Reporting Science

Thomas Abraham

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/

Where do we live?

Asking the big questions…

Composite image of middle of our galaxy from Hubble , Spitzer telescopes and Chandra X ray observatory www.hubblesite.org

Source: Christopher R Scotese, Paleomap project

Map: Christopher R Scotese

Map: Christopher R Scotese

Image from the Hubble telescope: www.hubblesite.org

Where are we going?

Are we alone?

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-venture

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

http://www.virgingalactic.com/

Where did we come from…..and where are we going?

James Ussher, Bishop of Armagh, Ireland. 1581-1656

The first day of creation began on the night preceding October 23, 4004 BC

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 beerhttp://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

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Evolution through natural selection

The Voyage of HMS Beagle- 1831-1836

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 Michio Kaku book

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