TPO 08
Conversation 1
Stu: Hi, I’d like to drop of my graduation form; I understand you need this in order to process my diploma.
Pro: Ok, I will take that. Before you leave, let's me check our computer. Looks like you are OK for graduation, and actually, I am getting a warning fly on your academic record here.
Stu: Really?
Pro: Yeah. Let's see was what. Are you familiar with your graduation requirements?
Stu: Yes, I think so
Pro: Then you know you need 48 credits in your major field to graduate and at least 24 credits in the intermediate level or higher. Also, after your second year, you have to meet with your department chair to outline a plan for the rest of your time here. In the past, we also issue letters before students’ final year began to let them know what they needed to take in the final year to be OK, but we don't do that anymore.
Stu: I definitely met with my chair person 2 years ago; he told me that I need 8 more courses at the intermediate level or higher in the last 2 years to be OK. So I am not sure what the problem is, I make sure I got these credits.
Pro: Unfortunately, the computer is usually pretty reliable; I am not sure what was going on here.
Stu: It could be that I have taken 2 basic courses but couple both of them with a few experiences.
Pro: What do you mean?
Stu: I could only take intro courses because there were no intermediate level courses available for those particular topics. My chair person told me that if I did the independent field researches in addition to the science work each course; they would count as the intermediate level courses. My classmates, some of my classmates, did this for an easy way to meet their intermediate course requirement, but I did it to get the kind of depth in those topics was going for. As I turned out I was really enjoy the field work, which I supplement just sitting and listening the lectures
Pro: I am sure that’s true, but the computer still showing the miss basic level courses despite the
field work.
Stu: I am not sure what to do then, I mean, should I cancel my graduation party?
Pro: No, no reason to get worry like that, just contact your chair person immediately, ok, tell him to call me as soon as possible so that we can verify your field work arrangement and certify these credits right away. It’s not only there is an actual deadline to date you anything. But if more than a few weeks go by, we might have a real problem that would difficult to fix in time for you to graduate. In fact, there probably would be nothing we could do.
Stu: I will get on that.
【Lecture 1 Animal Behavior】
Pro: Well, last time we talked about passive habitat selection, like plants for example, they don't make active choices about where to grow. They are dispersed by some other agent, like the wind. And if the seeds land in a suitable habitat, they do well and reproduce. With active habitat’s selection, an organism is able to physically select where to live and breed. And because the animal breeding habitat is so important, we expect animal species to develop preferences for particular types of habitats. Places where their offspring have the best chance for survival. So let's look at the effect the preference can have by looking at some examples, but first let’s recap. What do we mean by habitat? Frank?
Stu: Well, it’s basically the place or environment where an organism normally lives and grows.
Pro: Right, and as we discussed, there are some key elements that habitat must contain, food obviously, water, and is got have a right climate and basics for physical protection. And we were sound how important habitat selection is when we look at the habitat were some of the factors are removed, perhaps through habitats’ destruction. I just read about a short bird, the plover. The plover lives by the ocean and feeds on small shellfish insects in plants. It blends in with the sand, so it well camouflage from predator birds above. But it lags eggs in shallow depressions in the sand with very little protection around them. So if there are people or dogs on the beach, the eggs and fledglings in the nest are really vulnerable. Outing California weather has been a lot of human development by the ocean. The plovers are now is threaten species. So conservation is tried to recreate a new habitat for them. They made artificial beaches and sun bars in area inaccessible to people and dogs. And the plover population is up quite a bit in those places. Ok. That is an incidence where a habitat is made less suitable. But now, what about the case where animal exhibits a clear choice between two suitable habitats in cases like that. Dose the preference matter? Let's look at the blue warbler. The Blue warbler is a songbird that lives in the North America. They clearly prefer hard wood forests with dense shrubs, bushes underneath the trees. They actually nest in the shrubs, not the trees. So they pretty close to the ground, but these warblers also nest in the forests that have low shrub density. It is usually the younger warblers that next to the area because prefers spots where a lot of shrubs are taken by order more dominant birds. And the choice of habitat seems to affect the reproductive success. Because the order and more experienced birds who nest in the high density shrub areas have significantly more offspring than those in low density areas, which suggests that the choice of where to nest does have impact on the number of chicks they have. But preferred environment doesn't always seem to correlate with greater reproductive success. For example, In Europe, study has been done of blackcap warblers. We just call them blackcaps. Blackcaps can be found in two different environments. Their preferred habitat is forest that near the edge of streams. However, blackcaps also live in pine woods away from water. Study has been done on the reproductive success rate for birds in both areas, and the result showed surprisingly that the reproductive success was essentially the same in both areas--- the preferred and the second choice habitat. Well. Why? It turns out there were actually four times as many bird pairs or couples living in the stream edge habitat compared to the area away from the stream, so this stream edge area had much denser population which meant more members of same species competing for the resources. When into feed on same thing or build their nests in the same places, which lower the suitability of the prime habitat even though its their preferred habitat. So the results of the study suggests that when the number of the competitors in the prime habitat reaches a certain point, the second random habitat becomes just as successful as the prime habitat, just because there are fewer members of the same species living there. So it looks like competition for resources is another important factor in determining if particular habitat is suitable.
【Lecture 2 Art History】
Pro: We had been talking about the art world in the late century in Paris. Today I’d like to look at the woman who went to Paris at that time to become artists. Now from your reading what do you know about Paris about the art world of Paris during the late nineteen centuries?
Stu: People came from all over the world to study.
Stu: It had a lot of art schools and artists who taught painting. There were, our book mention is classes for women artists. And it was a good place to go to study art.
Pro: If you want to become an artist, Paris was not a good place to go; Paris is THE place to go. And women could find skills and instructors there. Before the late 19 century. If they women who want to become an artist have to take private lessons or learn from family members. They have more limited options than men did. But around 1870s, some artists in Paris began to offer classes for female students. These classes are for women only. And by the end of the 19 century, it became much more common for woman and man to study together in the same classes. So within few decades, things had changed significantly. Ok let back up again and talk about the time period from 1860 to the 1880s and talk more about what had happened in the woman art classes. In 1868, a private art academy open in Paris, and for decades it was the probably the most famous private art school in the world. It is founder Rudolph Julian was a canny business man. And quickly establish his school as a premiere destination for women artists. What he did was? After an initial trail period of mixed class, He changed the schools' policy. He completely separated the man and woman students.
Stu: Any reason why he did that?
Pro: Well. Like I said Julian was a brilliant business man, with progressive ideas. He thought another small private art school where all the students were women was very popular at that time. And that’s probably why he adopted the women only classes. His classes were typically offer by an established artist and were held in the studio, the place where they painted. This was a big deal because finally women could study art in a formal setting. And there was another benefit to the group setting in these classes. The classes included weekly criticism. And the teacher would rank the art of all the students in the class from best to worst. How would you like if I did that in this class?
Stu: Hah…No way. But our test book said the competitive…competition was good for women. It
helps them see where they need to improve.
Pro: Isn’t that interesting? One woman artist, her name was Marry Bashkirtseff. Bashkirtseff once wrote how she felt about classmate’s work. She thought her classmates’ art was much betterthan her own and it gave her an incentive to do better. Overall the competition in the women’s art classes gave women more confidence. Confidence they could also compete in the art world after their schooling. And even though Bashkirtseff could not study in the same classes as man, she was having an impact as an artist. Just look like the salon, what do you know about the salon?
Stu: It was a big exhibition, a big art show and they had in Pairs every year. They art had to be accepted by judges.
Stu: It was a big deal you can make a name for yourself.
Pro: You can have a painting or sculpture in the salon and go back to your home country saying you were been success in the Paris.
It was sort of, see of approval. It was a great encouragement for an artist career. By the last two decades of 19 century, one fifth of the paintings in the salon were by woman, much higher than in the past. In fact, Marry Bashkirtseff self had a painting in the salon in the 1881. Interestingly this masterpiece called In the Studio is a painting of interior of Julian’s art school. It is not in your test book I will show you the painting next week, the painting depiction active crowd studio with woman drawing and painting life model. It was actually Bashkirtseff actually follow Julian savvy suggestion and painted her fellow students in a class at the school was the artist herself at far right. A great advertisement for the school when the painting eventually hung up at the salon, for a woman studio had never been painted before.
Conversation 2
Pro: So, Richer, what is up?
Stu: I know we will have a test coming up on chapter on.
Pro: Chapter 3 and 4 from text book.
Stu: Right, 3 and 4, I didn’t get something you said on class Monday.
Pro: Alright? Do you remember what was it about?
Stu: Yes, you were talking about a gym health club where people can go to exercise that kind of
thing.
Pro: Ok, but the health club model is actually from chapter 5.so…
Stu: Ok, chapter 5 so it not--Ok but I guess I still want to try to understand…
Pro: Of course, I was talking about an issue in strategic marketing, the healthy club model; I mean with a health club you might think they would trouble attracting customs right?
Stu: Well, I know when I pass by a healthy club and I see although people working out, the exercising, I just soon walk on by.
Pro: Yes, there is that. Plus, lots of people have exercise equipment at home, or they can play sports with their friends. right?
Stu: Sure.
Pro: But nowadays in spite of all that, and expensive membership fees, health club are hugely popular, so how come?
Stu: I guess that is I didn’t understand.
Pro: Ok, basically they have to offer things that most people can find anywhere else, you know quality, that means better exercise equipment, higher stuff, and classes-exercise classes may be aerobics.
Stu: I am not sure if I…ok I get it. And you know another thing is I think people probably feel good about themselves when they are at gym. And they can meet new people socialize.
Pro: Right, so health club offer high quality for facilities. And also they sold an image about people having more fun relating better to others and improving their own lives if they become members.
Stu: Sure that makes sense.
Pro: Well, then, can you think of another business or organization that could benefit from doing this? Think about an important building on campus here, something everyone uses, a major sources of information?
Stu: You mean like an administrative building?
Pro: Well, that is not what I had in my mind.
Stu: You mean the library.
Pro: Exactly. Libraries, imagine publish libraries; there are information resource for the whole community right?
Stu: Well they can be, now, with the internet and big book stores, you can probably get what you need without going to a library.
Pro: That’s true. So if you were the director of a public library, what will you do about that?
Stu: To get more people to stop in, well, like you said, better equipments, maybe a super fast internet connection, not just a good variety of books but also like nice and comfortable areas where people can read and do research. Things make them want to come to the library and stay.
Pro: great.
Stu: Oh, maybe have authors come and do some readings or special presentations. Something people couldn’t get home.
Pro: Now, you are getting it.
Stu: Thanks, professor Williams, I think too.
【Lecture 3 History】
Pro: So we’ve been talking about the printing press. How it changes people’s lives, ** books more accessible to everyone. More books mean more reading, right? But, as you know, not everyone has perfect vision. This increasing literacy, um, in reading, led to an increasing demand for eye glasses. And here’s something you probably haven’t thought of. This increased demand impacted the societal attitudes toward eye glasses. But, first let me back up a bit and talk about vision correction before the printing press. And, um, what did people with poor vision do, I mean, especially those few people who were actually literate? What did they do before glasses were invented? Well, they had different ways of dealing with not seeing well. If you think about it, poor vision wasn’t their only problem. I mean, um, think about the conditions they lived in: houses were dark, sometimes there weren’t any windows; candles were the only source of light. So in some places, um, like ancient Greece for example, the wealthiest people with poor vision could have someone else read to them- easy solution if you could afford it. Another solution was something called a “reading stone”. Around 1000 C.E. European monks would take a piece of clear rock, often quartz, and place it on top of the reading material. The clear rock magnified the letters, ** them appear larger, um, looks like what happens when a drop of water falls on something, whatever ’s below the drop of water appears larger, right? Well, the “reading stone” works in a similar way. But rocks like quartz, well, quartz of optical quality weren’t cheap. Late in the 13th century, glass maker in Italy came up with a less expensive alternative. They made reading stones out of clear glass. And these clear glass reading stones evolved into the eye glasses we know today. So we’re pretty sure that glasses were invented about the late 1200’s, well, over a hundred years before the printing press. But it’s not clear who exactly invented them first or exactly what year. But record shows that they were invented in both Europe and China at about the same time. By the way, we call this “independent discovery”. Independent discovery means when something is invented in different parts of the world at the same time and it’s not as unusual as it sounds. You can look at the timeline chart at the back of your textbook to see when things were invented in different cultures at about the same time to see what I’m talking about. So now let’s tie this to what I’ve said before about societal attitude towards glasses. Initially in parts of Europe and in China, glasses were a symbol of wisdom and intelligence. This is evidence in an artwork from the period. European paintings often portrayed doctors or judges wearing glasses. In China, glasses were very expensive. So in addition to intelligence, they also symbolize affluence, um, wealth. In 14th century Chinese portrays the bigger the glasses, the smarter and wealthier this object was. So glasses were a steady symbol in some parts of the world. Now let’s go back to the invention of the painting press in 1440. What happened? Suddenly, books became widely available and more people wanted to read. So the need, oh well, actually not only the need but the demand for more affordable glasses rose drastically. Eventually, inexpensive glasses were produced, and then glasses were available to everyone. People could purchase them easily from a traveling peddler.
【Lecture 4 Chemistry】
Pro: So, are there any questions?
Stu: Yes, um, Professor Harrison, you were saying that the periodic table is predictive. What exactly does that mean? I mean I understand how it organize the elements but where’s the prediction?
Pro: Ok, let’s look at our periodic table again. Ok, it is a group of elements in the categories that share certain properties, right?
Stu: Um-huh~
Pro: And it is ranged according to increasing atomic number, which is…
Stu: The number of protons in each atom of an element.
Pro: Right, well, early versions of the periodic table had gaps, missing elements. Every time you had one more proton, you had another element. And then, oops, there have been atomic number, for which there’s no known element. And the prediction was that the element, with that atomic number existed someway, but it just haven’t been found yet. And its location in the table would tell you what properties that you should have. It was really pretty exciting for scientists at that time to find these missing elements and confirm their predictive properties. Um, actually, that reminds other, other very good example of all these, element 43. See on the table, the symbol for element 42 and 44. In early versions of the table, there was no symbol for element 43 protons because no element with 43 protons had been discovered yet. So the periodic table had gap between elements 42 and 44. And then in 1925, a team of chemists led by scientist named Ida Tack’s claimed they had found element 43. They had been using a relatively new technology called X-ray spectroscopy, and they were using this to examine an ore sample. And they claimed that they’d found an element with 43 protons. And they named it Masuria.
Stu: Um, Professor Harrison, then, how come in my periodic table, here, element 43 is Tc, that’s Technetium, right?
Pro: Ok, let me add that.
Actually, um, that’s the point I’m coming to. Hardly anyone believed that Tack’s discovered the new element. X-ray spectroscopy was a new method at that time. And they were never able to isolate enough Masurium to have available sample to convince everyone the discovery. So they were discredited. But then, 12 years later in 1937, a different team became the first to synthesize the element using a cyclotron. And that element had…
Stu: 43 protons?
Pro: That’s right, but they named it Technetium to emphasize that it was artificially created with technology. And people thought that synthesizing these elements, ** it artificially was the only way to get it. We still haven’t found it currently in nature. Now element 43 would be called Masurium or Technetium is radioactive. Why is that matter? What is true of radioactive element?
Stu: It decays it turns into other elements. Oh, so does that explain why was missing in periodic table?
Pro: Exactly, because of radioactive decay, element 43 doesn’t last very long. And therefore, if that ever had been present on earth, it would decay ages ago. So the Masurium people were obviously wrong, and the Technetium people were right. Right? Well, that was then, now we know that element 43 does occur naturally. It can be naturally generated from Uranium atom that has spontaneous split. And guess what, the ore sample that the Masurium group was working with had plenty of Uranium enough to split into measurable amount of Masurium. So Tack’s team might very well have found small amounts of Musurium in the ore sample just that once was generated from split Uranium decayed very quickly. And you know here’s an incredible irony, Ida Tack, led the chemist of that Musurium team, and were she the first to suggest that Uranium could break up into small pieces but she didn’t know that that was the defense of her own discovery of element 43.
Stu: So is my version of periodic table wrong? Should element 43 really be called Musurium?
Pro: Maybe, but it’s hard to tell for sure after all this time, if Ida Tack’s group did discover element 43. They didn’t, um, publish enough details on their method or instruments for us to know for sure. But I’d like to think element 43 was discovered twice. As Musurium, it was first element to discover that occurs in nature only from spontaneous vision, and as Technetium, it was the first element discovered in the laboratory. And of course, it was an element the periodic table let us to expect existed before anyone had found it or made it.
