Lost Without Longitude. Course Review

 

by Laura Lai/Review 

Here I am interrupting the series of film reviews with a … course review. J I guess it happens when one writes. The thing is that in the process of sharpening my writing techniques for reviews, particularly films – and that is because I did book reviews before when an undergraduate, postgraduate, and Ph.D. student – I came across a course generously provided free of charge by Harvard, and implicitly by its outstanding professors and researchers. 

It is a one-week online course under the coordination of Prof. Alyssa Goodman. I interrupted almost all my thoughts and work to get on board before the course gets archived. The reason I took the decision to enroll in the course PredictionX: Lost Without Longitude is its relevance to a play I am having in mind, which was inspired by a short online course also provided by Harvard: Becomea More Resilient Leader in Turbulent Times (please click here for the course review).

This course is about the art of navigating on the sea, mainly before the era of GPS. The word ‘navigation’ comes from the Latin words ‘navis’ (ship) and ‘agere’ (to drive), meaning ‘navigare’ (to travel in a ship). In general, to navigate means to move from one place to another by a way of an intended course. This implies other concepts, such as position, distance, direction, speed, the margin of error, etc. Therefore, to navigate means to predict when and where someone or something will be at a certain future point.

This course points to the role played by astronomers and clockmakers in accurately assessing this prediction. It is also a course about people who impacted, in a positive way, the long scientific process of getting to an accurate prediction: Eratosthenes of Cyrene, Hipparchus, Nevil Maskeyne, etc.

The course includes also the beautiful story of the clockmaker John Harrison – a simple clockmaker in wood, from Lincolnville village, who in the 1730s traveled to London seeking financement to his ‘sea watch’, and whose reward for his great discovery in settling the longitude was put on hold by Nevil Maskeyne – an outstanding astronomer working on the same longitude issue, but from an astronomical point of view, and who, in the meantime, got to such a social position that he had the power to put on hold Harrison’s discovery based on the argument of replication. I will let you follow the course to discover the way Harrison’s son thought to work things out, and whom exactly he went to see to cancel the order given by Nevil Maskeyne - his father’s competition.

Personally, I do not see any competition between the two. They were two brilliant minds that worked on the same longitude theme, each of them from the point of view of academic and professional competence: Maskeyne as an astronomer, and Harrison as a clockmaker. Although I dislike human shortcomings, I appreciate the great input both brought to the progress of science and the king’s decision.

This course provides concepts, notions, and facts that are fascinating in the ‘pre-writing’ phase when an author is researching its topic. It is scientifically argued that an author usually uses only 30 percent of the research for writing, and 70 percent is left aside. However, the research process before writing gives the author a complete picture of the story it wants to write about. Indeed, there is lots of work behind any piece of writing and only a few authors can live only from book sales – lots of the effort remains non-remunerated. Therefore, it is disappointing when some readers or viewers (depending on the medium) do not consider measuring their words when criticizing. In terms of measurements, the course PredictionX: Lost Without Longitude, suggests nautical miles, fathom, chip logs, etc. J

To sum up, although after the course on Academic and Business Writing, I thought to practice my film reviewing techniques with a series of Alfred Hitchcock movies, I considered it relevant to pause for today, and for this week, and to post another review – a course review, relevant for a piece of writing I am having in mind. I hope to be forgiven. 

I will definitely see you in the next review of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies!

Other links:

Lai, Laura. ‘Shackleton’s Captain – The Famous Antarctic Expedition’. Online Movie. Writing Blog. March 9, 2021. Web. May 30, 2021. https://writingbreaklauralai.blogspot.com/2021/03/film-review-shackletons-captain-famous.html