Inspiring Teachers

At ScienceBlogs, a teacher blogs about why it is dangerous to teach evolution in wherever he works in America. This guy who goes by the handle Coturnix opines:

You cannot bludgeon kids with truth (or insult their religion, i.e., their parents and friends) and hope they will smile and believe you. Yes, NOMA is wrong, but is a good first tool for gaining trust. You have to bring them over to your side, gain their trust, and then hold their hands and help them step by step. And on that slow journey, which will be painful for many of them, it is OK to use some inaccuracies temporarily if they help you reach the students. If a student, like [Natalie Wright] who I quoted above, goes on to study biology, then he or she will unlearn the inaccuracies in time.

First question, what is truth here? Or is it Truth (capital T). Most likely it’s the latter since the guy denies NOMA. Second, why teach your Truth: your spin interpretation of the scientific data and concepts as the truth in a public school/college? Whatever happened to the noble ideal of secularism.

As a student, I say if ever I knew that my biology teacher was using NOMA to gain my trust, only to teach his version of the “truth”, I’d be mad. Thank God, my A-level (and high school) Biology teachers were not like that. If they were, it will only have served to destroy the respect I have for whatever truth the teacher represents.

I do not understand why it is necessary to use some ‘inaccuracies’ about evolution in order to “reach” the students (is it some kind of evangelism?). I mean Coturnix is most definitely not teaching about evolution to little children; rather to teenagers and adults I guess. So why the need for ‘inaccuracies’? And by the way, the students are not gonna like you for teaching inaccuracies (or lies if knowingly done) if they find it out later on in their academic life.

Reading Coturnix’s article, initially I thought I found a positive thing to commend:

If there is a potential resentment of my lectures, I have to thread carefully. I have to remember that I am not trying to turn them into biologists, but that I am trying to make them think for themselves and to understand evolution even if they do not want to ‘believe’ it for religious reasons.

However, I found his intention very insincere in light of his other desires.

Now I will mention some of the things about my science teachers that inspired me and put me steadily on the path to becoming a scientist.

Bone Diggers

This is a hilarious parody of Kanye West’s song Gold Diggers with the theme being Evolution. The lyrics’ got digs at Paleontologists. No offence to them! I just find the pop culture understanding of stuff like this funny.

Lyrics after the break….

Storm the Gates of Hell

“Storm the Gates of Hell” is the title for the latest album from the Metal band, Demon Hunter. I had quite high expectations for their newest album since I loved the previous one (The Triptych). I got the ‘Special Edition’ of the album as I like to watch interviews with the band members and hear their commentary about the album. What follows are some thoughts from a fan so it might not exactly be a dispassionate critique of the pros and cons of the musical complexities expressed in this album. So here we go…

One thing that impresses me of this band is the whole presentation of the album. The covers and the booklets are well designed. The cover design is a departure from the conventional CD cover design (a positively artistic departure at that):

I like how the cover opens like a door; Hell’s door with the logo of the hunted demon on it. The demon is ‘hunted’ because of a hole in its head–presumably made by the Hunter’s weapon. I liked the symbolisms. As you open the doors you see a statement on the inside of the doors…

“Hell Hath No Fury At All”

I liked the very bold statement. This statement of rebellion to dark forces is very appealing in the midst of bands that sing about embracing darkness. The irony is that those bands that sing about embracing darkness started out as a rebellion themselves! Now there are so much of them that they are the “mainstream” and bands like Demon Hunter are the rebels!

All this prepared me for the sonic pleasure that awaited. As usual, I played the CD in my home theatre and the first song was “Storm the Gates of Hell”. The start sounded like the stampede of the hunters and the hunted but what followed it could only be best described in the words of the bassist, “…pure aggression from beginning to end, no ceasing, no letting up, no choruses, not giving you chance to breathe…y’know just pummeling from beginning to end…”. Nearing the end of the song, the phrase “Hell hath no fury at all” was screamed/growled by the lead singer Ryan Clark with ’squealies’ flying off the guitars like arrows in the background. It…was…pure headbanging awesomeness. A phrase like that found its ultimate expression from the mouth of Ryan Clark. It really does makes one think, “Hell hath no fury at all”, indeed. Oh yeah, I was screaming it in my mind too since I did not want to ruin Ryan’s vocal performance by doing it audibly myself.

The song “Sixteen” captured my interest. It had guest vocals from Bruce Fitzhugh of Living Sacrifice. The vocals by him reminded me of the album Burning Bridges by Haste the Day. It was different and dare I say a bit refreshing as well. This type of growling is one of the deepest and darkest form of vocals I have heard. When a whole album is comprised of vocals with only one type of vocal style it would get rather monotonous and grow stale before you know it. The original vocal style would then quickly become unoriginal. However, employed like in the song “Sixteen” it adds to the texture of the song very well while maintaining variety.

A Cognitively Dissonant Faith

Over at Parchment and Pen, Michael Patton had an interesting post about a person Virginia who apparently was “de-converted” from Christianity after 23 years of cognitively dissonant faith. Here are some thoughts:

Apparently, Virginia made a commitment to Christianity during a time of crisis in her family:

Virginia: “Christianity thrives on human suffering and yearn for community. It was precisely under these circumstances that I committed myself to Christ at 19 years old, when my family got into serious trouble — father filed for bankruptcy, my parents separated.”

Many people turn to religion in times of trouble in their lives. Such people tend to make a decision to follow a religion during emotional situations on a whim. After they are “in” they begin investigate the truth claims of the religion to find reasons for their belief. This latter phase usually happens after the crisis situation has finished. If during this period they do not find reasonable answers for their questions, they lead cognitively dissonant lives. For some, they find the answers they were looking for and some don’t. The latter group tend to be frustrated and lose their way. This is a very cumulative process as they investigate more and more issues, they become skeptical increasingly and as such come to identify with a skeptical viewpoint eventually.

Virginia: “I began fervently witnessing Christ, became a cell group leader on Bible study, witnessed to friends and relatives about Jesus and the salvation, using the tracts supplied from my church. I was active in church and in my college years, also leaded evangelizing activities witnessing Jesus. However, I sensed in the entire ethos of this set of belief, some incompleteness.”

Mike Patton comments on the “incompleteness” she mentions:

I would imagine that the “incompleteness” comes from a rising realization of “cognitive dissonance.” Cognitive dissonance describes a physiological condition[sic] where a person’s beliefs are in contradiction to other beliefs or the way they live. Often people’s habitual patterns do not harmonize with their intellectual convictions. In Christianity, it is often the case where people live according to a Christian worldview due to traditional bents without ever experiencing a true cognitive or intellectual conversion to such. This produces a dichotomous life of dissonance—inconsistency in their beliefs and practices. I would imagine that this is the case with Virginia.

Cognitive Dissonance is a psychological condition btw and the stress it brings is magnified in a situation like this where a person is inconsistent in their actions rather than in their thoughts. Mike then reveals some reasons for her leaving the faith. Some of them I found rather unreasonable.

August Burns Red: Composure

This video made me buy August Burns Red’s album “Messengers”. I guess Solid State Records have successfully marketed this band. Just look at the number of views this video alone has got: ~ 900,000 hits. That opening riff is one of those lovely “build-up” intro I heard in a long time. That stuck in my head for one whole day- my brain had recorded the riff and put it in repeat. The drummer of this band is one of those guys that remind you throughout the song that it is because of him alone that the song sounds awesome. All the riffs and screaming would amount to nothing if there wasn’t this drummer doing his thing. As a guitarist it gives you a humbling thought. Matt Greiner, I salute you.

The album is a very good specimen of Modern Metal. One criticism is that 10 out of 11 songs kinda sounded similar in structure with that ever-present short pause between the Intro and the Verse adding to the monotony. Other than that, the guitarists are literal riff machines! Each song has at least 10 riffs–it leaves your head spinning as you come to terms with them.

I’m pleased that the band is coming to UK on a headlining tour. W00t! London, November ‘08 here I come!

Scientists and their Poetic language

Whilst reading an article by a Physicist where he considers two quotes by scientists, I remembered a quote I came across when reading the book Edge of Evolution (by Dr. Michael Behe). The quote was attributed to Max Perutz. Apparently, it was his first reaction when finally myoglobin’s structure was worked out. It was the first time a protein’s structure has been worked out. What he said made me laugh:

“Could the search for ultimate truth really have revealed so hideous and visceral-looking an object?”

LOL! Ultimate truth, eh? This is the problem with some scientists trying to be waxing. It doesn’t suit them well. They tend to blurt out some nonsense. I mean does this guy really think finding the 3D structure of a protein is the Ultimate Truth?

Behe quoted this, and responded that proteins are made to carry out a function, they are not made to look pretty. But check out this picture:

The Tetrahymena Puzzle and the Origin of Life

Over at Telic Thoughts, Bilbo had a repost of Mike Gene’s Tetrahymena Puzzle. Tetrahymena I should know is one of the model organisms in Genetics just like the Drosophila fly. After racking my sophomoric brain for two days trying to come up with an answer, I failed. Now Mike has revealed the answer over at his blog.

The Puzzle:

Lets begin by making a media with the following ingredients: amino acids, glucose, vitamins, nucleosides, salts and citrate. Next, let’s transfer a single Tetrahymena cell to 1 microliter of the media. That corresponds to a density of 1000 cells per ml. What happens? The cell does what cells do – it divides and forms a population of cells.

But what happens if you transfer a single Tetrahymena cell to 10 microliters of media (which corresponds of 100 cells per mi.)? Answer – it dies.

So why does this single-celled organism die when it is surrounded by an abundance of food and there are no predators or toxins around?

For the answer, go here.

Mnemonics for Amino Acids

I was searching around for some good Mnemonics or acronyms or anything I could find to remember the 20 essential amino acids names and structures. I found an excellent article here relating the structures of all the amino acids with easy ways to remember them. I’m going to mention things I found helpful for me here.

For those amino acids having non-polar aliphatic side chains, it was suggested that GAVLIMP as a good acronymn. For pronounciations sake it could be like:

G= Glycine

A= Alanine

Va= Valine

L= Leucine

I= Isoleucine

M= Methionine

P= Proline

Put it together, it comes to GAVa-LIMP. Thing is, the structures of the amino acids increase in complexity as you go from Glycine to Proline with Glycine having a hydrogen atom for the “R”- group while Proline has a sort of “penta-cyclic” side chain. Another way I remember this is swapping the first letters of the GAVa and LIMP to give LAVa-GIMP. Those of you that use Linux, will know that GIMP is a famous photo editing cum drawing program. So I picture the programs mascot, Wilber glowing with lava/fire!

Josh Myers Band Rocks!

This has got to be one of the little Jem that I discovered in music this year. My personal music collection was a little low on Instrumental Music, so I was searching around and found the Josh Myers Band. After looking at some videos of the band at YouTube, I ordered their album Soul Serenade Sessions.

Put it in my home theatre and was treated to an hour of inspiring and beautiful music. I loved the very soulful style of the lead guitarist Josh Myers. I’m one of those people who likes shredding in moderation while relying on melodies. That is exactly what one finds in Josh. This guy has inspired me quite a lot and I like to listen to this album to observe and learn how the various riffs have been put together in creating a seamless song.

The guitar tones in some of the songs made me have “Eureka” moments. In fact some of the tones represent the ideals I aspire of achieving. Let me try to describe the some things I loved in this album: