Justin D’Souza

INTD 105 Science Writing

Thoughts on the Skype Call with Glenn McClure

Professor McClure gave a multitude of interesting facts and anecdotes regarding his current experiences in the Antarctic. Currently, he has taken many different recordings of sound…from seals, to the crunch of snow, to the aquatic sounds of animals deep under the ice. He hopes to integrate these natural sounds into his music derived from the data to make pleasing melodies that the public would want to here. He also described the power of the weather…in a flash, the fog can completely remove any frame of reference. Left, right, up, and down all become the same thing, and they only have a GPS to rely on for location data. A challenge for Professor McClure will be to add these emotions of terror and beauty into his music while also remaining true to the data.

I inquired as to how he would spread public awareness as to his music. He hopes to conduct concerts with the data music, as well as work with the other artists to create bundles of music and photos and paintings to sell. He hopes the public will learn to appreciate the work being done after looking at the art created from the data. Science is objective…it deals with facts, not the scientists’ emotions. But McClure states that “scientists are emotional people too!” His music will bring their emotions to life.

In his closing remarks, Professor McClure put forward and extremely thought provoking idea. The heroic expeditions of Shackleton and others was for pride…to say that they were the first to explore the ice. But McClure believes we are in a new era of heroic expedition. We no longer explore for pride and bragging rights, but for science and art. I thought this was quite a profound statement.

Justin D’Souza

How has military testing affected the environment and citizens of countries like the United States? How should we limit or expand our military testing programs during times of war or peace to ensure that we protect our ecosystem and civilians while ensuring a strong line of national defense?

Justin D’Souza                                                                                                                   SUNY Geneseo                                                                                                                     INTD 105 Science Writing

National Defense vs. Environmental Protection

In times of war, or times of peace, how much should military testing/national defense be limited in order to protect citizens and the environment?

Justin D’Souza                                                                         About 170 words          SUNY Geneseo                                                                                                           INTD 105 Science Writing

Rock Strata as Natural Paintings

by Justin D’Souza

Appendix III of “The Heart of the Antarctic” paints a clear picture of the scientific discoveries the team found involving the rock strata and formations in the Antarctic.  The geologist of the expedition, Raymond Priestley, describes the various layers of gneisses, granite, dolerites, and sedimentary rock found near the Ferrar Glacier. They collected rock samples from various layers to look for indicators of organic life in the rocks as well as understand how the glaciers influenced the geography of the location.  However, Priestley know that there was a 90% chance that any kind of fossils were destroyed the by extreme weathering of the rocks.  The team moves on to explore how the glacier and sea interacted to create the intricate rock layering.

When Priestley described the rocks, including the “yellow bands” of granite and “alternating black bands” of rock, which striped across the Antarctic landscape, I couldn’t help but think of a painting. To visualize the different rock layers and help convey the discoveries to others, the arts could supplement the geological expedition to create stunning artwork of the rocks.

Justin D’Souza                                                                      About 200 words INTD 105 Science Writing                                                                                        SUNY Geneseo

Musical Ice: How Science and the Arts Collide

by Justin D’Souza

Today’s climate change puts ice shelves in risk of breaking up in the warming temperatures. Large ocean swells can stretch and crack the ice, leading to more fracturing of ice shelves. Peter Bromirski aims to understand this ocean-ice relationship by studying the effect of infragravity waves on ice. These waves, which form from the energy released when storms hit a coastline, have a larger wavelength than normal “wind waves,” and are shown to stress ice much more. Bromirski uses seismic stations in various parts of the Ross Ice Shelf to monitor the forces on the ice. Professor Glenn McClure hopes to turn the data collected by these stations into music, to “give the ice a voice.”

While the focus of the research is understanding ice shelf disintegration through scientific analysis, the project connects with artists like Dr. McClure to transform technical science into hopefully beautiful music that can be spread to the public.  As we know, good science writing allows the layman to easily understand even highly technical issues, which is represented here by Dr. McClure’s work. Therefore, I wonder to what degree can various artistic mediums (audio, video, photos, drawings, etc.) be used to convey science to the public, and what effect can they have on our understanding?

Justin D’Souza                                                                             About 220 words    INTD 105 Science Writing                                                                                  SUNY Geneseo

Natural Ambiance versus Human Racket

by Justin D’Souza

We can see that humans have drastically altered the globe…but can we hear how we did it as well? Soundscape ecology, a new field of research, aims to discover how human activity has changed the natural compositions of the wild. Kim Tingley writes about an expedition with Davyd Betchkal into Denali National Park to monitor the natural sounds there. Often, their journey through the natural harmony was disturbed by overhead jets or helicopters. These human sounds can make it more difficult for animals to track prey or hear predators or send out mating calls. Soundscape scientists aim to not only study how humans affect wild sound, but preserve natural melodies before humans destroy them, such as the scuffle of bear cubs or the rush of an ice cave. Tingley notes the importance of sound – it surrounds one, and brings one into a natural landscape. We can shut our eyes, but never turn off our ears.

Sound connects to my life in multiple ways, the first being no matter how much I try to sleep during weekends, the random yelling of people outside my window keeps me up!! On a more scientific level, this clearly connects to what Professor McClure will do in Antarctica, because he will preserve the natural sounds of the ice, as well as giving nature a voice in the crowd of human noise.

Justin  D’Souza                                                              About 170 words                   INTD 105 Science Writing                                                                                           SUNY Geneseo

Water: A Basic Human Need Regardless of Culture

Regardless of politics, religions, and cultural differences, all humans are the same when it comes to our basic need for life giving water. Josie Glausiusz portrays a land, the Gaza strip, where warring Israeli and Hamas forces have clashed over control of the territory. Unfortunately, because of this conflict, the water treatment plants there have fell into disarray, and now 80,000 cubic meters of raw sewage flows into the sea, and onto beaches “where children play.”  Unfortunately, both sides are understandably more concerned with the threat of wartime attacks to help solve the crisis, even with the help of multinational organizations like EcoPeace. If the two sides could share ideas, the crisis may be resolved.

I can see these ideas connecting to global warming in America. Although we are not in a major war, politicians have made the issue into a political one, and both parties are at odds over the extent and scale of the problem. However, the tale of Gaza shows that we cannot solve anything when such polarization exists.

Justin D’Souza                                                                                                                            About 180 words            INTD 105 Science Writing

SUNY Geneseo

Science has brought many advancements to our society, but sometimes it can go wrong if innocent bystanders are harmed. The Nevada nuclear bomb tests were such a mistake, as the harmful fallout and radiation deviated the Mormon clans what the government thought as a “virtually uninhabited zone.” Terry Tempest Williams describes how almost every woman in her clan had to have mastectomies due to breast cancer resulting from these tests. However, the government refuses to award damage compensation to the afflicted. Williams believes this is because the they hide behind the antiquated notion of “sovereign immunity,” and how the overly patriotic America defended all war actions such as the bomb testing.

I wonder how the nuclear testing affected men in the community. Williams portrays the afflicted as only women, but men can in fact contract breast cancer through radiation exposure. Did no men get cancer? Or did they just not act? Furthermore, I question William’s act of civil disobedience. I cannot see how trespassing on government land and spouting cryptic words about women retaking the desert helps the cause in any way.

Justin D’Souza                                                                                         250 Words       INTD 105 Science Writing

A good public facing piece of science writing must convey many facets of a topic, such as its significance to the reader, data, and summarize rigorous studies into layman’s terms. The article “Malaria drug causes brain damage that mimics PTSD: case study” by Patricia Kime does a good job of fulfilling these requirements. The article gives insight into a serious issue, that a drug “mefloquine,” used by the US Army to help Malaria victims, may in fact lead to symptoms normally characteristic to PTSD, such as rage, anxiety, and other cognitive issues. The article effectively establishes the significance of this by giving an anecdote about a soldier who was unable to take care of his family due to the side effects, allowing readers to grasp that this drug issue is a problem.

The article also does a good job of summarizing studies looking at this drug. The author recognizes that the case study that produced the example of the solider and his family was one “snapshot” and not everyone might experience the same results. But they analyze more in depth studies and reveal that such problems with the drug have been noted before. This allows the reader to understand that this issue is not a fluke but something more serious and real.

The article did not use much technical language and instead relied on easy to understand numbers and timelines of events to convey information, allowing it to educate a broader audience on the issue.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/08/11/malaria-drug-causes-permanent-brain-damage-case-study/88528568/

Justin D’Souza                                                                                About 160 Words                                                                                                                                                       SUNY Geneseo

INTD 105 Science Writing

What Would a Skeptic Say? And Who Cares?

By Justin D’Souza

In my essay, I give evidence that Geneseo’s Arboretum correlates with Cronon’s ideas that what we see as wilderness is not the isolated human free land we see it as, but a place that holds many ideals of human civilization. Of course, such a statement can be hard to swallow as it challenges what may be obvious conventional wisdom that the Arboretum is separate from humans. A critic may point out that the Arboretum is not the best example of Cronon’s “wilderness” concept as it does not hold the same status as national parks or other sublime landscapes, which is what Cronon was really going after. However, I content that this allows us to better understand Cronon’s point by considering something close by that we all can visit and explore to really delve into Cronon’s ideas. Ultimately, as the environment quickly has become mainstream in the 21^st century, better understanding connections between our us and nature will prove vital to the sustainability of the Earth.