Course description:
The popularity of science magazines such as Science News, Scientific American, and Discover has increased dramatically in recent years. Similarly, there has been a prolific increase in the quantity and popularity of book-length translations of science by such authors as Jane Goodall, Isaac Asimov, Stephen J. Gould, and Carl Sagan. This increase in demand for scientific information begs the question: How is science communicated to the public? Specifically, how do writers present abstract or complex scientific subjects to a general audience? In acknowledging the difficulty of this task, Albert Einstein once wrote, "Either (writers) succeed in being intelligible by offering only superficial aspects, or (they) give an expert account in such a fashion that the untrained reader is unable to follow." In this class, we will examine what happens to scientific information when it is written for a general audience. Can science writers avoid the pitfalls of oversimplification and obfuscation? What changes occur in the language used and the assumptions made? Are the changes significant? Is accuracy compromised? Not only will students examine how published authors communicate science to the public, but students will also use their writing to engage and inform audiences about an aspect of science that interests them.