Only one week in and a garden of new thoughts are germinating already!  One of the paths I’m curious about is the role of evolution in determining what is POPULAR (the areas where we find agreement) in terms of literature or music or art etc.   We discussed how our diverse perspectives influence how we approach the summaries of our observations of life, where is that place where we come together? Why do we agree? How do we get there? How does “selection” work when it’s a matter of creativity as opposed to literal survival? Given that the universe is so large and constantly expanding, it would follow that there are infinite possibilities in terms of creativity. Why don’t we enjoy and pursue them all equally? 

In class on Thursday, we discussed how uncertainty is a large part of the scientific process. Often times experiments result in more questions than answers, which leads to more exploration. Creativity and different viewpoints are crucial for approaching problems and seeking a more complete understanding of a question. These are many positive outcomes of the uncertainty of science. The negative aspect to uncertainty is when science is used to make public policy. If these observations and beliefs aren’t certain, when is there enough evidence to be used to dictate what people can and can’t do? If the evidence can yield different interpretations, what makes one interpretation more valuable than another?

 Based on my education on the topic of evolution, I have been taught to believe that evolution is exclusively applied to organisms. Darwin's observations and conclusions coupled with Mendel's genetic experiments on living organisms told me that evolution is "survival of the fittest", "natural selection" and that the inheritance of these fit traits are guided by a set of rules and probability. After this first week of class, I found myself thinking too close-minded about this topic. At it's core, evolution is about perpetual changing so the term can generally encompass anything that changes over time such as language and culture. Because my education has always tagged evolution to biology and the Darwinian concepts, my thoughts have been biased.

Hey guys, I'm Aybala. I'm a junior Psychology major and Education minor. I guess the form of technology that first pops into my head as having a great effect to my life is airplanes. As someone with a family split across the ocean, planes come in handy (or maybe not) in being able to see everyone I'm supposed to see.

Hi Everyone. My name is Alex Shin. I'm a junior chemistry major from Haverford.

Hi, my name is Riki, and I tend to procrastinate. More on this later.

 Hello, I am a McBride scholar with sophomore standing.  The piece of technology that has the most impact on me is the internet.  I grew up with a word processer and a library card.  The amount of information I am now able to access from home or even my phone is astounding.  At times it seems a bit too much, or at least too much trivial or incomplete information.