Have a Good NEWS

Award from the Wellcome Trust Science Writing 2012 will be launched today. We asked 14 writers to reflect on their favorite science writing in the coming weeks.

Tim Radford

lights the fuse

Aa writing

Science is like all other written works best when excited.

In 1969 and 1970, a Harvard graduate with a degree in aeronautical engineering has delivered three lengthy articles for Life magazine in the Apollo 11 moon landing, and then collected in a book on fire Moon. But life had commissioned for its expertise in space science and rocket technology: was accused because he was one of the most interesting novelists of the decade, and because they had just released two books of fabulous reports on the political turbulence of 1968.

Norman Mailer

a fire on the moon was not an instant hit critical, and reads oddly today. Mailer called Aquarius and walk along the Cape Kennedy and Mission Control in Houston newsroom angry, and then goes home to his marriage collapsed and gave way to more indulgent existential despair of the gap "between technology and metaphysics."

This is bad news. The good news is that 40 years later and with many re-readings, still can not get through his descriptions of Saturn-Apollo, without a drink. There is a long description and slow start-up, seen from the stands of the press and entirely based on personal reaction, which is based on a crescendo of excitement 8.9 seconds before liftoff, when ...

two horns of the explosion of orange light as the geniuses at the base of the rocket. Aquarius never had to worry about whether the experience would be appropriate for you. Because of the distance, no one in the press site was to hear the engine noise by up to 15 seconds after it started ... Therefore, the takeoff itself seemed to become more of a miracle that a mechanical phenomenon, as if the huge Saturn itself began to levitate into silence, and then was chased by flames. It was more dramatic than that. As the flames were huge. No one could be prepared for it ... "

And he goes, with overflowing generosity pages at once: the remote reader can share the emotions of the moment in the middle of pyrotechnics "white as a ghost white as Moby Dick Melville this boat. .. thin, angelic calm mysterious step outside their embodiment of the flame "And then, of course, listen to the soundtrack:". deafening bark of thousands of machine guns firing at once ... hmm Niagaras thunder fury of fire ... its apocalyptic. " Great writing works for moderation. This really works because of its vibrant extravaganza. But if the book was a simple description, it would not work at all. The launch itself is discussed below, this time from the perspective of an engineer, two chapters trace the forces that must be raised, the technology must be controlled, and engineering to ensure a rocket because it leaves the ground maintaining the pressure is increased, the release of flame, now the pressure is four million and five million, six million pounds, a million pounds of thrust each additional minute that those billions of gallons fuel each second edge engines, because it balances the two hundred and eighty pounds 6,484,000. Most Apollo-Saturn is poised on the keyboard. Well, could levitate with a finger, but for the retaining arms. "

recognize its deep concern about how NASA managed the press - free drinks, briefings, interviews, transcripts, travel packages, states and their soft dark observation: "A process filled with horrors of the 20th century slowly seeps journalists in the era that were becoming obsolete. events were developing a style and structure that made them almost impossible to write. "

Click here

Find best price for : --Nasa----Dick----Moby----Mailer----Life----Harvard----Trust----Wellcome--