Short Talk and Film Schedule for Summer 2004: Advanced Writing: On the Natural Sciences and Technology

• English 302:BN2: Tues/Thurs, 7:20 - 10:00 pm, Robinson A101

On Feynman, SYJ & WDYC:

Tues, June 8th

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

Tues, June 15th

• Short Talk 1: RFeynman, boy and young man: The Qualities that Make up the Good Scientist (SYJ, Parts 1 & 2, WDYC, Chapter 1): Erica Butler
  
• 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" and WDYC Part 1): Rebecca Wynn
  
• Short Talk 3: RFeynman's Definition of a Good Experiment (from "A Map of the Cat", "A Different Box Of Tools" "The Amateur Scientist" from SJY and "It's as Simple as One, Two Three" from WDYC): __________________________
  

Thurs, June 17th

• Short Talk 4: RFeynman's ideas on what is real scientific learning: what ought to go on in a classroom, be in a book &c ("O Americano Outre Vez" and "Judging Books by Their Covers" in SYJ and relevant Letters in WDYC, Letters): Rebecca Lee
  
• Short Talk 5: RFeynman's Adventures in Art, Music and Anthropology ("But Is It Art?"; "O Americano Outra Vez!," "Bringing Culture to the Physicists", "Found Out in Paris" in SYJ, and relevant "Letters" in WDYC): Angel Wu
  

Tues, June 22nd

• Short Talk 6: 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): Mike Iriarte
  
• Short Talk 7: Mr Feynman Goes to Washington: Why some NASA officials are driven to delude themselves and mislead the public about the safety, cost and usefulness of shuttle flights ("Mr Feynman Goes to Washington" and "Appendix F" in WDYC): Fernando Dietrich
  
• Short Talk 8: A World of Pseudo- and Corrupt Science as Opposed to True Science: "Cargo Cult Learning" in SYJ and "The Value of Science" in WDYC: Lawrence Weiner
  

Thurs, June 24th

• The class watches Peter Jones and David R. Axelrod's Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude.

Tues, June 29th

• The class watches Christopher Hale's In Search of the First Language.

On Olson, Gawande, Stolberg and films

Tues, July 6th

• Short Talk 9: On the film, Lost at Sea: On the Search for Longitude and the Politics of Science: Maytham Mohsseni
  
• Short Talk 10: Olson: "The Human Pageant" and "The End of Evolution" (pp. 1-31): Jay Kim
  
• Short Talk 11: Olson: "Individuals and Groups" and "The African Diaspora" (pp. 32-69): Maya Witten
  

Thurs, July 8th

• Short Talk 11a: Olson: "Encounters with the Other" and "Agriculture, Civilization and the Emergence of Ethnicity" (pp. 73-105): Ann Fodrey
  
• Short Talk 12: Gawande: "The Education of the Knife" and "The Computer and the Hernia Factory" (pp. 11-47): Larry Marca
  
• Short Talk 13: Gawande, "When Doctors Make Mistakes" and "Nine Thousand Surgeons" (pp. 47-87): Omer Mian
  
• Short Talk 14: Gawande, "When Good Doctors Go Bad" (pp. 88-106) and Sheryl Gay Stolberg's "The Biotech Death of Jesse Gelsinger" (xerox article, from New York Times Magazine): Sumera Ijaz
  

Tues, July 13th

• Short Talk 14a: Olson: "The Great Migration and "Who are the Europeans" (pp. 123-36, 157-74): Tori Rutherford
  
• Short Talk 15: On the film, In Search of a First Language and Olson, "Sprung from a Common Source" (pp. 137-54): Rocio Caballero
  
• The class will watch first hour of Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson's film, Wit.

Thurs, July 15th

• Short talk 16: Olson: "Settlement of the Americas" and "The Burden of Knowledge" (pp. 193-220): Joseph Quansah
  
• Short Talk 17: Olson: "Immigration and the Future of Europe" and "The end of Race" (pp. 175-90 and pp. 223-38): Amandeep Singh
  
• Short Talk 18: Gawande: "Full Moon Friday the Thirteenth" (pp. 109-114) and "The Cancer-Cluster Myth" (xerox from New Yorker): Johnny Tiet
  
• The class finishes watching Wit (40 more minutes).

Tues, July 20th

• Short Talk 19: Gawande: "The Pain Perplex" and "A Queasy Feeling" (pp. 115-45): Kristen McCauley
  
• Short Talk 20: Gawande: "The Crimson Tide" and "The Man Who Couldn't Stop Eating" (pp. 146-83): Anna Gamble
  
• Short Talk 21: Gawande: ""Final Cut" and "The Dead Baby Mystery" (pp. 187-207): Monica Gee
  

Thurs, July 22nd

• Short Talk 22: "Whose Body It is, Anyway" and "The Case of the Red Leg" (pp. 208-52): Kirill Sukhorukov
  
• Short Talk 23: The Mistreatment of Vivian Bearing (or Abuses of Technology) emphasizing Mike Nichols' film, Wit: Muktar Mohammed
  
• Short Talk 24: Medical Machismo: Male versus Female Roles emphasizing the screenplay, Margaret Edson's Wit: Jacqueline Njoya