Researchers have found a connection between economic troubles and the emotions used in various genres of literature over time. What I found most interesting was that, even in non-fiction, technical literature, the researchers still found differences in words used that had a certain emotional connotation, depending on the emotions of the time period. It seems that these anthropologists are finding a link between the way our culture and emotion influences our language.

After reading this article, I thought about how much fear and the perceived threat of terrorism can be used quite effectively as manipulative tools. The article seemed to suggest that, because the US is so afraid/wary of a bioterrorism attack involving smallpox, we were willing to pay an excessive amount of money for emergency-use vaccines.

an interesting article that seems to pose the question: can our habits/perceptions be changed by brain stimulation?

This article claimed that the more we read (not just textbooks, but fiction), the greater capacity we have to know. It also said that many of the students in Mexico do not learn much because their teachers are ill-educated. This made me think of the knowledge question: how much can we know if we rely on inaccurate knowledge by authority?

This article was very interesting. It at fist described some of the disconnect between what we understand about scientists and what the scientists understand; in this case, the article argued that, while the 10-year grant to neuroscientific research seems great to the general public, it is extremely complicated to even begin mapping how our neurons interact. What I found the most intriguing though, was the fact that some scientists from UC San Francisco have found the exact part of the brain, as well as their mechanisms, that control our language function. The research concluded that for those who have lost their faculties of speech, by stroke or otherwise, could eventually speak again if a prosthetic was developed. In short, the article conveyed the idea that nothing is ever as simple as it seems; although we try to make advances in science, we often just wind up with a whole other set of problems to solve.

This article reaffirmed my feelings that we can't trust everything that we see or hear through the media, because it is often skewed to better captivate the target audience. As the article stated, there appears to be a fine line in catering to the attention span of the audience, and respecting the known facts of a given event that is portrayed by a movie.

A very eye-opening (albeit very long) article about the devastating effects that a stint in prison can have on a family. The article noted that many men who are sent to jail are often given sentences that are too long, so that, by the time they are released, they are way past the average age for committing crimes, and have missed out on valuable life experiences that could have aided them in getting a job. As a result, many of these men find it difficult to get a job, falling into a cycle of poverty, and perhaps, again, to crime. Additionally, for those who have spouses and/or children, time in prison can drastically harm the economic status of a man's family; without the extra income, these families may become homeless, as did the woman, Ms. Hamilton, in the article. Especially intriguing to me was the racial implications of the article; the author pointed out that African-American men are more likely to be incarcerated than they are to have a job, if they did not receive a high school diploma. In terms of TOK, this article showed that all the facets of the human sciences are related - from social problems to economic problems, times in prison can have a devastating effect on not only the jailed man, but his family as well.

This article provided some interesting insight on how/why different races look the way they do. On one hand, genetic mutations are propagated because of distinct advantages; on the other hand, the more "attractive" traits are propagated, no necessarily because they make people survive longer, but because they increase the rate of mating. Like we discussed in the human sciences, the process of human evolution has multiple causation.

This article talked about the connection for which psychologists are looking between violent video games and actual violence. Some studies have shown that exposure to a violent video game has short term effects, that drive people to act more rudely. However, other studies have shown that an increase in violent video game sales over a period of time have sometimes led to a decrease in crime. I'm interested to see if these psychologists can run some sort of brain scan as well, to see if there really is some sort of biological basis for a difference in behavior. Additionally, it would be great to see if the same phenomena occurred with violent or psychopathic movies or television shows.

An interesting article that reminded me of the discussions we had last year on whether math was invented or discovered. With regard to prime numbers, could we ever stop finding "new" ones? Can we ever find a formula to pinpoint every single prime number without dividing it by other numbers?

An interesting article about the need for distractions - if we focus too much on one thing at a time, we lose the capacity to tell whether it is good or not.

I realize that this article is in Spanish, so those who don't understand the language will likely be confused, but I thought that it was very interesting, and related to TOK. Essentially, the article talked about a study that Andreas Wagener, a German scientist did, in which it was discovered that people cough twice as much at classical music concerts than otherwise. Wagener also found that the amount of coughing was not random; rather, it was dependent on the style, tempo, etc. of the music being played. The slow, more modern pieces often elicited more coughs. Additionally, Wagener found that, similar to how we think about yawning, coughing is contagious; one cough can cause an avalanche of other coughs. The article also noted the possibility that some of the coughing going on during a classical music concert may not be the typical, involuntary, reflexive cough, but a deliberate cough of social interaction. In terms of TOK, I thought that this article was most interesting in that, when put into a situation in which we may be uncomfortable (often with silence), we cough more. I related this to my own experiences at Friends, during MFW, when people often seem to cough out of a need for interaction. It would be interesting to see if Wagener could work with some geneticists and biologists to discover if a connection between slow classical music and more coughing is purely biological, or if it stems from another causation of human behavior.

An interesting article/review of a book that compares statistics and human health. Interestingly enough, it shows that statistics and studies about health are often taken to be true and misinterpreted because we want them to be true, and we want to believe that some minor change in our lifestyles may somehow prevent us from getting cancer, for example. More info about the book from the publisher: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/detail.aspx?ID=24713

An interesting interview with young adults of many different faiths about why they have lost their beliefs in God. Interestingly enough, not a lot of these were about science, as I had initially expected upon clicking on the link to the article.

An interesting article about a new (and expensive!) gene therapy drug for an extremely small portion of the world's population. It reminded me of our discussions of utilitarianism during Jr. year TOK, in that insurance companies are not willing to cover the costs of certain medicines, because they will only benefit a small number of people. Instead, these companies prefer to cover the majority of people, to ensure their profit and their clients' benefit.