Assignment: Scientists Writing for Society
Write an essay for a Periodical (5 - 7 pp.)
"Natural History", the magazine of the American Museum of Natural History, has commissioned you to write an essay in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould's column, "This View of Life", relating evolutionary theory to an aspect of art, literature, history, philosophy or contemporary culture. The column, published monthly up through January, 2001, was based on musings of an evolutionary biologist who found analogies between evolutionary processes and diverse aspects of human culture.
For example, in one essay, "A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse", Gould likened the evolution of Mickey in drawings, to a reverse developmental process - where the later, most highly-evolved drawings of Mickey had the most infantile proportions, and the earliest drawings had the most adult proportions. The essay addressed how evolutionary principles are unconsciously interwoven in art.
Your task is to brain-storm a commonality between art, literature, history, or philosophy with biology, and write an interpretive essay, suited for a museum-going audience with limited scientific background. Reading one of Gould's essays will provide a model for this assignment.
Learning Goals: Drawing parallels between biology and other disciplines; expression of ideas for an educated non-scientist audience; honing techniques for "readability" for a general audience.