Phys2011
Extra Credit - Physics in News
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As stated in the Syllabus, you can add extra 5% to your course grade by doing an extra credit assignment.
You need to read about three recent discoveries or significant achievements in physics and describe them in your own words.
The discoveries may also come from related areas, like astronomy, technology, or engineering.
They have to be reasonably recent, e.g., made within the past 2 years.
For each of the three discoveries, you need three components:
1. The News article.
This is a referring news story. This may be an article from a
newspaper, magazine, a news agency website, etc. Science and Technology
sections of major news providers can be useful. Major science magazines
and journals, like Scientific American, Science, or Nature also have
news sections where they highlight interesting scientific findings.
2. The original technical publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
This is the original scientific publication in a peer-reviewed journal
(such as Science, Nature, Physical Review Letters, etc.). If you are
not sure what 'peer-reviewed' means, ask a librarian.
The UMD library has electronic access to a number of leading peer-reviewed technical journals: http://duluth.liblink.umn.edu/duluth/az .
You can also search a number of scientific databases (like the Web of
Knowledge). Some of them allow you to limit your search to
peer-reviewed journals. The UMD library site provides access to
several such databases. In case the library does not have a (free)
access to a journal that you need, the Interlibrary Loan service can always get you the article. (You may have to wait a week or more.)
Be careful in distinguishing between news and technical articles.
Peer-reviewed journals like Science do have "News and Views" sections
where they publish opinion and news articles. These do not count as
peer-reviewed. For example, a news article may look like this, but the original peer-reviewed publication, on which this news story is based, looks like this.
As a rule of thumb, news articles talk about people and events and
are written in simple language, whereas peer-reviewed publications
present scientific data and are written in suscinct and formal academic
language. For example, if you see an article saying "Professor Mary
Lehrner of the University of Oregon has performed an experiment..." -
that's a news article. A peer-reviewed article typically lists the
names and affiliations only in the header of the article. A good news
article, on the other hand, may include a phrase like this: "The
findings of Professor Lehrner were published last week in the
Phylosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London." This is a
hint for you on where to look for the original peer-reviewed paper. If
still in doubt, ask a librarian.
3. Your essay.
Your essay should be written in your own words and should provide
a summary of the discovery: elaborate on the topic of the discovery,
explain why it is important and its essence. There is no formal length
requirement, but I suggest 1 page in 1 or 1.5 interval. Your essay
should demonstrate that you have read the news article and made a
reasonable attempt at understanding the peer-reviewed article. The
peer-reviewed article may be difficult to read, but at least its
Abstract and Introduction sections should be somewhat accessible. The
essays will be screened by software for plagiarism; plagiarism will
result in a failing grade for the course.
How and when to submit:
Please upload your extra credit assignment to WebDrop.
Upload the articles (news and peer-reviewed) in PDF format.
Upload your essay in Word or plain text format.
The essays should be submitted before or on December 10, 2011.