Week 1: Two Cultures

 By highlighting the curriculum and layout of educational institutions as the source of the separation between science and art in “The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution”, CP Snow urges that education in the two fields and understanding their core connection is of immediate value to both the individual and society. He argues that mutual understanding between the two cultures would solve issues much larger to society. In contrast, John Brockman argues that contemporary scientists are the third culture or middleman, stating that such thinkers will replace traditional intellectuals. 

Figure 1: Venn Diagram of Arts and Sciences

It is my understanding that industrialization and the desire to have specialists in each field that perpetuates the “two culture” world as explained by John Heskett in the text “Industrialization and Design”. I agree with the emergence of a third culture that holistically integrates both artistic and scientific perspectives as the primary path towards advancement of education and understanding of the greater world. As a biochemistry major, I found that the professors that have impacted my career goals the most have all emphasized the interdisciplinary nature of their work. Not only are they top scientific researchers, but they understand the art of communication and human connection. That is, they focus on understanding why the author writes what they write in order to better understand their goal and argument.

Figure 2: Integration of Arts and Sciences

As a pre-med I also have seen many examples of the emergence of the third culture. One example is a program that I am involved in called “My Life, My Story” in the VA Healthcare System, where volunteers interview veterans and summarize their life story into a short blurb that is then incorporated into their medical records. This work has been shown to help physicians forge stronger connections to their patients and improve their care. This merge between the art of storytelling and the science of medical treatment is further proof of the emergence of a third culture as described by Victoria Vesna in “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between”.

Video 1: My Life, My Story Program

In walking from one end of campus to the other, it’s strange to feel how much the atmosphere changes between North and South campus. I always saw this separation as a fact of life, never thinking that it shouldn’t be this way. This perspective changes my thinking in that I will place higher value on learning the humanities to further my career and growth as a person. 

Sources:

Brockman, John. Third culture: Beyond the scientific revolution. Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Heskett, John. "Industrialization and Design." The Social Design Reader 101 (2019).

Roberts, Tonya J., et al. "The my life, my story program: sustained impact of veterans’ personal narratives on healthcare providers 5 years after implementation." Health Communication 36.7 (2021): 829-836.

Snow, C. P. “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution.” Reading. 1959. New York: Cambridge UP, 1961. Print. 

Vesna, Victoria. “Toward a Third Culture: Being in Between.” Leonardo 34.2 (2001): 121-25. Web. 

Images/Videos:

Casper, Vinu. “The divide between art and science - Vanguard.” PSU Vanguard, 15 June 2018, https://psuvanguard.com/the-divide-between-art-and-science/.

Ringler, Thor. “My Life, My Story: VA’s healthcare improvements through deliberate storytelling.” Video. 2015.

Trott, Carlie D., Trevor L. Even, and Susan M. Frame. "Merging the arts and sciences for collaborative sustainability action: A methodological framework." Sustainability Science 15.4 (2020): 1067-1085.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 3: Robotics + Art

Image
I always saw photography and painting as very similar in their forms. Certainly there are differences between the two, but I have never been able to articulate it. After this week’s reading, I see that the work of a painter stands at a natural distance from reality whereas the photographer is a more precise and specific view of reality (Benjamin 1935). Looking back at the evolution of art since the rise of industrialization, it’s most interesting to see how mechanization and robots were used in art and popular media. Image 1: Hermes & Modern Communication One of my favorite movies growing up was Baymax. With the setting being the metropolis of San Fransokyo (a hybrid of San Francisco and Tokyo), it is clear that the Japanese cultural fascination with automation and robotics is present. In this sense, I had a fun time understanding how cultural differences between the United States and Japan give rise to differing attitudes towards the place of robots in society. While the Japanese ...
Read more

Week 8: Nanotech + Art

Image
  This week I really enjoyed learning about nanoparticles. My own research in CNSI is based on a core-shell microparticle platform that enables single-cell encapsulation and studies. I thought it was really cool that Dr. Gimzewski dove into the history of nanoparticles and how they have existed in technology and nature for a long time. It’s so interesting to see the science of how making materials into a nanosized portion can yield interesting properties. The one that I found to be most interesting was how inert materials can become catalysts for chemical reactions (Gimzewski 2024 Lecture 3). It was cool to learn about all the different industrial applications of nanoparticles from windows to fabrics. I never knew that nanoparticles were so prevalent in everyday life outside of technology. Image 1: Nanoparticles to Cross Blood-Brain Barrier These properties make it obvious why nanotechnology would be appealing to artists. This week, I also learned that manipulating and rearranging ...
Read more