Ellen Moody's Teaching: Addendum to Syllabus for Fall 2004: 302 Advanced Writing on the Natural Sciences and Technology, N13

English 302:N13: Monday, 7:20-10:00 pm, Robinson A101
Dr Ellen Moody

Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Jennifer Traylor
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"): ________________________
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). WDYC Part 1): Bill Gould

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): Gavin Mead
Short Talk 5: Exploitation and Casualties in Science (From Best Science Writing Brendon I. Koerner's "Disorders Made to Order," pp. 194-203, Jospeh D'Agnese's "An Embarrassment of Chimpanzees", pp. 204-212): Josh Barlas
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): Hassana Durham

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): Aakshi Sehdave
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": Patrick Daderko
The class watches Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.

Short Talk 9: Olson: "The Human Pageant" and "The End of Evolution" (pp. 1-31); Short Talk 10: Olson: "Individuals and Groups" and "The African Diaspora" (pp. 32-69): Sami Omer
Short Talk 11: Olson: "Encounters with the Other" and "Agriculture, Civilization and the Emergence of Ethnicity" (pp. 73-105): Mia Burke
Short Talk 12: "Creatures and Their Earth" (from Best Science Writing Peter Canby, "The Forest Primeval" (pp. 1-26) and Michelle Nijhuis, "Shadow Creatures" (pp. 123-31): Tsuyoshi Tsuda

Short Talk 13: Olson: "The Great Migration and "Who are the Europeans" (pp. 123-36, 157-74): Chris Barber
Short Talk 14: On the film, In Search of a First Language and Olson, "Sprung from a Common Source" (pp. 137-54): ___________________________________
Short talk 15: Olson: "Settlement of the Americas" and "The Burden of Knowledge" (pp. 193-220): Lino Cassimo
Short Talk 16: 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): Nelson Paredes

Short Talk 17: Olson: "Immigration and the Future of Europe" and "The end of Race" (pp. 175-90 and pp. 223-38): Harmony Brown
Short Talk 18: 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): David Creeden
The class watches In Search of a First Language

Short Talk 17a: The Origin of Konner's Journey, His Thesis and First Encounters: Melvin Konner's Becoming a Doctor: Preface, Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2: Umarah Uiftikha
Short Talk 18a: The Trenches (Chapters 3-5: "Emergency Ward Surgery," "Anesthesiology: The Technicians of Sleep" and "Ward Surgery:" _____________________________
Short Talk 19a: What is the Doctor's Responsibility to the Patient? (from Best Science Writing Atul Gawande, "The Learning Curve," pp. 49-67 and Danielle Ofri, "Common Ground," pp. 213- 222): Karina Vera-Lopez
The class may watch an excerpt from David Attenborough's 1979 Life on Earth: A Natural History.

Short Talk 20: The Problems in Treating Mental Illness (Chapters 6-7: "Neurosurgery and Neurology" and "Psychiatry"): Chazity Johnson
Short Talk 21: How Women's Health is Treated (Chapters 9-10: "Obstetrics" and "Gynecology"): Diane Chung
The class watches two-third of Mike Nichols' and Emma Thompson's film adaptation of Margaret Edson's play, Wit.

Short Talk 22: The Difficulty of Judgement (from Best Science Writing Liza Mundy, "A World of Their Own," pp. 68- 87, Floyd Skloot, "The Melody Lingers On," pp. 88-95): Junghye Choe
: Short Talk 23: Death and the Overuse of Technologies (Chapters 11-12: "Pathologies" and "Medicine I: A Failure of the Heart"): Tayo Lawore
We finish seeing Nichols' and Thompson's Wit.

Short Talk 24: Why Doctors are Distrusted and a Failure of Common Sense: (Chapters 13- 14: Medicine II and III: "Deathwatches and "Healing and Hope"): _____________________________
Short Talk 25: Optimism and Synthesis (Chapters 15- 16: "Fourth Year: Highlights and Heroes" and "Conclusion"): _______________________________
Short Talk 26: The Mistreatment of Vivien Bearing (from Wit): ________________________

Home
Contact Ellen Moody.
Pagemaster: Jim Moody.
Page Last Updated 19 September 2004