Instructor: Martha O'Kennon
Office: 305 Palenske
Phone: 629-0300
E-mail:  mokennon@albion.edu
Office Hours MWF 1:10-2:00  (this may change as my schedule settles down)

Textbooks: (L means on reserve in the library.  The other two are new books, to be put on reserve as soon as possible.)

L: Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
L:Philip Kitcher, Abusing Science - The Case Against Creationism
L: Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
L: Neil Postman, Technopoly
L: James Watson, The Double Helix
Brenda Maddox, Rosalind Franklin - The Dark Lady of DNA
Steven Pinker, the blank slate
L: C.P.Snow, The Two Cultures
L: Douglas Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach
L: Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones
L: Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi)

I hope you like to read!  This semester the underlying theme of this class is the interaction between science and math and everything else.  The book by Pinker is a nice example of an application in neuroscience and the humanities, exploring the relationship between our genes and our experience in making us who we are.  Hofstadter's book stimulates us to see how math models describe the music of Bach and the art of Escher.  We continue this pattern by looking at the mathematically inspired short stories of Borges and the wonderful novel of Hesse on a game that models EVERYTHING: math theorems, music, Chinese art...  My favorite Vonnegut novel is also included for its look at how time and space and the meaning of life are intertwined.

Of course we also look at Kuhn, whose tour de force on "paradigm shifts" has become a classic, and Watson's book about how the Double Helix model of DNA was discovered.  We then examine the part of the story that Watson leaves out by reading the biography of Rosalind Franklin.  We also look at some works on the relationship of science to society.

You will have several short and a couple of long papers, on various topics.  Your last paper is usually a science fiction story based on some ideas that we have discussed or that comes up in our perusal of the science news.

We will be collecting materials from newspapers or magazines or journals for a scrapbook which might prove useful for future generations.  Each week I will expect each person to bring in at least one clipping and make a short report on it for the others. Items may include controversial opinion pieces -- in that case your report should provide some analysis (what is behind the writer's opinion?  do you consider it well-founded?  on what basis?); current discoveries or inventions, explanatory pieces about some topic that you think the class may appreciate clarification on or more familiarity with.  

Tentative schedule:

Week 1  (begins Monday, January 13): Snow, The Two Cultures.  What are they?  Can they be separated?  What is science, anyway?  Where did it start and when?
Week 2  (Tuesday, January 21): Watson, The Double Helix.  Start reading Maddox, Rosalind Franklin.  How is science done?  What are the ethical considerations to consider?  (Monday is MLK Holiday)
Week 3 (January 27):  Maddox.  Hofstadter, Godel, Escher, Bach.
Week 4 (Feb. 3):   Hofstadter.  Math, Computer Science, Art, Music, Literature, the Universe and Everything.  
Week 5 (Feb. 10):  Hofstadter.  Borges, Ficciones.
Week 6 (Feb. 17):  Borges.
Week 7 (Feb. 24):  Hesse, The Glass Bead Game.
Week 8 (Mar. 3): Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
(Spring Break: Monday, March 10- Friday, March 14)
Week 9 (Mar. 17):  Pinker, the blank slate.
Week 10 (Mar. 24):  Pinker.
Week 11 (Mar. 31):  Postman, Technopoly.
Week 12 (Apr. 7):  Kitcher, Abusing Science.
Week 13 (Apr. 14): Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan.
(Note: afternoon classes canceled for Good Friday, April 18)
Week 14 (Apr. 21):  Review?  Open topics.

The success of this course for all of us depends on you, the student and colleague. Your attendance is required at all classes.  Your participation, both in and out of class, is the key ingredient to make this an exciting class.  

Your mark for this course is based on the following:

Attendance (5 points per class)
Participation in class (discussion and current event reports) and any short assignments that are given : 40 points
Three short papers - 30 points
Two major papers - 40 points

4.0         See below
3.7         88-93%
3.3         84-87%
3.0         80-83%
2.7         78-79%
2.3         74-77%
2.0         70-73%
1.7         68-69%
1.3         64-67%
1.0         60-63%

Please note that the grade of 4.0 is reserved for students who have, in the words of the Academic Catalog, "independently sought out and used additional related materials, demonstrating the ability to discover new data, to develop new insights, and to bring them to bear on the work at hand."