Goddard MFA faculty member Richard Panek‘s collaboration with Temple Grandin, The Autistic Brain, has received a Wise Award for popular science writing published in Poland in 2016. Originally published in the U.S. by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2013, The Autistic Brain was published by Copernicus Center Press in Poland. The book was described as weaving Grandin’s own… Continue reading Goddard MFA Faculty Member Richard Panek wins Polish Wise Award for Popular Science Writing
Tag: science writing
Richard Panek’s Tribute to Vera Rubin on ScientificAmerican.com
“Vera Rubin Didn’t Discover Dark Matter,” MFAW-VT faculty member Richard Panek‘s tribute to revolutionary American astroner Vera Rubin, is live at ScientificAmerican.com. Rubin (1928-2016) pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates and uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion by studying galactic rotation curves. Initially, Rubin’s galaxy rotation problem was met… Continue reading Richard Panek’s Tribute to Vera Rubin on ScientificAmerican.com
Giving History the Finger
By Richard Panek The middle finger of Galileo’s right hand is a satisfying sight. Not because the resemblance to an obscene gesture is unmistakable (though that’s pretty amusing). And not because such a gesture might suggest that in the end a scientist who suffered persecution for the sin of being correct had gotten the last word—well, two words (though that… Continue reading Giving History the Finger
The Language of Myths
By Richard Panek You’d think a wall panel in the Galileo gallery in the Galileo wing of the Galileo Museum would be a good place to get an accurate context for Galileo’s historical significance. You’d be wrong: “These astronomical discoveries heralded a revolution destined to demolish an image of the universe that had lasted for… Continue reading The Language of Myths
Physician, Screw Thyself
By Richard Panek The doctor was sitting in a chair next to the window, gazing out. His features gave nothing away, save serious thought. I watched him from my hospital bed, trying to discern meaning in his own effort to discern meaning in my symptoms. Silence. Finally, he turned back to me and spoke: “Medicine… Continue reading Physician, Screw Thyself
Science Fiction as Social Activism
by Chana Porter There is a TV show called Orphan Black which follows a woman as she discovers that she has many identical clones all over the world, the intentional orphans of a top secret genetics project. I’m most interested in Orphan Black as an exercise in empathy. The main character sees the person she… Continue reading Science Fiction as Social Activism
Art As a response to Planetary Emergency
Although both had been feminist writers and peace activists living in Brooklyn, NY for many years, playwright Karen Malpede and poet/novelist Jan Clausen didn’t know each other very well until they spent a night in jail together following a civil disobedience arrest at the time of the Iraq invasion in 2003… Kenyon Review has just… Continue reading Art As a response to Planetary Emergency
I Dream of Wrigley
Tonight the 2015 Major League Baseball season opens at Chicago’s Wrigley Field with a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the host Chicago Cubs. This essay originally appeared a year ago on The Last Word on Nothing, a science writers’ collective, in honor of both Wrigley Field’s 100th anniversary and one book’s indelible evocation of an era. By… Continue reading I Dream of Wrigley
Total Immersion: Museum as Narrative
By Richard Panek How could it happen? Was it the wrath of God or the malice of Poland? Was the crew drunk or was the Vasa wrongly built? The town was alive with rumours. I’ll bet it was. On August 10, 1628, the warship Vasa—the pride of Sweden, the talk of Stockholm—set sail on its maiden… Continue reading Total Immersion: Museum as Narrative
I Saw Them Standing There
(This essay was the author’s faculty reading at a recent MFAW-VT residency. It commemorates an event that happened 51 years ago this week.) By Richard Panek I was watching the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan” recently when I got to thinking about Galileo. “Ladies and gentlemen, here are The Beatles!” cried Ed, in his imitable style,… Continue reading I Saw Them Standing There
At the Residency… The Last Word on Nothing
What happens when the projector doesn’t work? The Haybarn Theater on the Plainfield campus has a beautiful new sound system, concert-worthy; state of the art lighting; a rich red velvet curtain; a podium that adjusts for height at the press of a button…but when the faculty are about to read and there is some kind of… Continue reading At the Residency… The Last Word on Nothing
Interstellar
From The Last Word on Nothing, by Richard Panek: If you haven’t seen the movie Interstellar, you might not recognize the image above. It’s the black hole that figures prominently in the climax. But even if you have seen the movie, chances are excellent you still don’t know what you’re looking at. I didn’t, anyway, at… Continue reading Interstellar