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Physics 173, Instructions for short reports

A short report is a summary and analysis (about 300 words) of a recent published article which is related to the topics specified in the homework question.

• The article should be published in a reputable source. Examples include (but are not limited to) Science News, New Scientist, Scientific American, Nature, Ars Technica, The Economist, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Physics Today, BBC News Science/Nature, Discover magazine, Physics World, American Scientist, and the science sections of major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, etc.
• Make sure you give the title of the article and the name and date of the publication it appeared in, and a web URL (if available) for the article.
• Your summary should make clear what the article is saying, expressed in your own words, and including some quantitative discussion. You should add some substantial thoughts of your own, e.g. by relating the article to other things you have read (please give references to them), evauating competing or alternate viewpoints, pointing out additional ramifications not covered in the article itself, giving a well-founded critique of some aspect of the article, etc.
• Ideally, each student in the class should report on a different article. If you are part of a study group, you are welcome to have discussions with each other, but make sure that everyone in the group chooses a different article.
• Your summary will be graded on: appropriate choice of article, good writing and spelling, legibility (typed is better than handwritten), reasonable length, clear analysis of the content of the article, and making a substantial contribution of your own.
• Using AI tools such as ChatGPT
  There is no penalty for using an AI tool to help you with your short report. If you use an AI tool to generate an initial draft of all or part of your report, please provide
  1. The prompt you gave to the AI tool
  2. The text that the AI tool generated
  3. Your final version
  Your score for the report will only be based on the final version, according to the criteria listed above.