“A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare’s?”-- C. P. Snow

            Since 1975, PepsiCo has been hosting the Pepsi Challenge, in which Pepsi representatives give two unmarked cups to participants. One of the cups contains Pepsi, while the other contains Coke. In this blind test, it was found that a greater number of participants preferred Pepsi over Coke. However, Coke repeatedly reaps greater revenue (La Monica, 2002). Why is it that despite preferring the taste of Pepsi, people tend to buy Coke? How is it that although both sodas are very similar in composition, they elicit strong behavioral preferences

 

Desmond Hubbard

NeuroBiology and Behavior

Prof. Grobstein

 

The Sociopath Next Door

 

As I discussed in one of my posts, I have been watching the new show Dollhouse and it has made me curious about the cutting edge of neuroscience and whether it at all compares to the themes in the show.  The premise of Dollhouse is that people submit themselves, for money, to be a doll for a set number of years.

      A ‘tipping point’ is a critical juncture when isolated events are unified info a significant trend.   In our Emergence course, we explored how what many people consider complex behavior arises from a number of simple entities interacting without an architect or creator.  We have examined many these phenomena in order to better understand how their smaller, simpler components allow for their complex behavior.  In his 2000 book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell closely examines why change happens as quickly and unpredictably as it often does.

Lost-Wax Bronze castingin the Divergent and Convergent Mode

 

            Iwill be discussing two kinds of sculpting, lost-wax bronze casting and theprocess of clay sculpting, and how they converge and diverge from one another.  I will include a photograph of thebronze sculptures.   However,I do not have a copy of the clay nude female sculpture to which I will bereferring.  It would have been neatto have such a picture to show the difference in the sculpture mediums.

Perpetuation of the Literary Canon

“We write in Latin America to reclaim a space to discover ourselves in the presence of others, of human community –so that they may see us, so that they may love us –to form the vision of the world, to acquire some dimension –so they can’t erase us so easily.  We write so as not to disappear.” -Elena Poniatowska, Wellesley College 2008