Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5XIpOi3E7Y

http://web.ebscohost.com.www.library.gatech.edu:2048/ehost/detail?sid=6952f467-ab4c-4124-83ab-4ff9bea3c8d6@sessionmgr13&vid=1&hid=10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ==

Finn, Bernard. “A Continent Bound by Wire.” 

Outline

                Our presentation pertains to the influence that various forms of electronic communication have had on the way that the world works today. From the telegraph to Google maps to Siri to Amazon, all of these different forms of electronic communication have created a world where speed and connectivity are king. Nick’s research discusses how the telegraph was really the first form of electronic communication and created the craze that we have today for quick, efficient communication.  David’s research covered how electronic maps have made travelling to talk face to face much faster than in years past. Nikhil’s research is about how e-commerce has bridged the communication gap between buyers and sellers and created the ability for a more efficient market system. Ayyushman’s research covers online travel sites and how it has made it much easier to travel the world and communicate with others. Finally, Karthik’s research on the interface between man and machine, specifically using Apple’s Siri as an example, uncovers how new ways to interact with machines have made it much easier for people  to communicate electronically.

The Science of Writing

I believe that while writing, it is integral that the writer keep in mind his audience. If a reader is to grasp what the writer means, the writer must understand what the reader needs. What good is it the writer, if what he writes is comprehended by nobody but himself or just a minority of the reading audience?

However, some raise the question that, if a scientist were to write a journal, how would he be able to write without the technicality that is associated with any scientific topic? Here, I would like to point out the difference between writing about science and technology, and scientific writing. Writing about science, according to me, has the general public as the audience. Even though the writer would be a little technical, most of the general public should be able to interpret a major part of the article. Whereas the audience for scientific writing is confined only to certain specialists in the field of whatever aspect of science and technology the writer choses to write on. Despite this difference, there is one similarity that unites all kinds of writing. Whatever audience a writer writes for, he must be able to communicate his thoughts and ideas with that audience for his writing to be effective. Therefore, choosing a certain audience and writing corresponding to that audience, while writing a coherent and organized piece, is the key to successful writing.

Writing about Science and Technology

I believe science and technology is a very broad topic and the audiences for the topic are also several - ranging from scientists to historians and children to casual readers. If I were writing about science and technology, I would first analyse the kind of audience I am targeting and whether I am capable to write effective material for that audience to enjoy reading my paper. For example, if I was writing for a science and technology journal I can assume that my audience will be well versed with the topic I will be writing about. Therefore, I need to be as scientific and technical as possible to engage my reader.

But all of that changes if I am writing a science fiction novel or short story. Now, my audience are not scientists but readers that enjoy reading about science and technology. Thus, my approach will be completely different this time. I will not be so technical and use complicated scientific terms but at the same time I would want to sprinkle as much of science as I can to make it a joyful and captivating reading for my audience. Therefore, as we can see from these two examples - the audience is extremely important. You do not want to confuse your audience but instead want to capture their minds and take them to a different world where they understand what is going on.

Science and Technology in Writing

I think the way that science and technology can be written is completely dependent on the audience the writer is writing for and the purpose for which the author is writing, and not the fact that the topic is about science or technology. For example, you could write a children’s book, a science fiction novel, a non-fiction novel or basically any type of genre on science and technology. Of course, the genre of science and technology you are writing about, changes the way you will write. Each genre has its own general audience and writing style. For example, lab reports are generally written in the active or passive voice depending on the situation and the audience tends to be the writers peers or instructor.

When I think of science and technology in writing, science fiction books come to my mind first. This is most likely because I enjoy reading science fiction books more than other types of writing related to science and technology, but also because science fiction books illustrate such amazing examples of science and technology. Reports about scientific experiments often contain diction I am not familiar with making it difficult to understand, and also usually don’t have mind-blowing discoveries making them even less interesting to read. So in my opinion, I don’t think science and technology should be written for one specific audience in one form of genre, but if I had to choose one way in which it was written, I would choose it to be in the form of science fiction novels. Many science-fiction novels are written by scientists or retired scientists who have great knowledge future science and technology. This makes their writing not only fascinating to read about, but also many of the technologies in science fiction writing are plausible inventions of the future. For example, in Old Man’s War, a science fiction novel by John Scalzi, humans have what is called Smart Blood. Smart Blood uses Nano-bots to keep humans safe from almost all diseases, prevents heart attacks, and clots immediately (so if your leg was suddenly severed off you wouldn’t die from blood loss). Many science fiction novels provide fascinating stories involving incredible science and technology that could become a reality someday.

Love, Writing and Basketball

The activity or skill of marking coherent words on paper and composing text is writing. Now that would be a great definition for a research paper on the evolution of writing for the past millennium, but it would definitely not make for a great start to say… this post. So your writing should vary depending on what you’re trying to convey.

Now let’s look at writing in the field of science and technology. I see great similarities between this type of writing and basketball. Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, once said that basketball is about loving the game first, and then learning how to play later. Michael started playing basketball at a very young age in his backyard, and developed a love for the game before he actually focused his interest to learn more about the fundamentals and the organized way to play. I’ve followed the same path, and although obviously not as successful…yet, I believe that the same principle can be carried over to other fields such as science or literature; once you begin to enjoy what you experience, you will tend to dedicate more time to it and begin to understand it in a more thorough manner.

Coming back to science and technology, you have to first start liking the field or develop an interest before you can understand the nooks and crannies of the field. In order to do this, there must be multiple ways to communicate science and technology to people. The first is a less technical approach which attempts to gain the interest of the readers, take for example Bill Bryson’s, “A Short History of Nearly Everything” which gives the reader a very friendly introduction to science. This kind of writing must appeal to the masses and attract as many readers as possible, so generally you’d find a slightly informal or comic tone in them. If this first step is successful in creating an interest in the reader, then the readers themselves will seek out other books in the field which will eventually lead them to technical scientific writing, or in other words, research papers, our second way of writing in science and technology. Both types of writing are essential to the field because without the first type, less people would be motivated to follow the path of the scientist or reach a level at which they can understand the more technical research papers.

The first type of writing relates to Michael Jordan’s backyard court while the research papers relate to his high school basketball program with a coach to give specific instructions on how to play. Without the backyard court, who knows where Michael would have gone… baseball? We all know how successful he would have been there.

Who Can Write About What

                Ever since I took chemistry in high school I have always been taught to objectify while writing about scientific matters. At first this confused me—I had always written in the first person and talked about myself whenever I was writing. When I was told not to do this for a lab report I was naturally confused. However, after a few years of writing in that style it has started to make sense. Scientific writing is just that—scientific. If you write in any other way it is not scientific and then everything you’ve written has lost its purpose.

                However, if you set off to write a story and you incorporate science it is perfectly fine. This is because the purpose of your writing is not to discuss scientific findings; it is simply to tell a story. Similarly, it is fine for historians to talk about science in their writings as long as they are using it to analyze and convey the point that they are trying to make about history. As stated on the Colorado State website, as long as the writing is appropriate for the audience then the writer is not at fault. 

Serendipity

Serendipity requires a certain state of mind to occur. For example, in The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, the only reason the three princes were able to have an educated guess of the whereabouts of the man’s missing camel was, was because they were observant. An unobservant person wouldn’t have any idea that a camel was walking on the road with a missing tooth, spilling honey and butter while carrying a pregnant woman. Even for the classic example of the apple falling on Newton’s head, Newton had to be observant and curious to why wonder why the apple fell. Most people probably would have just thought about the pain the apple caused them, not why the apple caused the pain. Curiosity is another aspect one has to have in order for serendipity to occur. Observance and curiously go hand in hand in discovering things by serendipity. Observant people are usually curious, and curious people are usually observant. While serendipity may occur by chance or accident to someone, that someone requires both keen observation of curiosity.

I once was had a serendipitous experience of no significance, but it was still interesting. I was in downtown Houston, Texas when I stepped outside of a restaurant around 1:00 P.M. Something didn’t seem quite right. The sun didn’t feel as warm or seem as bright as I thought it should have felt. I looked down on the sidewalk where sunshine appeared to be shining. It looked like the sun was shining on the sidewalk, but not at full power, and it was a completely clear sky so no clouds were partially blocking the sun. This observation led me to be curious to why this was happening. I looked up to immediately noticed that the actual sunlight was being completely blocked by a skyscraper, but the sun was reflecting off another skyscraper like a mirror to the ground I was looking at so that it almost seemed as if real sunlight was shining down on the street when it was really just a reflection of the sunlight. The definition of serendipity is having an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident, but in my opinion, the aptitude needs to be observance and curiosity for serendipity to occur.

Serendipity and Luck

Serendipity is a happy accident. You might not come up with what you wanted to start off with, but you sure are happy you did; this is a feeling that Steve Jobs certainly had in his life. What was meant to be a computer hardware company, after Steve Jobs’ acquisition, Pixar ventured into the animated film industry and became the most successful film animation company. To experience serendipities, luck is a necessary factor, but it is formed by more important factors such as originality and perseverance; The connection between luck and serendipity always boggles my mind because of the ambiguity of luck; its definition is “a force that seems to operate for good”, but when does it operate and why it does so is still very mysterious. I do believe that “luck” is necessary to experience serendipity, but that it is developed through working hard and thinking innovatively.

Going back to the old saying, “Luck favors the Brave”, I believe that everything happens for a reason, and hence, your hard work will get “converted” into some luck that helps you get serendipities. I hope I didn’t lose you there, but that statement makes some sense because if you can’t earn luck, then would you be lucky to be lucky… to be lucky? Coming back to Steve, he definitely had “luck” considering the fact that he was alive in the era of computers which greatly accelerated his companies’ performance, (and I still stick to the fact that he earned this luck because he was one of the first into the microcomputer market which influenced the entire computer era till date), but his serendipities came through his innovative thinking, originality and perseverance; he was one of the first to chase after the "personal computer", and strived to bring about products that were never available to masses. Such qualities enabled Steve to be successful in his endeavors, even if through serendipity or "luck". May Steve Jobs rest in peace; I shall end with my favorite quote of his: “Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Serendipity

Everyone witnesses accidental events. However, only a sagacious mind can transform seemingly arbitrary events to its benefit. Keeping that in mind, I would define ‘Serendipity’ as an aptitude for recognizing what appears to be a random occurrence and directly/indirectly using it to make a discovery. I believe, except in the rare cases, no human being is born with this aptitude or sagacity; it has to be achieved through hard work and perseverance. Only then will one be able to experience serendipity. Most of science’s discoveries have serendipitous roots. Would Alexander Fleming have discovered Penicillin had he not taken notice that the mold (Penicillium) had destroyed the surrounding colonies of bacteria that he was conducting research on? No. Any other person would have probably discarded that slide of bacteria.

Thomas Jefferson rightly said "I am a great believer of luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it". I believe that hard work and sagacity go hand in hand. Diligence gives birth to a keen mind and a sound judgment based on knowledge and experience.

Serendipity is often confused with luck, coincidence and fluke. While the above concepts might have a role to play in a discovery, being prepared is the key. So, when opportunity does knock, the chances of successfully realizing and taking advantage of the situation are significantly increased. According to Shakespeare, "All things are ready if our minds be so."

Serendipity

Serendipity is a word that is tough to be translated by people; however, it can simply be defined as the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. I believe serendipity happens to specialists, for the most part, because they have the knowledge and power to interpret serendipitous events in a beneficial manner. A Swiss chemist, Albert Hoffman, accidentally ingested LSD in his lab and found its properties. On the other hand, if a high school dropout would have ingested LSD, he or she would be totally clueless and would not be able to correctly interpret the event that took place, making it invaluable.

The number of potentially serendipitous events that take place everyday are probably countless but only those go down in the books of history that are interpreted correctly thus changing a way of life. For example, famous scientists such as Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, and William Halsted, developer of the surgical glove, are knowledgeable people who had the brains required for making these discoveries take place. Scientists even openly admit to serendipity’s role in their breakthrough innovations and discoveries for the simple reason that they made these discoveries because they are specialists in their field of study. Therefore, in my opinion it is completely safe to say that serendipity has played an important role in science and technology. Louis Pasteur, a renowned French scientist, famously said, “In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.” This quote summarizes my thoughts on serendipity!

Serendipity

Throughout the history of science many of the greatest discoveries have been serendipitous. An apple fell out of a tree onto Newton’s head. Fleming grew penicillin on accident. Out of these two discoveries grew our understanding of gravity and our use of antibiotics. However, what if these two discoveries had happened to different, less knowing men? Newton was trained in math and science, as was Fleming. If two average men had discovered gravity or penicillin, would they have even known what to do? More importantly, if they had made the discovery would the rest of society have listened to them? Serendipity can happen to anyone as long as they are paying attention. However, lucky discoveries by untrained men are much less credible than those of men trained in the field of the discovery.

Think of it this way. When you were in a high school math class if your not-so-smart friend accidentally stumbled across the answer doing their own work did you listen to them? I know that I didn’t. Conversely, if the teacher accidentally came across some method of doing a problem I would have believed him. The teacher was trained in the field, so to me his serendipitous discovery was legitimate whereas I would have been very skeptical of my friend’s discovery. Now, scale this up to a real, world changing discovery like that of penicillin. If your neighbor accidentally grew bacteria that he thought would cure diseases and asked you to take the “medicine”, would you? I know that I wouldn’t. However, if it were a legitimate, trained biologist, I would feel much more comfortable listening to them and using the bacteria. As long as they are made by trained professionals lucky, serendipitous discoveries are just as legitimate as discoveries made after a long process that requires tremendous amounts of perseverance.