Posted in Language, Natural Sciences on Jun 13th, 2009 No Comments »
The Long Debate of Adding Ununbium to the Periodic Table: I find this to be a very interesting subject – but am still pondering to understand how exactly these recent elements are “created” (the idea that some chemical elements are discovered, and other are created…. yes, that’s just fascinating to me).
It also makes me [...]
Posted in Natural Sciences, history on Jun 12th, 2009 No Comments »
New Element to Be Included on Periodic Table: A good example of new knowledge in the sciences. It might work for the question on “provisional conclusions in the sciences”, but also the “discovered/invented” question. The article states:
Scientists at the Helmholtz Center have discovered six chemical elements, numbered 107-112, since 1981.The remaining five elements have already [...]
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Natural Sciences on Jun 2nd, 2009 No Comments »
Some more articles you might enjoy (or find interesting, depending on the topic):
Scientific Research into Humour. Somewhat related is this article, which considers the scientific nature of blushing.
Remember that ludicrous Facebook Quiz “Are you a potato?”? Seems like Proctor & Gamble should have taken that quiz: Pringles Are Potato Chips.
Not so light-hearted, on the other [...]
Posted in Arts, Emotion, Math, Media, Natural Sciences, history on May 28th, 2009 1 Comment »
Although I realise that you might be ignoring my postings at this point (though you do still get a grade for commenting), I will continue to share. I don’t believe that knowledge and learning stop once a particular deadline has been met or a report card has been issued. Plus, some of these articles are [...]
Posted in Language, Natural Sciences on May 26th, 2009 3 Comments »
This is an intriguing article – a bit morbid, but worth reading (particularly for those of you interested in medicine):
Autopsies of War Dead
Language and Gender Stereotypes: Two Slate writers discuss Obama’s use of a “gendered code word” in his search for a Supreme Court nominee (Note: he just nominated Sonia Sotomayor). Such words, they argue, [...]
Posted in Ethics, Natural Sciences on May 12th, 2009 No Comments »
Is My Marriage Gay? (a rather amusing piece about ridiculous laws)
Patenting Genes (a rather disturbing piece about gene monopolies)
Posted in Natural Sciences, Uncategorized on Apr 30th, 2009 2 Comments »
April 29, 2009
Notes on InterToK – Follow Up Session
Andy Fletcher’s book recommendations → to be found on his webpage, specifically here: Bibliography
String Theory
- No evidence: not wrong, not right. Cannot be falsified.
- Quarks are made of strings
Name derived from James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, taken from the phrase “Three quarks for Muster Mark” (see: Finnegan’s [...]
Posted in Natural Sciences, Technology on Apr 21st, 2009 2 Comments »
MSN posted an article on the 20 most important inventions of the next ten years today. Although I didn’t quite understand all of them (in part, because I had a hard time imagining them), it did make me think that these are excellent examples of how science involves creativity. I mean, how do you think [...]
Posted in Ethics, Natural Sciences on Mar 25th, 2009 No Comments »
Cloning Pets
Human cloning: Laws
Posted in Natural Sciences, Religion on Mar 24th, 2009 No Comments »
I came across this BBC article today:
“Dividing Science by God”
….relating to “The Science of Believing” New York Times article from recently. It asks some good questions, although I think the NYT article still tops it….
Posted in Arts, Natural Sciences on Mar 23rd, 2009 4 Comments »
Not sure where they fit in, but these are too cool not to share: Inside Art
Posted in Natural Sciences on Mar 20th, 2009 Enter your password to view comments
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Posted in Human Sciences, Language, Natural Sciences, Sense Perception on Mar 12th, 2009 3 Comments »
We will be discussing the article “The Egg and the Sperm” tomorrow, but here are a few pre-class reflection questions:
1) What are the stereotypical male/female traits? Identify and write them down.
2) Do the textbooks examined in the study reflect any of these stereotypical traits?
3) Does your biology textbook (whether from IB Biology or from lower [...]
Posted in Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Mar 9th, 2009 No Comments »
Today, Obama lifted the ban on stem cell research – a highly contentious issue:
The Stem Cell War
There is also The IVF Battlefield.
Still involving children (though not in their embryonic form) and somewhat less controversial, there is also the heated discussion on whether forward phasing strollers might impede a child’s language learning. Yes, I know, that’s [...]
Posted in Ethics, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences on Mar 4th, 2009 1 Comment »
Some more articles you might find interesting to peruse:
In a Helpless Baby, the Roots to our Social Glue: Here’s an article for those of you who take IB Anthropology.
Ethics Quandary at Harvard Medical School: Should universities receive funding from pharmaceutical companies?
Posted in Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Mar 4th, 2009 No Comments »
Restricting IVF
Abortion? Don’t Mention It
Posted in Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Religion on Mar 4th, 2009 2 Comments »
Darwin’s God
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Language, Natural Sciences on Feb 28th, 2009 2 Comments »
Reading recommendations:
Slate asks Who should pay for in vitro fertilization?, a question that has arisen as part of the recent octuplets controversy. Also related to some of the presentation topics (e.g. “Synthetic Biology”) we have seen in class is another Slate article, which considers the the bad uses of good technology.
I would also like to recommend [...]
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Media, Natural Sciences on Feb 16th, 2009 3 Comments »
A Modern-Day Gattaca: “A Baby, Please. Freckles, Blond, Hold the Colic”
Fallen Soldiers, Coming Home in Public:…From our discussion in F-period today, a real-life example of a current discussion on how certain images – or the lack thereof – in media outlets can shape our views.
Plastic Surgery Confidential
Textual Misconduct: What to do about teens and their [...]
Posted in Ethics, Natural Sciences on Jan 31st, 2009 1 Comment »
A story that has had the world abuzz for the past few days is that of a 33-year old American woman giving birth to octuplets (yes, octuplets!). From the scientific point of view this is rather unique. At the moment all eight babies are alive and apparently doing well, and may go on to become [...]
Posted in Ethics, Natural Sciences on Jan 22nd, 2009 No Comments »
Some articles I read over the vacations that I wanted to share:
Creature Comforts – Service Animals
Motherhood at 70
Leave this Child Behind: Sports, Segregation and Environmental Eugencis
Posted in Emotion, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Religion on Dec 30th, 2008 1 Comment »
I am on a roll… posting, just in case you are planning to stay up late tomorrow night and get bored at some point.
Anyhow: An NYT article on how religious belief and piety promote self-control.
Posted in Emotion, Ethics, Natural Sciences on Dec 30th, 2008 No Comments »
I don´t think I yet posted this article, which has been up on Slate for some ten days.
And since you probably weren´t paying much attention to such issues in your pre-ToK time, here are some more articles:
First Face Transplant Carried Out in France (November 2005) – also check the links to articles on the top [...]
Posted in Ethics, Natural Sciences, Technology on Dec 16th, 2008 2 Comments »
I found this article rather worth reading today, as it raised some very challenging questions – that, according to the writer – we haven’t even yet started thinking about.
Posted in Natural Sciences, Sense Perception on Dec 9th, 2008 No Comments »
This article on the sense of touch (which we largely neglected in our discussion) is fascinating and rather insightful.
