Eric Musgrave Week 1 Blog: Two Cultures

-

 


Hello, my name is Eric Musgrave and I am a fourth year Physiological Sciences major. The two cultures discussed in the Snow reading define a shift in my thinking and outlook on life both in and out of school. Growing up, I believe I was a lot more in touch with my creative, artsy side and I enjoyed painting, dancing and drawing. I made it a mission to learn everything about a particular topic when it peaked my interest. However, after years in the education system, I lost some of the creativity that defined my childhood.



In Two Cultures, C.P. Snow speaks to the stark divide that exists between those in humanities and those in STEM. The language of the scientist is oftentimes foreign to that of the artist (Snow). Upon being at UCLA, I have seen this phenomenon illustrated explicitly. Students here often struggle with enrollment passes and have to prioritize their major requirements when choosing classes. Hence, there is little to no space available to explore other fields of study outside of one's major. 


Consequently, the two cultures have not mixed much for me throughout undergrad and I therefore became a stereotypical south campus student (Vesna) with no significant tie to north campus outside of work. However, the third culture, which as explained by Brockman are "Scientists... communicating directly with the general public" has informed me otherwise. I did not realize that I represent the third culture. Through my work, I offer mentorship to high school students to aid in college readiness. The science and language learned via my major directly impacts the way I interact with my mentees. Through my work, I have and will continue to provide a necessary bridge between myself and students interested in STEM. 



The intrinsic relationship between "science and culture" (Pinker) is one I plan to utilize to elicit greater interest in STEM from the students that I work with. Now that I have completed my major requirements, some of the creativity that had since eluded me has returned. I have begun writing again and exploring passion projects in addition to career goals in STEM. Rather than attempting to mix my interests together, I instead focus on them separately which allows me to completely immerse myself in my career goals and/or passion projects at any given time. Whether or not this continues to work for me remains to be seen.



Works Cited

Graham-Rowe, Duncan. “John Brockman: Matchmaking with Science and Art.” Wired. www.wired.com, https://www.wired.com/story/matchmaking-with-science-and-art/. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Pinker, Steven. SEEDMAGAZINE.COM Two Cultures Steven Pinker. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BUbVc7qVpg. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Snow, C. P. (Charles Percy), 1905-1980. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York :Cambridge University Press, 1959.
Vesna, Victoria.  TwoCultures Part1. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNI7dF3DIAM. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
Vesna, Victoria. TwoCultures Pt2. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUr4xxZ_0gw. Accessed 4 Apr. 2024.
        

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eric Musgrave Event Blog #1 (MedTech + Art)

-
Image
On April 19th, I got the opportunity to attend a local church event that delved into advancements in healthcare and treatment of neurological diseases. I am highly interested in exploring a career in healthcare and as such, I took up the opportunity to hear from professionals in different healthcare careers.  In the event, I learned about the basic propagation of the action potential and the many ways that this signal transduction can be altered (ie. destroyed).   Neurological diseases encompass a wide variety of conditions such as Alzheimers, muscular dystrophy and myasthenia gravis. However, in essence, all of these conditions represent a fundamental disconnect between neurons and the target cells that they innervate. I learned that in the case of Alzheimer's, when cells called microglia are unable to clear a build-up of proteins, plaque forms around the brain cells. In Lecture 1 of the Medtec + Art lecture, Dr. V mentions the Human Genome Project and the importance of locat...
Read more

Eric Musgrave Week 9 Blog Space + Art

-
Image
This week's discussion about the innovation of space craft and the race to space was particularly interesting to me giving the vast amount of research and resources put into space exploration. The interesting relationship between space and art exists not only between "space" and the way that it was mostly discussed in the lectures/readings (ie. stars, planets, galaxies, etc.), but also in time space and consciousness. Brian Holmes states, "Space has... lost its place in consciousness over time and with this loss, a loss of orientation senses occurred" (2000). I interpret this quote as meaning that the word is arbitrary in its usage since it is essentially endless or rather, beyond human comprehension. This is best exemplified in the "Powers of Ten" video which uses space technology to show the image of a young couple having a picnic. The image is first zoomed out of (in powers of 10^n) further and further from Earth before eventually being zoomed in on...
Read more

Eric Musgrave Week 8 Blog NanoTech + Art

-
Image
This week's lectures discussed the use of nanotechnology and its modern day application in various forms of art. Specifically, nanotechnology was a term coined by Norio Taniguchi to refer to the manipulation of atoms and molecules or other structures with at least one dimension in the range of 1-100 nanometers (Gimzewski, Lecture 1). One way in which nanotechnology has been utilized is in the discovery of the different allotropes of carbon. The different allotropes of carbon such as diamond and graphite are connected in such a way, that their differing patterns responsible for creating each of them are unique and responsible for their properties (ie. conductor, shiny, dull, etc.). It is this unique relationship that makes nanotechnology so important in the world of art since these two allotropes of carbon differ geometrically, such as the hexagonal sheets created by graphite (Gimzewski, Lecture 2), but are nonetheless both made of pure carbon atoms. Dr. Gimzewski goes on to explain...
Read more