Michael Nolan Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin WR 13300 - 02 25 October 2011 Research Essay Exploratory Draft !

In this paper, I plan to study recent discoveries in the cosmological, astronomical,

physical, and other elds of science. I will look at discoveries within the last 40 years and examine both scholarly (journals, novels by scientists, articles) and popular (Twitter, blogs, magazines) publications. Through this, I will comment on how the U.S. and European populations attitude and appreciation for science in general has changed or remained the same. I am going to argue that people have gained an increased interest in the sciences due to the discoveries themselves and the methods that these scientic results are released to the population. Because the way information is released to the population has changed to become more digital, I believe this has affected the way the population can appreciate and understand the information. This topic is interesting to me because I am a huge fan of modern science and I wish to spread the appreciation for science. I want to comment on the most recent discoveries and shed light on their importance to and prevalence in the digital community. Extreme discoveries in the elds of science have a history of revolutionarily affecting the population in many ways. Examples are Copernicus geocentric theory, Einsteins theories, the popular uses of radium and the later discovery of its fatal effects, and so many more. We are currently in a golden age of scientic discovery, especially in cosmology, and I feel it is important for

the general population to be interested in these discoveries that may change the way we live our lives. ! While this essay could persuade anyone from any audience, I am focusing this

essay on my generation: average Americans from 12-30 years of age. Everyone could be interested in science, but members of this population have an opportunity to participate in science or the active appreciation of science. My chemistry teacher in my junior year of high school told our class that jobs in the sciences and engineering will be the most available and the best-paying jobs for us in the future. Our futures are not set in stone yet, so we can be very easily persuaded to take an interest in science. Kids my age and adults slightly older are also the most vocal in the American community; children much younger are nave and uninterested, while older adults are either too concerned in their immediate lives or lack interest in modern discoveries in the elds of science. I plan to convince these audiences by connecting with them and by using evidence relevant to their population. As mentioned in my proposal, I will be using evidence from magazines, blogs, and even Twitter, but I will also maintain formality and authority by including evidence from scholarly publications and novels by renowned scientists. ! Some sources that Ive already found are an encyclopedia of cosmology, a novel

about the universe called The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking, and a tumblr blog by the science communicator and Ph.D. student, Joe Hanson. I still need to nd some of the instantaneous publications of scientic discoveries in newspaper and magazine articles, and I should nd some scholarly journal entires describing a few of the key major discoveries in science in the past 40 years. Im not sure what mix of scholarly and

popular publications I should use in order to maintain authority while also connecting to the intended audience, and Im not sure how general my topic should be and, because my sources can only be of specic ndings, how many scientic discoveries I should include to display a trend in the populations appreciation for science. I believe these issues will be more easily solved as I delve deeper into my research and analysis. ! Im still confused about the assignment itself. Is this research essay supposed to

be persuasive, or just analytical? Is my topic too specic, too general, or just right? How are we supposed to incorporate objections into our essay, and then how do we address them? How much are we supposed to assume the audience knows, specically regarding technical terms and current events? I believe most of this will be covered later, but my confusion about the assignment guidelines is really inhibiting the beginnings of my research. Im excited to really explore this topic that is so interesting to me!