brain

Love: A Narcotic High?

Science as Open-Ended Transactional Inquiry
The Three Loops and their Implications for the Classroom

Workshop with the science faculty at Delaware Valley Friends School
Paul Grobstein
9 October 2009

Overview

      There are twenty-four hours in a day. This is a fact of which every human - and especially every college student - is well aware. Unfortunately, it never seems as though twenty-four hours is completely enough for everything that needs to get done. It does not help that approximately (allegedly) eight of these hours are dedicated to being completely unconscious. Sleep is such an essential part of the human routine that many of our non-daylight hours are devoted to it. And yet, while we understand the rejuvenated feeling of a good night's sleep or the tired crabbiness of a pre-coffee early morning, no one seems to understand the actual purpose of sleep itself.

Students in Biology 103 at Bryn Mawr College write web papers on topics of interest to themselves. These are made available via links from the index below to encourage further exploration by others having similar or related interests. All papers have associated on-line forums for continuing conversation.

Hemispheric Lateralization in Horses

Very interesting seminar last night by Guy Blaylock on the multiple worlds interpretation of quantum physics.  Nice example of the principle that a given set of empirical observations is always subject to multiple interpretations, ie that there is always a perspectival or "subjective" element in scientific stories.  And an interesting dissection of reasons for preferring one or another several stories, a dissection that might in turn lead to some new stories.