Critical Thinking Blog – Assignment #8

My thoughts on science and humanities slightly changed.  Reason being on everything we have read about, the interesting videos we saw, and the people we read about that made a large impact on our lives and I knew nothing about. I being a psychology major i really needed a good impute on how different and the same science and humanities is. I’ve also notice that psychology contains a whole lot of science that people do not notice; it’s not only on “reading the mind”. This course also opened me up on evolutionary psychology, something I knew nothing of.  All the controversy behind it actually scared me to open up to it more than I did , to be honest . One person we learned about was Albert Einstein, and that was actually my favorite book I read in the course “Einstein’s Dreams” by Alan Lightman. This book really showed me how philosophy can be put in to science  . HOW SCIENCE CAN BE OUT INTO ANYTHING! It’s really amazing. How life can change dramatically just if we made a simple change to the time. The book also showed me how much we rely on time , our world revolves around the time . We are missing out on how precious life is. Overall this course was incredible , It changed my perspective on a lot of things and opened my mind up to new things .

Critical Blog 7

I will be writing on Rosalind Franklin also known as the Dark lady .She decided to be a scientist young , at the age of 15 . That's a great motivation for other women and even people , she decided to step in a field that was filled with men with no hesitation . Rosalind was famous for cracking the code of DNA . Franklin was one of many scientists looking for the structure of DNA at that time, and when the photo was shown to Francis Crick and James Watson, it was the final insight they needed to determine the true double-helix form of DNA. Franklin especially impacted the work of James Watson and Francis Crick through her discovery of DNA's structure as having a double-helix shape. Franklin, in her time, worked under the studies of Maurice Wilkins until her research distinguished her as a scientist with potential where she then began to conduct independent research . Watson and Crick were able to develop their idea for a double helix model based on the hard data provided by Franklin's crystallography. This was a major breakthrough, since understanding the structure of DNA has allowed us to determine how it replicates , and how the molecule can code the genetic instructions for EVERY organism on the planet, using a 4-letter alphabet. This was a major leap forward for the biological sciences in the 20th century, and is the basis for all modern genetics. James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins received a Nobel Prize for the double-helix model of dna , and gave her very little credit for it .  Four years after Franklin's death at age 37 from ovarian cancer , she past so young such a powerful women she was .

Critical thinking Blog post #6

The technology has become a huge aspect in our lives . The internet has a made a big difference when it come to us dealing with everyday activities . Some of the outcomes of the internet taking over our lives can be negative and at the same time be negative .

The first source i have was " Internet Is Propelling demise of the Daily News paper "by Reid Goldsborough . Tios article is explaining to us the downfall Newspaper is facing because of the internet . Its is explaining to us that because of all the things internet can provide for us now and days is effecting the resource that is not electronically  The article "" Internet Is Propelling demise of the Daily News paper " it was stated that " Along with a sinking economy, the Internet is reducing daily newspaper profits and causing layoffs, and in some cases it's leading to the demise of print publications. Newspapers are facing the double whammy of shrinking ad revenue and shrinking readership." (Gold borough) . Everyone wants the easy way out , so the new way to know whats happening in the world , or to get the latest job offers is to go to the internet. This is relevant to my paper because i want to explain the perils of technology in todays world not only the good .

The second source i have is 'The Role of the Internet in Presidential Campaigns" by Timothy D. Pollard . This article is explaining to us the major impact the internet has within presidential campaigns and how it increased over the years. The atricle states that the internet is a very good source to governmental purposes , to get opinions and bring out the ideas to the world . The article stated  "The 2004 presidential campaign clearly demonstrated the potential power of the Internet in influencing campaign processes, if not election outcomes."(Pollard) Because its so easy and fast to get asses to the internet , they believe everything can happen faster and more legit , even though there are still questionable issues behind the internet and presidential role behind it . Its also states  "..we conclude that the Internet should always be viewed as a potential variable affecting the processes and outcomes of presidential campaigns. While its functions and significance can vary in the different phases of presidential campaigns, the influence of the Internet should consistently be anticipated, examined, and assessed. (Pollard) So just because they put so much emphasis in their work being on the internet , we must always revise , what goes on the internet is worldwide for everyone to see , so we must be careful .

The Promise and Peril of Robots in Film, TV and Real Life: Friends or Foes?

A robot in today’s world can seem pretty appealing, like a very cool idea. They are “cool” looking. As we see in certain movies like I ROBOT, or Transformers kind of. They can save lives, be our new best friend, help the world . Can even be a new bigger than life size toy.  When some people think robot they tend to thin oh how nice they can do our chorus, make life “easier” for us. But believe it or not these robots are something we should be afraid of in this economy. As I saw in the industrials robot video, these robots do a 10 times better job then we do while working. They can do industrial jobs , or even jobs that are more difficult or too difficult for us to do . If a robot are able to do our work , why will they need us anymore ?  I feel like the world will end up like this ; If we are not able to do the work a robot does then we will be useless .  Then we say to ourselves that robot will just be n industrial help, they can’t do a lot of things humans do emotionally . For example they would be able to take care of  a new born baby or have real human relationships . Then I hear they are creating robots to have that emotional ability. Now that is just creepy. This whole robot situation seems fun , but if you look deep in to it , it is a total threat . But we should always say to ourselves, A robot will always have to be controlled by a human , so that’s a MAJOR advantage we have . Without us the robots wouldn’t be ble to be upgraded or do anything .. I HOPE

MidTerm practice

Every little event we encounter in our daily activities has science in it . The novel “Us or Me” by Ian McEwan Joe the narrator seem to had made connection with science . It started with the Joe Rose’s description of a very drastic experience in his life.

   Joe and his girlfriend name Clarisse, sharing a picnic which then they are interrupted by a hot-air balloon landing in the field. The pilot of the balloon is in trouble the pilot must have been half way out of the passenger basket as it touched the ground. The narrator and three other people see the danger, and run to help. So in all there was five men and the boy who was inside the hot air balloon.  Together with the balloon pilot, they each grab hold of a line, and so keep the balloon from rising into the air. Then among much confusion, the pilot loses his grip, and the balloon rises into the air with four people holding on desperately. The young boy is still in the basket. For a few seconds, all four hold on, and then one by one they started to let go, but one man by the name of Dr. John Logan didn’t let go. He was determined and stood till he couldn’t anymore, which resulted him to fall to his death. Joe Rose unexpectedly became part of an unsuccessful rescue mission to save a boy, eventually closing with the death of the doctor John Logan. This seemed to have made a very drastic change in Joe’s life.  

 He compared his situation to altruism . Joe emphasizes that while he was trying to save the boy in the hot air balloon in the novel several times was that there was a “lack of cooperation” and the problem was that there was “never a team”. It seems that Joe believes the absence of a leader, the pilot having “abdicated his authority”, prevented cooperation and the fact that everyone was “determined on their separate plans”. As the dramatic events unfold, Joe is constantly analyzing very scientifically the process, the failures and the “mammalian conflict”; us, or me. According to Joe, “someone said me, and then there was nothing to be gained by saying us” (Mc Ewan 272) . This brought out a situation that can be tracked back to the evolutionary theory.

 Through observations of animals and humans, she concludes that the gene that elicits altruism in organisms survives through a type of natural selection those weeds out those who do not conform to the group in which they belong. In “The Selfless Gene,” Olivia Judson’s main point is to prove how altruistic behavior is something that is not learned, but is an essential genetic trait passed down by each generation. Loners and aggressors of groups of animals and people tend to die out because of the failure to coexist within a group. This situation occurred In Us or Me . The group who was trying to save the boy didn’t cooperate as a group , the result was one died and their mission failed . At first glance, altruistic behavior may appear to be a trait that is doomed to die out, the key lies in the tight knit communities that develop between organisms of the same kind.