Real Beauty

This video was shown to me last year by my Concepts of Self teacher Professor Wade. It had an immediate reaction on me. At first I wanted to deny the message, to run from the horrible truth. The sad fact of the issue is that it is undeniably true. It tells us that to be perfect, to be wanted, to be better, we cannot be ourselves. Looking back on that ad now through the lens of Darwin, I see a clear evolution of human culture.

How is it that we have arrived at this moment. Where we adore the appearance more than the person? I'll take a jump and say this has been an issue ever since the human race was a patriarchal society. Elizabeth Stanton piece in Darwin(Pg. 426) pushes the idea that this patriarchal society arose from Christian religion. She tells us that women are put into a subordinate role because of the temptation of Eve and the fall of man. Looking at many other religions, women also are cast in the same role. This religious persecution helped men rise as the leaders of humanity thousands and thousands of years ago, and it is only in our contemporary times when women has begun to assert themselves from under the rule of men. Even as the shift was happening it was opposed by some of the most revolutionary minds. Darwin, a brilliant man, made a list of the things marriage would bring him " ... constant companion, (friend in old age) who will feel interested in one, object to be beloved and played with - better than a dog anyhow - Home, and someone to take care of the house ..." (Darwin, 1958:232,233)

"better than a dog anyhow" those words stopped me. He is comparing a loving relationship with his future wife to a dogs companionship.... This kind of thinking arose from his research in evolution. Women being inferior was an absolute for his theory to work. Darwin observed that natural selection only applied to the males because they were the ones in dangerous situations. They fed the family, they found shelter, they are the ones who foughtt for a mate. Females on the other hand did little in the wild, they stayed at the nest, or home and tended to the young. Their only other task was to submit to the male.

Philip K. Dicks story The Golden Man captures Darwin's point of view perfectly. Cris is another step in evolution. Not only can he see into the future, but he is irresistible to women. These two attributes in combination give him the greatest chance of survival. In the story, a brilliant women by the name of Anita Ferris is reduced to a submissive role when she encounters Cris. These Darwinian theories are called into question by Evelleen Richards in her article "Darwin and the Descent of Women". Her opinion on Darwin's ideas was that he was trapped in the Victorian style of thinking when it came to social class and that his ideas of women are needed to confirm his theory.

Women's conditions have evolved radically within the past century. The suffrage movement gave the right to vote. Since that moment women have begun to change society. For the first time in American history a women ran for president. However, mass media often still paints women as objects to only be looked at. This is beginning to breakdown though. I watched a clip of The Incredible's recently. A line by Edna (the costume maker) snagged me, " Super models. Heh! nothing super about them... spoiled, stupid little stick figures with poofy lips who think only about themselves" These small remarks are a simple way to alert people to our adolescent view of women. The video I share with you is part of Dove's campaign for Real Beauty. Instead of finding professional models they are using non-tradition models like normal mothers, to express the opinion that the human race is above this petty beauty contest.

After reading Darwin I can observe this evolution of human culture. Hopefully within this generation the evolution of women's roles will reach new heights and become truly equal. Small steps like Dove campaign are closer to making that dream a reality.

Works Cited
Dick, Philip K. "The Golden Man." The Philip K. Dick Reader. New York: Kensington Corp, 1997. 31-55. Print.

-----. (Nora Barlow, Ed.). 1958. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

"Evolution" No wonder our perception of beauty is so distorted. Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Dove. Web. 26 Nov. 2009. .
Richards, Evelleen. “Darwin and the Descent of Women.” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip Appleman, ed . New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. “The Women’s Bible.” in Darwin. 3rd ed. Philip Appleman, ed . New York: W.W.Norton, 2001.

The Incredibles. Dir. Brad Bird. Prod. John Walker. Perf. Craig T. Nelson Holly Hunter Sarah Vowell Spencer Fox Jason Lee. Walt Disney Pictures, 2004. DVD.

Synthetic Life

The idea behind man creating new life is timeless. Can we take the power of God into our own hands? In 1818, the book Frankenstein was published. It was a story about the creation of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is life created by the tinkering of an organisms genes like they did in Jurassic Park. Michal Crichton wrote the soon to be bestseller, Jurassic Park: The Lost World in 1990, the book captured the imaginations of thousands. It was a tale about modern science finding the key to genetics. In the story, dinosaur DNA was found and extracted from mosquitoes trapped in amber. The DNA was then spliced together with frog DNA to fill in the gaps. Dinosaurs once again ruled the world.

In real life however, this trick cannot be easily duplicated. Instead, a man by the name of Craig Venter has been working with a team to create synthetic life. Synthetic life is the creation of life using Abiotic organisms (no living - viruses, and similar creatures). He began his search in 1990, on cataloging thousands and thousands of genomes. In 2008, he showed the world what he had created.

His team successfully took the Genome of a bacterium called Mycoplasma Mycoides, cut out the genetic code they did not want and transferred it into a yeast cell. Yeast cells have the ability to repair and organize genetic material. The yeast stitched the genome back together. By doing this he created the first synthetic (man-made) genome. They then took the completed code, and transferred it into a bacterium Mycoplasma Capricolum. This bacterium began to move and act and produce colonies of the altered Mycoplasma Mycoides.

So what does this mean for the future? The first step is the create microbes that can be utilized in everyday life. Ideas being thrown around currently, are microbes that consume plastic and glass to clean dump yards. Another huge step, would be microbes that could create oil as a waste. Some many different possibilities exist. Many things can go wrong however. A microbe could be produced that targets a certain individual’s cells, making viruses a tool of assassination or war.
Whatever the future holds it is coming quickly. Craig Venter has said that the first synthetic bacteria will be created by the end of this year.

Here is the link i will be showing in class on Monday, i will not be playing the entire thing, but for those interested youtube.com

Schizophrenia in the 1800's

Little was known in the scientific world about Schizophrenia in the 18th century. We will explore how the world reacted to this unknown disorder, and the history behind it.
Throughout the 1700's, Schizophrenia was commonly confused with the mental illness dementia. Starting in the 18th century, scientists began to notice small differences between the two disorders yet the actual term Schizophrenia was not coined until the early 19th century.
The rise of mental institutions began at the turn of the 17th century. In prior decades, mental patients were housed in insane asylums and normal hospitals. These places treated patients as a near sub-human class. They were put onto display for the entertainment of the public. The mental institutions introduced the moral treatment method which was far more humane. These buildings were set away from the busy cities, giving the patients a calm environment.
One of the largest barriers for Schizophrenia research comes from the lack of scientific case studies. Throughout the evolution schizophrenia, many medical scientists attempted to pinpoint the exact symptoms of it, through the observations and study of various "mad" individuals. One of the greatest contributors to this progression was the medical psychiatrist John Haslam. Haslam's case study of the individual James Tilly Mathews helped to identify and classify the various rudimentary contributing symptoms of schizophrenia.

Find out more about schizophrenia from this book, Amazon.com
And for a patients story follow this link: http://www.youtube.com

Overcoming the Fears

The various videos from the you-tube playlist had a common theme of the destructive nature and terrible power of technology. This can be showcased in the videos of Pinky and the Brain using technology to gain yet more power, the experimentations of Dr. Frankenstein who with the terrible power of science created a monster, and the incredible devastation unleashed by a nuclear bomb. Despite all the fears, modern culture embraces technology every day. While embracing the technology of today, we seem to fear the technology of tomorrow.

However, this has not gotten in the way of huge technological leaps. In November 2008, the world’s largest super collider called the Large Hadron Collider went online. Located on the border between France and Switzerland, it is a ring nearly 27 kilometers long. This expensive machine would allow scientists to study the beginnings of the universe, dark matter, the possibility of parallel universes and several other experiments. Some feared that by activating the device, the experiments would cause a black hole. We have laid aside our fears of the machine though, and it will once again power up after minor repairs this coming November. More information about the LHC can be found at their website http://public.web.cern.ch/public/

"The Large Hadron Collider." Eurpeon Oragization for Nuclear Research. CERN, 2008. Web. 2 Sept. 2009. .