Language Blog

Part 1

I found the experiment quite challenging. Not being able to speak to another individual was very difficult especially how it got challenging to communicate with others by using gestures. It was somewhat easy to say the simple stuff like saying hungry or I want to eat. But when it came to having a full conversation, the language barrier was a total mess. In a way my partners slightly alter their way of communication due to the fact that they had to keep guessing what I was trying to imply with my body gestures. It was as if they were playing Pictionary while laughing at me the same time. Realistically I believe that the culture that uses symbolic language would have an advantage in communicating complex ideas. Reason being is that although the speaking culture could have an advantage with speaking and getting faster results, but the fact is that both parties come from different language barriers which means anything that the speaking culture says will not be understood by the symbolic culture. Any language barrier can understand where as symbolic culture can use hand gestures like rubbing the stomach saying, “I’m hungry”.

Part 2

I actually did this activity at work. Since I’m a sales associate I actually talk to many customers. What I found out about this activity is that I didn’t realize how much hand gestures I use while I am communicating with people. Although I am still speaking I realized I use hand gestures to help emphasize points in what I am saying. This activity wasn’t as difficult as the non-speaking activity, but it felt very awkward trying not to change my tone of voice and my body movements. I noticed with the customers I talked to seem weirded out about the fact that I am just talking to them in a “boring” type of style. They immediately left after they got answers to what they needed. If I can learn one thing in this experiment I could say that the use of “signs” in our language is important with communication especially if you want to become convincing to the people listening to you. I am sure there are many people who disregard the reading of body language, but I think the benefit of being able to read body language can help you understand the mood and what the person is thinking. Especially when it comes to being a sales associate, I think it is very important to understand the customer’s body language because this can help the seller convince their customers.

Piltdown Blog

1. Begin by giving a brief synopsis of the Piltdown hoax, including when and where it was found, by whom, and varying affects this had on the scientific community. Also include how the hoax was discovered and the varying responses it received from the scientist(s) involved and in the related fields of human evolution. (5 pts)

The Piltdown man was a “great” scientific discovery during 1912. It was said that Charles Dawson made a great scientific discovery about human evolution.  Found in Southern English town, Louis in a little village of Piltdown, the Piltdown man was discovered. The Piltdown man was supposed to be the missing puzzle between ape and human. Charles Dawson and his companions, Author Smith Woodward and Father Pier Tarhard Disharden took the credit for the findings the fossils of the Piltdown man. About 40 years later, as science advanced other scientists were able to do a fluorine test on the Piltdown fossils and discover that the Piltdown man was merely a hoax. The hoax was discovered by running test on the fossil only to discover that the fossil was only 100,000 years old while the Piltdown man was said to be million years old. As scientists were able to run the fossils under a microscope, they found that the fossils were stained and the tooth of the Piltdown man was a orangutan with its teeth filed down. This hoax significantly impacted the scientific community. Before scientists were looked up to as a gentleman and was looked upon. Due to the hoax, they were later looked with less respect as before.

2. Scientists are curious, creative and persistent by nature, but being human, they also have faults. What human faults come into play here in this scenario and how did these faults negatively impact the scientific process? (5 pts)

Scientists only being human come with faults and in the scenario with Charles Dawson, he desperate to get into loyalty so he decided to use his knowledge wrongfully. He used his ability to deceive many people, one being the Piltdown man hoax. At the same time my people discovered that the Charles Dawson had many fraudulent science discoveries.

        

3. What positive aspects of the scientific process were responsible for revealing the skull to be a fraud? Be specific about scientific tools, processes or methodologies that were involved in providing accurate information about the Piltdown skull. (5 pts)

The aspects to revealing the skull to be a fraud was the advance back then, scientific tests. With better dating methods, scientists were able to discover that the fossils were purposely stained and dated about 100,000 years ago which was too young for a Piltdown man. Scientists also discovered that the jaw of the Piltdown man was a jaw of a 100,000-year-old orangutan. The broken pieces of the jaw were intentionally broken in a way that no one can distinguish that the jaw was of a orangutan. At the same time the teeth of the jaw was filed down so that it had similarities of a human.

4. Is it possible to remove the “human” factor from science to reduce the chance of errors like this happening again? Would you want to remove the human factor from science? (10 pts)

I don't believe that it is possible to remove the “human” factor from science. Reason being is that we were made like this and there is no way that anyone can run away from that factor. We were born to make mistakes and when you add science to the problem there is no possible way to prevent a situation like this to happen again.

5. Life Lesson: What lesson can you take from this historical event regarding taking information at face value from unverified sources? (5 pts)

The lesson is simple, looks can be very deceiving so always look at the facts and make sure there is proof. If someone comes up with a theory you always have to make sure that the person has facts to support his theory.

Analogy/Homology

1. Homologus Traits

1.     A) Two different species that have homologous trait is a monkey and human’s opposable thumbs.

B) Both species depend on their opposable thumbs for several tasks. Without opposable thumbs these species would be handicap and have a harder time getting around. When it comes to monkey they use their opposable thumbs to grasp thinks such as tree branches and picking up objects. As for humans, they have a more flexibility for manipulating small objects and they can move their thumbs across their hands much better and farther than any other primates.

C) One of the common ancestors to the human and ape species is the hominid species. Since the earliest hominid species diverged from the ancestor were shared with modern African apes. Five to eight million years ago there have been at least a dozen different species of these humanlike creatures.

2. Analogous Traits 

2.     A) Two species that have analogous traits would be a rhinoceros and an elephant’s horn

B) Both species have a horn like feature on their head. Reason being is that they use these horns to protect them selves from attack of other predators. The rhinoceros and elephant both have a thick layer which helps protect them from attacks as well.

C) As for a common ancestor for a rhinoceros would have to be a hyracodontidae, also known as “running rhinos” showed adaptations for speed, although they do not have a horn feature like the rhinoceros. As for the elephant, they diverged from a common ancestor of the Mammutidae, which includes species termed as mastodons. Unlike the rhinoceros ancestor, the elephant’s ancestor had a horn feature, mastodon being an example.

Protein Synthesis

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Historical Influence on Darwin

Thomas Malthus has had a significant influence towards Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural selection. Malthus’s observation that impacted Darwin was that nature plants, animals, and humans are able to produce far more offspring than can survive. Unless family size was regulated, population would grow less and less due to food famine.

 What is preventing organisms from reproducing at their potential?  The reason why organisms are being prevented from reproducing at their potential is due to the lack of environment space and amounts of food.

 Resources are limited. Just like the example of the rabbits, Malthus stated that we are able to produce far more offspring than can survive. Meaning that we do have the chose to produce as much offspring as we want, but we don't because we would not be able to help support the offspring with lack of food.

 Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts. With a bigger environment and a bigger supply of food, organisms will be able to produce offspring at their potential.

In a way Darwin might not be able to develop his theory of natural selection without the influence of Thomas Malthus. Malthus’s theory on population is basically the basis of Darwin’s theory.  Malthus’s theory is human population is going to decrease over time because there is not enough resources to keep a mas population. Therefore, the most fit will be able to survive and reproduce. Where as Darwin’s theory is scarcity of resources, territory, etc. leads to the most fit to survive from competition and thus the survivors will therefore create more babies and their genes will be passed to the next generation, thereby creating more species with those fit genes.

Darwin also wrote about Malthus in his autobiography (1876)

"In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long- continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The results of this would be the formation of a new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory by which to work".

The attitude of the church did affect Darwin because back then the church had a significant power over people, when Darwin publicized his book. Many people felt like they’re religion was being questioned. Christian belief about species is that they were all created by God and started with two humans named Adam and Eve. Darwin’s theory completely disregarded the Christian belief and stated that species evolve within time. This later became a very controversial issue.

URL: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/malthus.html