Modern Science Writing

Modern Science Writing & Journalism

Objective:

1.Students must be familiarized with  the area of modern science writing.

2.To hold discussions with students on great entrepreneurial and engineering ventures that have used science.

3.To explore frontier areas in science and technology and to evoke unresolved problems in these areas.

4.Students are taught to write interesting science features of their won.

L    T          P                                                                      I.A./Practical: 25 Marks

3    0          0                                                                      Theory: 75 Marks

Time Allowed: 3 Hours                                                     Max. Marks: 100

Unit-1: Science Journalism: Introduction; aim and objective of science journalism; ethics of science journalism;  popularizing science and technology, inculcating scientific temper: truth, relativity, end of grand narratives, encouraging scientific outlook; Philosophical background: positivism, rationalism, binary opposition, scientific method and approach, impact on literature and literary criticism of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Einsteins’s theory of relativity; public awareness campaigns.

Unit-2:Modern Science writing & Popular science :science fiction versus futurism; Gedanken experiments/thought-experiments; value of uncertainty and paradox; Use of analogies and parallels;structure of a scientific essay; hypothesis-evidence-thesis; from essay to feature; learning discussing state-of-the-art; fantasy; Biographies of eminent scientists.

Unit-3: Frontiers of Science: science in news; ideas adopted for practical use; entrepreneurial skills with scientific ideas; Entrepreneur’s stories that made use of science; World War I and II and development of science &technology;Frontiers of Science; Breakthrough technologies; great debates raging in science.

Unit 4: Neologisms and Advanced vocabulary-builder: Neologisms; Popular science; Jargon and avoiding jargon; Blackholes, Higgs-Boson; Quarks; Anti-matter, Quasars, DNA; Mutations, Hybrids, BT seeds, cyborgs, cybernetics; humanoids;  Bitcoins, Reverse Engineering,  Robotics &AI; IPR& Patents.

Outcome:

1. Students understand objective and aim of science journalism

2. Students are conversant with great entrepreneurial ventures that have used science.

3.The students are conversant with lives and ground-breaking works of eminent scientists .

4.Students are able to write science features of their own.   

References:

Angler, Martin W. Science Journalism: An Introduction. Routledge 2017

Hayden,Thomas.The Science Writers' Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish, and Prosper in the Digital Age Paperback

Blum, Deborah (Editor), Mary Knudson (Editor), Robin Marantz Henig (Editor) A Field Guide for Science Writers: The Official Guide of the National Association of Science Writers 2nd Edition. 

Skloot Rebecca (Editor) andTim Folger (Editor).The Best American Science and Nature Writing2015  ed. Edition

Carol L. Rogers, Sharon M. Friedman(1999). Communicating Uncertainty: Media Coverage of New and Controversial Science

Martin W. Bauer and MassimianoBucchi .Journalism, Science and Society Science Communication between News and Public Relations . Routledge: NY and London

Sharon Dunwoody, Carol L. Rogers, Sharon M. Friedman Scientists and Journalists: Reporting Science as News : American Association for the Advancement of Science.(December 1988)

Richard Dawkins . The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (Oxford Landmark Science) Paperback – 21 Oct 2009. Oxford; Reprint edition (21 October 2009)

Dorothy Nelkin .Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology (Revised) Revised Edition. Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company; Revised edition (February 1995)

Michael Alley  (Author)The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid Paperback – 30 Apr 2013

Carl Sagan Cosmos: The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation11 August 1983. Little, Brown Book Group; Latest Edition edition (11 August 1983)

Recommended:

Carl Sagan.TheDragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence Mass Market Paperback – 12 Dec 1986RHUS; Reprint edition (12 December 1986) ISBN-10: 0345346297

Stephen Hawking.A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes. Bantam; Latest Edition edition (1 April 1995)

Richard Dawkins: River Out of Eden (Science Masters) Paperback. Orion Publishing Group (29 April 2015)

Richard Dawkins .An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist Paperback. Bantam Press (7 October 2013)

Richard Dawkins. The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True.  RHUK

, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ (text of 1834) –Part-I and Part-II by Samuel Coleridge

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Argument

How a Ship having passed the Line was driven by storms to the cold Country towards the South Pole; and how from thence she made her course to the tropical Latitude of the Great Pacific Ocean; and of the strange things that befell; and in what manner the Ancyent Marinere came back to his own Country.

PART I 

It is an ancient Mariner, 

And he stoppeth one of three. 

'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye, 

Now wherefore stopp'st thou me? 

The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, 

And I am next of kin; 

The guests are met, the feast is set: 

May'st hear the merry din.' 

He holds him with his skinny hand, 

'There was a ship,' quoth he. 

'Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!' 

Eftsoons his hand dropt he. 

He holds him with his glittering eye— 

The Wedding-Guest stood still, 

And listens like a three years' child: 

The Mariner hath his will. 

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone: 

He cannot choose but hear; 

And thus spake on that ancient man, 

The bright-eyed Mariner. 

'The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared, 

Merrily did we drop 

Below the kirk, below the hill, 

Below the lighthouse top. 

The Sun came up upon the left, 

Out of the sea came he! 

And he shone bright, and on the right 

Went down into the sea. 

Higher and higher every day, 

Till over the mast at noon—' 

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, 

For he heard the loud bassoon. 

The bride hath paced into the hall, 

Red as a rose is she; 

Nodding their heads before her goes 

The merry minstrelsy. 

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast, 

Yet he cannot choose but hear; 

And thus spake on that ancient man, 

The bright-eyed Mariner. 

And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he 

Was tyrannous and strong: 

He struck with his o'ertaking wings, 

And chased us south along. 

With sloping masts and dipping prow, 

As who pursued with yell and blow 

Still treads the shadow of his foe, 

And forward bends his head, 

The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, 

And southward aye we fled. 

And now there came both mist and snow, 

And it grew wondrous cold: 

And ice, mast-high, came floating by, 

As green as emerald. 

And through the drifts the snowy clifts 

Did send a dismal sheen: 

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken— 

The ice was all between. 

The ice was here, the ice was there, 

The ice was all around: 

It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, 

Like noises in a swound! 

At length did cross an Albatross, 

Thorough the fog it came; 

As if it had been a Christian soul, 

We hailed it in God's name. 

It ate the food it ne'er had eat, 

And round and round it flew. 

The ice did split with a thunder-fit; 

The helmsman steered us through! 

And a good south wind sprung up behind; 

The Albatross did follow, 

And every day, for food or play, 

Came to the mariner's hollo! 

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, 

It perched for vespers nine; 

Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, 

Glimmered the white Moon-shine.' 

'God save thee, ancient Mariner! 

From the fiends, that plague thee thus!— 

Why look'st thou so?'—With my cross-bow 

I shot the ALBATROSS. 

PART II 

The Sun now rose upon the right: 

Out of the sea came he, 

Still hid in mist, and on the left 

Went down into the sea. 

And the good south wind still blew behind, 

But no sweet bird did follow, 

Nor any day for food or play 

Came to the mariner's hollo! 

And I had done a hellish thing, 

And it would work 'em woe: 

For all averred, I had killed the bird 

That made the breeze to blow. 

Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, 

That made the breeze to blow! 

Nor dim nor red, like God's own head, 

The glorious Sun uprist: 

Then all averred, I had killed the bird 

That brought the fog and mist. 

'Twas right, said they, such birds to slay, 

That bring the fog and mist. 

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, 

The furrow followed free; 

We were the first that ever burst 

Into that silent sea. 

Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 

'Twas sad as sad could be; 

And we did speak only to break 

The silence of the sea! 

All in a hot and copper sky, 

The bloody Sun, at noon, 

Right up above the mast did stand, 

No bigger than the Moon. 

Day after day, day after day, 

We stuck, nor breath nor motion; 

As idle as a painted ship 

Upon a painted ocean. 

Water, water, every where, 

And all the boards did shrink; 

Water, water, every where, 

Nor any drop to drink. 

The very deep did rot: O Christ! 

That ever this should be! 

Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs 

Upon the slimy sea. 

About, about, in reel and rout 

The death-fires danced at night; 

The water, like a witch's oils, 

Burnt green, and blue and white. 

And some in dreams assurèd were 

Of the Spirit that plagued us so; 

Nine fathom deep he had followed us 

From the land of mist and snow. 

And every tongue, through utter drought, 

Was withered at the root; 

We could not speak, no more than if 

We had been choked with soot. 

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks 

Had I from old and young! 

Instead of the cross, the Albatross 

About my neck was hung. 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43997/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-text-of-1834

‘Ozymandias’ by PB Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land, 

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 

And on the pedestal, these words appear: 

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Source: Shelley’s Poetry and Prose (1977)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias

The Rainbow by William Wordsworth. 1770–1850

William Wordsworth(1770–1850)

The Rainbow

MY heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,	5
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.