October Sky Assignment

I hope that after watching October Sky you understand some of the thrill of discovery and wonder that science offers.  As a short assignment I would like you to imagine that you are twenty years older and have dedicated your life to some aspect of physical science or technology.   In fact, you are very good at it and have just won a Nobel Prize for one of your discoveries.  I want you to write an acceptance speech of a page or two in length for your prize.   There is no exact format for your speech, but it should show some of the excitement that you would no doubt feel if this really did happen to you. (I have provided some samples of real speeches below.)  You should also include a brief description of exactly what you are receiving the prize for (again, see examples below).

 

Themes to motivate your speech:

1.    How I felt when making my discovery

2.    Why my discovery is important to the world

3.    Advice for others who may follow in my footsteps

4.    The steps I took and things I did to make my discovery

5.    How I learned the skills and knowledge that allowed me to make my discovery

Or…You can take two or three themes from above

 

 

Examples of Nobel Physics Prize acceptance speeches

from http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/index.html

 

A speech about how you felt making your discovery

Murray Gell-Mann's speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1969

Awarded for: "his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions"

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

We are driven by the usual insatiable curiosity of the scientist, and our work is a delightful game. I am frequently astonished that it so often results in correct predictions of experimental results. How can it be that writing down a few simple and elegant formulae, like short poems governed by strict rules such as those of the sonnet can predict universal regularities of Nature? Perhaps we see equations as simple because they are easily expressed in terms of mathematical notation, and thus what appears to us as elegance of description really reflects the interconnectedness of Nature's laws at different levels.

For me, the study of these laws is inseparable from a love of Nature in all its manifestations. The beauty of the basic laws of natural science, as revealed in the study of particles and of the cosmos, is allied to the litheness of a bird diving in a pure Swedish lake, or the grace of a dolphin leaving shining trails at night in the Gulf of California.

 

An example of an acceptance speech that discusses why the work you did is important

Max Born's speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, December 10, 1954

Awarded for: "his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction"

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The work for which the Nobel Prize has been awarded to me is of a kind which has no immediate effect on human life and activity, but rather on human thinking. But indirectly it had a considerable influence not only in physics but in other fields of human endeavour.

The facts known up to the end of the 19th century seemed to indicate that the world was a perfect mechanism, like a clock, so that if it were described at a given instant its future behaviour could be predicted with certainty. This deterministic view was still generally accepted when I was young. But then new facts were discovered, in the realm of atoms as well as in the stellar universe, facts which did not fit in the mechanistic frame.  My contribution has been to show that this mechanical view of the universe does not describe the universe in which we live.

 

An example of an acceptance speech giving advice

Arno Penzias' speech at the Nobel Banquet, December 10, 1978

Awarded for: "the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation"

Students of Stockholm,

The Greeks were able to write immortal poetry, invent geometry, lay the foundation of philosophy etc. without automobiles, television or huge power plants. The needs and wants of citizens were instead provided for by a plentiful supply of human slaves. Little was demanded of technology. Indeed, it was argued at the time, that all conceivable human inventions had already been made. Participation in those tasks which might have stimulated inventions was regarded as an unfit activity for gentlemen. Human curiosity was not used for the betterment of the human conditions and the brief bright flame that was the glory of Greece soon dimmed.

Curiosity is a precious gift which comes so naturally to us that we sometimes fail to appreciate it. Children ask difficult questions. Why is it dark at night? Why do you smoke cigarettes? Why is that man lying on the sidewalk? Why does the car smoke when it's cold? We parents experience a feeling of relief when our children are finally old enough to go to school and learn to stop asking so many questions.

I hope that you have not learned that lesson too well in your schooling. I hope, instead, that you will encourage the spirit of free inquiry in yourselves, in the people around you, and in your institutions. Thus you can help build and maintain a society in which science, in all its forms, can flourish in the service of mankind.

Students of Stockholm, Nature will begin to harden your arteries and your attitudes soon enough, without your help. You are not obligated to speed the process along. Most important, the evident fact that those of tonight's laureates who are the oldest chronologically are also the youngest in spirit shows that this process is not inevitable.