... contains sometruth. The unexpected realization of truth then makespeople laugh. At the beginning of a presentation in which 14 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS combination of these two problems ... some of which are shown in Figure 2-1a, the presenters of the proposal used referenced facts and the opinions of ex-perts to assign a cut-off value. The establishment of thesecriteria formed the ... became the C-portion ofthe syllogism and the main evidence that contributed to the awarding of the contract.Statistics are another form of logical evidence, andtheir power varies widely. At the...
... contains sometruth. The unexpected realization of truth then makespeople laugh. At the beginning of a presentation in which 14 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS combination of these two problems ... Thole◆ 10 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS Implicit in the opinions held by an audience of apresentation are the biases ofthe audience toward the subject and speaker. An example of this ... some of which are shown in Figure 2-1a, the presenters of the proposal used referenced facts and the opinions of ex-perts to assign a cut-off value. The establishment of thesecriteria formed the...
... yourown presentations until they become outstanding. 20 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS people do not know the speaker, the audience does notknow what to expect ofthe speaker. Another reason ... targeting the audience is one common reasonfor the failure of many scientific presentations. Anothercommon reason is a failure to understand the purpose of the presentation. Few presentations have the ... advice.xi 32 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS municate? Part ofthe problem was language; he oftenintermixed German and English, neither of which washis native tongue, Danish.7 Another part...
... 14 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS combination of these two problems caused many of the students to complain to the head ofthe department. How-ever, Oppenheimer was already aware ofthe ... sometruth. The unexpected realization of truth then makespeople laugh. At the beginning of a presentation in which 38 THECRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS Presentations to Inform. For presentations ... important. 4THE CRAFTOFSCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS A second advantage of making a presentation is thata presentation allows the speaker the opportunity to ob-serve the reactions ofthe audience...
... calculated all kinds of things with this theory. The firstthing I calculated was the rate of disintegration of the muon and the neutron. They should be connected to-gether, if this theory was right, ... is available from the British Library. would go no further—“30 percent; we cannot say morethan 30 percent”—till they were sure I had the message.Then they would shut theof ce door. “But let ... going to be all of them, or al-most all. This is going to be awful!—an old-fashioned epi-demic like none of us has ever seen!” The better the scien-tist, the larger the scruple and the more he...
... trigger their adrenaline. So they oftenthrive as staff, goaded on by the rest ofthe group (not tomention the boss). Gregarious types may not need goad-ing but wilt in a life that leaves them ... and fer-tilize and weed. There is work to be done. But the work paysoff biggest when the plants are right for the soil and micro-climate ofthe particular garden.Is there some subject or writing ... would arrive at theof ce and see that, actually, the work was not so bad. So I’d patch and polish (alwaysfun, the exercise of craft) , then start a new segment on thatmomentum. The next day I...
... off by 7 percent.”Then I remember the 9 percent. It was like a predictionfor me: I went home and got this theory that says the neu-tron decay should be off by 9 percent, and they tell me the next ... “un-sure,” even when they are sure (in the ordinary sense), becausetheir idea of truth is so lofty. Also, they feel responsible notto scare the public.I well remember from the early 1980s not ... part, the best scientists agree on the currentbest theory, which they recognize because, well, it fits. It an-swers the most questions with the greatest precision and the fewest loose ends. There’s...
... tamperwith the laws of nature to suit the needs ofthe story. The archetype of this requirement is Tom Godwin's " ;The Cold Equations,"in which the laws of nature are the background ofthe ... chandeliers of Louis XIV's palace at Versailles; and they think theyknow what the inside of a jail looks like.But what does the reader know ofthe ammonia seas of Titan, the largestmoon ofthe ... suit.His world was cut off now and circled by the dark rocks. The only soundshe knew were the creakings ofthe suit’s joints, the electrical hum of its motor, the faint whir ofthe helmet’s air blower,...
... interest in it.Science writers and editors needn’t start off knowingmuch science. Some ofthe best of them do, but some of the best of them don’t. They must, though, be able to learn sci-ence, be ... one way or the other, sitting beside her at her desk, the manuscript on the sliding desk tray between us, I learned.I can attest to the wisdom ofthe writerly injunctionsyou’ll find in these pages ... intelligentquestions, and shake off the high intimidation quotient of adense, jargon-laden article in the Proceedings ofthe National Acad-emy of Sciences. Elise was a member of this breed; she was...