

Tues, Apr 7th

• Short Talk 16: 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: Alice (Alissa) Hall
• Short Talk 17: 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: Radeo Podar

Tues, Apr 14th

• Essay #2 is due.
• Short Talk 18: LeCarre's The Constant Gardener: The themes of betrayal, regret and loss, and people's experience of the business world in the novel: ____________________________
• Short Talk 19: A system gone rotten (online course materials, Marcia Angell, Angel "Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption", New York Review of Books, 56:1(January 15, 2009); Bok, Derek. "Academic Values and the Lure of Profit", Chronicle of Higher Education, 49:30 (4 April 2003): B7-9: Katie Gilmer

Tues, Apr 21st

• Short Talk 20: The Problem of Having to Practice and Lack of Unbiased Review Boards (Complications, Part I, "Education of the Knife," "When Doctors Makes Mistakes," "When Good Doctors Go Bad" from Gawande's Complications): Jacqueline (Jackie) Soriano
• Short Talk 21: What makes for a good doctor (Complications, Part I, "The Computer and the Hernia Factory" and (online materials), The Bell Curve: What happens when patients find out how good their doctors really are?" and "The Score: How childbirth went industrial"): Khuong Nguyen

Tues, Apr 28th

• Short Talk 22: The money obstacle ("Piecework: Medicine's Money Problem", "Sick and Twisted", "The Way We Age Now"): Khair Zakhour
• The class watches Mike Nichols, Bosanquet and Thompson's film, Wit

Tues, May 5th

• Proposal for Essay #3 is due.
• Short Talk 23: 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"): ____________________________
• Short Talk 24: The Neglect of Vivian Bearing and who should decide what is done (from the film, Wit, and Gawande's chapter from Complications, Part 3, "Whose Body Is It, Anyway?"): ____________________________

Tues, May 12th

• Esssay #3 is due; the class takes the final this day too.