Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • University of California Irvine
Uni Stu 3 Essays in Engineering, Science, and Technology

Winter 2005 [Course Code: 87562]
Instructor: Professor MG McNally <mmcnally@uci.edu>
Overview SCHEDULE Essays Authors Web Links Home
This Week:
March 15th		 We'll discuss Hofstadter's four-part fugue Prelude ... Ant Fugue and use this as a basis to re-visit other essays that we've read. I'll provide a few more essays by Samuel Florman (on his existential relationship with engineering and the liberal arts) and by Carl Sagan (on "billions and billions" of reasons to keep up what you started).
March 8th OK. Martin Gardner and Alan Lightman have played a bit of a fugue, coming in separately and together for the last few weeks. So, not only will we continue with their essays, as well as Alex Lightman's, but we'll extend the analogy by introducing a fourth part in the fugue: a "dialogue" by Douglas Hofstadter, which (appropriately) is itelf a four-part fugue...
March 1st We'll continue with the essays of Martin Gardner and Alan Lightman, and we'll introduce Alex Lightman essays on the "Brave New Unwired World".
February 22nd Once again, it's time to check in again on your essay outline/idea/ strategy. What elements of the essays that you've read can you borrow or adapt for your essay? We'll also look at some essays by Alan Lightman and Martin Gardner.
February 15th Time to check in again on your essay outline/idea/strategy. What elements of the essays that you've read can you borrow or adapt for your essay? We'll also branch into some new areas of science with essays by Thomas and Weissmann. The Bedford/St.Martin's web site provides some questions to ask yourself when reading essays.
February 8th Now for some critical views of technology and its associated impacts. Neil Postman and Sven Birkerts each write on technology's impact on education and learning.
February 1st Stephen Jay Gould and David Quammen are two of the most popular science essayists of recent years. I'll provide a choice of their essays to discuss next week.
January 25th John Brockman's The Next Fifty Years (2002) gathers essays from 25 leading scientists that "explore not only the practical possibilities of the near future but also the social and political ramifications of the developments of the strange new world to come". Read the essay by Richard Dawkins Son of Moore's Law. Find out what you can on the "original" Moore's Law. Also, check out Brockman's The Third Culture and the Edge web site.
January 18th SCIENCE Magazine:
As part of Science magazine's celebration of 150 years of publication, Essays on Science and Society were published on a very wide range of subjects. The magazine continued this series by publishing new essays monthly. Pick at least one essay of personal interest and come to class prepared to discuss it's relevance and style. Also read the two essays by Petroski.
January 11th Welcome. And please excuse the mess. This site is a first draft while we await the final registration results to see if this seminar will be held. If you haven't yet registered, please do. If you're uncertain, contact me. The first class will be Tuesday (11jan05 at 3 PM in SSL 159) but please stop by my office (SST 531) or send me an e-mail to discuss any questions that you might have. And read the essay by Rivenburg on sound.
 
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