390 likes | 482 Vues
Reporting Science. Thomas Abraham. http:// www.pewresearch.org /quiz/science-knowledge/. Asking the big questions…. Where do we live?. Composite image of middle of our galaxy from Hubble , Spitzer telescopes and Chandra X ray observatory www.hubblesite.org.
E N D
Reporting Science Thomas Abraham
Asking the big questions… Where do we live? Composite image of middle of our galaxy from Hubble , Spitzer telescopes and Chandra X ray observatory www.hubblesite.org
Where are we going? Are we alone? Image from the Hubble telescope: www.hubblesite.org
Where will we live? Santa Maria Crater, Mars. Photo taken by Nasa’s Mars exploration vehicle. Dec, 2010
A Hawkings’ eye view of humanity • “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/tech-tycoons-asteroid-mining-venturehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/apr/24/tech-tycoons-asteroid-mining-venture
The first day of creation began on the night preceding October 23, 4004 BC James Ussher, Bishop of Armagh, Ireland. 1581-1656
What was actually happening between 4000-5000BC? • Human beings learned to grow crops and settled down in settled communities • Rice began to be cultivated in China • The wheel was developed in India • Humans had learned to brew beer http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/creationist-congress-early-earth_n_2234540.html
It was assumed that all species were created in one instant… Archeopetryx fossil
Evolution through natural selection Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Where did life come from? • Supernatural origins? • Extraterrestrial origins? • Some sort of process whereby the basic chemicals present in the primitive earth became self replicating, evolving systems? • http://www.scifac.hku.hk/kwok/
Genetics and re-engineering humans? http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/craig_venter_unveils_synthetic_life.html
Science is about fundamental human questions • Who we are • What we are becoming • Where we are going • Good science writing needs to connect to these broader themes
Some of the things we are going to look at during the course • Climate Change • Artificial intelligence • Nano technology
Reporting Science-the mainstream media • http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html • http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/ • http://www.guardian.co.uk/science • http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science_and_environment/
Scientists who blog • http://scienceblogs.com/ • http://www.virology.ws/
News sections of scientific journals • http://www.sciencemag.org/ • http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html
Popular science magazines • http://discovermagazine.com/ • http://www.scientificamerican.com/ • http://www.newscientist.com/ • http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
A new wave of science journalism • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/science/ • http://www.wired.com/ • http://www.joncohen.org/Jon_Cohen/Bio.html • http://flavors.me/edyong#
Science and development • http://www.scidev.net/en/
About science writing • Good stories need to connect to broader themes • Explain the science • What theories are being tested? What are the prevailing theories? • What experiments are being used to test the theory? • To do this, you need to understand some of the science
Course work • One feature length science story ( 1,500-2,000 words) on the work of a scientist in Hong Kong ? • Every class, each one of you will talk about the latest stories in one of the following: Nature, Science, Discover, Scientific American, New Scientist, Wired, Huffington Post • Write a paragraph or two,and I will post it on our blog • Read MichioKakubook
Your feature • It should be interesting. I should want to read it…. • Good stories need human beings, doing things, saying things, thinking things • Scientific concepts are abstract; science stories need to make these come alive
Understanding the science • Talk to the scientist..ask them to explain in lay terms • Read: you might find high school text books useful.
Homework • Do the assigned readings • Think about your feature- pitch a story • One person lead discussion for next class