13 May: 

          Discussion:
          Your scientific communication challenge (Homework #1)

          Turn in: Homework #1.

          Lecture:
          The structure of a scientific paper;
          Sample paper #1: Boris Buffalo;
          Sample paper #2: Munz, Hudea, Imad, Smith.

          Classwork:
          Write a short document that explains to a friend why (your favorite
          language: Basic / C / C++ / Fortran / Java / Lisp / Maple / 
          Mathematica / Matlab / Pascal / Python ) is better than (some other 
          programming language).  For instance, why should a Matlab user
          consider learning Python?

          Lecture:
          The importance of abstracts.

          Demonstration:
          "abstracts.txt", 50 sample abstracts 
 
          Homework #2: 
          Go to the web page nature/top100, which is an article about
          the 100 most cited papers in Nature.  There is a box in this article,
          labeled "The top 100 papers" which allows you to choose a rank from
          1 to 100, and then see the corresponding paper (or at least its 
          abstract).  Choose an abstract that you like or hate, print it out,
          bring it to the next class, and be prepared to discuss its merits
          and flaws.  Does the abstract capture your interest?  Is it full
          of jargon, unclear, full of abbreviations, or too long?  We'll
          give awards for WORST and BEST.

          Homework #3: 
          I will hand you a sample paper #3 whose title, author, and abstract are missing.
          Write an abstract for this paper.  You will read your abstract out
          loud next week and then turn it in.
 
          Your paper: Set up a Latex file for your paper.  Pick a title.
          Based on our discussion today, and on how you hope your paper will
          turn out, try to put together the abstract for your paper.