biology

OrganizedKhaos's picture

Memes and sleep

 Dennett caught my attention when he discussed what we as humans saw as the point of life. A life of exploring, learning new things is not exactly the way Mother Nature sees it. Instead he mentions that,  "a life of sleep is as good a life as any other and in many regards better --- certainly cheaper --- than most (p.340). Now that I believe is a great motto to live by considering the lack of attention many of my peers seem to pay to the subject of sleep. Wouldn't be interesting if our bodies worked similarly to bears and other mammals that hibernate all winter? Now that would be an interesting experiment, could we sleep through winter? what kinds of changes would our bodies go through?

OrganizedKhaos's picture

Lost in This World

I must admit that evolution is no easy task to conquer. I would like to now place Darwin right up on the pedestal with Albert Einstein and other great geniuses. Why wasn't he there before? I am not sure, maybe my gut reactions and morals were holding me back from holding him to such esteem but after attempting to piece together a course syllabus on evolution I found that the subject is not only complex but never ending. It pours into other disciplines and weaves its way into society and popular culture. I can see how some people can find great excitement from such a theory because, I feel like there's so many questions that still need to be answered and so many answers that still need to be understood. I think I might have a crush on evolutionary theory.

Sarah Schnellbacher's picture

The Stagnation of Evolution through Standardization

I am currently enrolled in an interdisciplinary biology and English course at Bryn Mawr College titled “The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories” in which my classmates and I have begun to explore the process of evolutionary thought and applying this perspective to our own lives. Recently during a class discussion we were asked to define “evolutionary theory”. Though we all had a general notion of what evolutionary theory is, everyone in the course found it difficult to produce a dictionary definition that accurately could encompass the many aspects of evolution into a set of short and sweet sentences without steering into the taboo “survival of the fittest”.

AnnaP's picture

Disciplinary vs. Interdisciplinary (and other tricky dualities...)

Yesterday in Prof. Dalke's discussion section, we talked about whether it was more effective to conceive of our eduction in terms of defined, separate disciplines or in terms of an interdisciplinary approach. We seemed to have a very difficult time coming up with an answer; some people, for instance, thought that we have the responsibility to teach people about "social Darwinism" (and the ways in which Darwin's theories have been co-opted) in a biology class, and others felt that that should be the territory of a history class.

vlopez's picture

The Quest for Truth: Science & Religion

katlittrell's picture

Semantics of Foundation


Words continually evolve, their connotations and definitions shift and are forgotten and replaced as the generations pass. The mutability of language causes people to connote certain words differently. This semester, I am taking an course cross-listed in both English and Biology called “The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories”. This comment from one of my classmates prompted my essay:
 

Cremisi's picture

Week 2

 This week has been an interesting one for me as I go deeper into the thoughts of evolution. In particular, this week has been a marvel for me--to see how things evolve..to look at things in terms of a story. Whenever I thought about Darwin I used to think of a stuffy old man eating pheasant at expensive dinner parties. I had never really known the tentative, worrisome, and somewhat charming character that Darwin graces the pages with. I had always thought of science evolving over inspiration, happiness, and wonder..but while reading this book, I find that science is the product of worry. Darwin had his own observations, and they didn't quite match up with what modern science was currently saying.

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