Eureka! The people, politics and luck behind some of the best-known scientific discoveries
What scientists do you think of when you think of DNA? X-rays? The theory of evolution? You may recognize the names of James Watson and Francis Crick in association with the discovery of the structure of DNA, but not of Rosalind Franklin, who provided the key evidence. Darwin’s name has become a household word, whereas Alfred Russell Wallace (who independently devised the same theory of evolution) is lost in historical footnotes. While credit for scientific discoveries typically goes to one or two people, scientific research programs build on years of previous work performed by countless different scientists. Success is never guaranteed at the outset of any experiment, either; even the most carefully designed experiments are unpredictable and rarely go in the direction we expect. If science is both a collaborative and competitive enterprise, how exactly is credit attributed? And what is the relative importance of chance vs. careful logic and reason in the scientific process? In this course we will develop strategies for academic writing while examining the nature and politics of scientific discovery. The case studies discussed in this course will be illustrated by a range of types of texts, from screenplays and biographies to critical essays and scientific papers, thus challenging us to interpret and respond to readings of varying intents, degrees of objectivity, and levels of experimental detail. As a final project, students will choose a scientific discovery and discuss the roles of competition, collaboration, and/or chance in facilitating (or hampering) the discovery they choose. Through examination of some of the key features of scientific discovery (the importance of making texts public, the process of peer-review and revision, proper citation and attribution of credit) we will consider many of the central components of academic writing.
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