I thought the article "The Theory of Everything" was not one of the better ones we have read so far. It seemed like string theory was too broad and complex a topic for a single article and none of the perspectives on string theory were given the right amount of attention to be properly understood.

In addition the use of swear words was an unnecessary distraction. This crude language took away from the article's credibility. It gave the impression that the article was trying to be "edgy", in the same way that it was portraying string theory to be. Instead, it came off as insincere and immature.

To it's credit though, the article did remain interesting by keeping the researchers in perspective and not just talking about the research.

popular press article

Seeing as how I want to further develop my topic for the popular press article, "The Idea" has some very useful information for me.

It's first suggestion is to ask what/who interests you and what creates emotion. For me, I'm interested in wind energy. Being able to harness the power of the wind seems like an almost magical idea that gets me excited enough to want to learn about the science behind it. This interest in wind energy is also coupled with fears about the future. Personally, I am not so worried about global warming as I do not think any reductions we make to greenhouse gases will have any effect on the earth's temperature for at least 100 years. Instead, what worries me is the rising price of oil and our continued dependence on it. The supply of oil can no longer keep up with the growth of the human population and I believe the price increases we see today may only be the beginning of more dire circumstances. To that end, I believe its vital to vigorously pursue any energy source that can reduce our dependence on oil.

After examining what I have just written, I've learned that it would benefit me to include information about America's reliance on oil in my article.

I was hoping to interview Dr. Bruce White at UC Davis who is part of the California Wind Energy Collaborative. I read one of his research papers about siting wind turbines using data from wind tunnels which interested me because I would be interested in having that as a job someday. I'm worried that siting wind turbines using wind tunnels may not be a very good subject for my article though as I do not think that others will find it significantly interesting. I think a better topic may in fact be the future of wind energy in California as it is relevant to many people and contains more interesting pieces of knowledge to impart. For example, in the future, wind turbines will have rotors with diameters greater than 100 meters and wind farms may exist in the ocean near our shores.

Again following the advice from "The Idea", I'll try to answer the basic questions a story should contain for the topic of The Future of Wind Energy in California.

Who: Californians?
What: New wind turbines
When: The next 10 years
Where: California
Why: Reduce oil dependence.
How: Build wind farms

Hollywood Science Guru

The part about this article which I found most interesting was that it showed how scientific knowledge can take you places you would have never imagined. I don't think most scientists imagine themselves working for Hollywood, but Underkoffler has been a vital resource to many major films. I think the writer chose a very good topic for this article because movies are usually exciting and engaging by themselves and you can expect any reader to have an interest in them.

Truth and Consequences

The first thing I noticed about this article was its hook in the first paragraph. The way it sets a tranquil scene and then very suddenly injects a dramatic element feels like it should be accompanied by a soundtrack that goes "DUN DUN DUH!". I'm not sure I would ever be so blunt in my own writing, but I can obviously see what this writer is trying to accomplish.

As for the rest of the article, I think the author chose an interesting topic that engages the readers' emotions. We feel sorry for all the students who suffered from telling the truth about their professor. One area where the article is not as strong though is in dealing with so many characters. There are so many affected students that it is hard for the reader keep track of them all and to personally empathize with them.

The man on the table . . .

I thought what was interesting about this article was how it kept the reader interested by playing up the emotional elements of the story. Moments like when Dr. DeBakey says he wanted to die, and later when his wife interrupts the ethics committee to demand they begin operating immediately give the story an exciting pace that makes the reader want to push through to the end of the story. Giving the characters like the anesthesiologists, Dr. Debakey, and all the other doctors distinct personalities engages the reader on a human level that makes the article much more fun to read.

How to Research Your Topic

I think the idea of having a working bibliography would improve the way I do research for papers. Normally, I just look through as many sources as I can, and then afterwards I think back to which ones are most useful and focus on those. If I documented each source I looked at as I came across it, I would be much more efficient when trying to go back to look at my sources. Also, it means I won't forget any source I came across.

http://uwperich.blogspot.com/