Course Assignments, Spring 2025

Assignments (newest first)

First, thank you for participating in this class. 

If we had held one more class, 

Class #9

Assignments

• What is entropy? Read this essay and the associated poem, Identity, by A.R. Ammons:

https://poetryandscience.blogspot.com/p/poem-identity-a.html

If at first you have a hard time with the poem, I hope the essay will help, and that you will try again with the poem.

• If you want to share your thoughts about the essay or Ammons's poem, please do so, and if you would like me to share them with the class, I will.

• If you have comments or suggestions about how the course could have better met your expectations, and better accomplished the goals set out in the introduction and course description, please share them with me by email.

Thank you sincerely for attending and participating in this class.

Hope to see you all again at OLLI.

Class #8, May 15, 2025

Assignments

• Is Our Universe Inherently Creative? Read this essay:  https://creativityscienceandarts.blogspot.com/p/the-inherently-creative-universe.html

• Read Two Cultures, the last of the Reflections, here: https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/what-is-this-i.html

The scientific subject of the day will be special and general relativity.

Special Relativity:

• Watch this video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/yuD34tEpRFw?si=jWhVljWOffAU_EoV

General Relativity

• Watch these videos at YouTube:

- https://youtu.be/eNhJY-R3Gwg?si=qwky80vFUN8pWDF0

- https://youtu.be/Ov98y_DCvRY?si=BQrDEbcmGoferY4J


Class #7, May 8, 2025

Assignments

• "The Artist's View" here: https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/the-artists-view-of.html

• Watch Louise Glück read her poem, Telescope, https://youtu.be/Ank1N5EIMnM?si=LYQVmHOgX2GtvDN7 

You can read the poem here: https://www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3Fp=6557.html

••••••

The scientific subject of the day will be the strangeness of the quantum world.

The observation that molecules absorb electromagnetic radiation (EMR) at specific wavelengths and not at others (described in Class #6), is a sign that the radiation, as well as the absorption and its impact on molecules, are quantum phenomena. For example, IR absorption and bond vibrations, are quantum behavior, and impossible to explain in classical terms. "In classical terms" means describing positions and velocities of discrete objects traveling through an experimental apparatus in order to explain experimental results –– always an exercise in futility.

• Read as far as you wish (but at least down to "Variations on the experiment") into this Wikipedia entry on the archetypical quantum experiment, the double slit-experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment.

• Then watch: 

https://youtu.be/O81Cilon10M?si=mcUrtncSs-q2a-sw These demonstrations show the two-slit experiment, with 1) waves (water), 2) particles (sand), and 3) with quanta sent singly through the slits, in other words, VERY dim light, so dim that photons each photon passes alone through the system of two slits.

Optional (especially for quantum-weirdness addicts)

I mentioned last time the unifying notion that everything in the universe can be understood in terms of fields. For example, a quantum such as a photon can be thought of as a disturbance in the electromagnetic (EM) field. What exactly is a field? Here's an explanation:

From Instant Egghead, an excellent collection of two- to three-minute explanations of scientific concepts, from Scientific American.

Another class of double-slit experiments, designed to highlight the strangeness of quanta as revealed in the double-slit experiment, are called delayed-choice experiments. The gist of them is that the experimenter can quickly change the (classical) path of the interfering quanta, such that interference can be switched on or off --- even after the quantum (again viewed as classical particle) has passed the point in the apparatus where it would have to "decide" which path to take --- and still get the same result as if the change were made before the quantum passed the decision point. This would be analogous to closing one slit after the quantum has had time to go past the slits, and then seeing no interference, as if the quantum went back and changed its behavior after the slit was closed. Some experimenters have interpreted this result as rewriting the quantum's past. But it is generally acknowledged that such interpretations are not necessary to explain the results. The following videos provide a more detailed view of this class of experiments and their various interpretations.

- The basic delayed-choice experiment: https://youtu.be/0ukdaIComZc?si=SLuwU_GMgLFwwfgi

Believe it or not, this was the simplest description of the experiment that I could find. Pay particular attention at the beginning, where the narrator shows the apparatus, along with a simple diagram of the apparatus and its parts.  

- Is quantum mechanics really all that weird?  https://youtu.be/RhIf3Q_m0FQ?si=tL36YUdrCE-0iFp9

- Common errors in thinking about experiments involving quanta: https://youtu.be/RQv5CVELG3U?si=JSFgyzUmeuWf4lFz


Class #6, May 1, 2025

The scientific subject of the day will be how scientists know the structures of molecules, such as the biomolecules we looked at using molecular graphics last week.

Review these readings from last week:

• https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/ignorance-and-mystery.html

• https://poetryandscience.blogspot.com/p/two-poetic-takes-on-science.html  (down to “Are There Any Passive Ways to Learn?"

• “Molecules” at How Scientists Know, https://howscientistsknow.blogspot.com/p/molecules.html.

New readings for May 1:
• Read "Figures of Thought", by Howard Nemerov here:


• Optional: Is Our Universe Inherently Creative? here https://creativityscienceandarts.blogspot.com/p/the-inherently-creative-universe.html

Thursday's foray into how we learn about molecular structure will feature spectroscopy, the use of electromagnetic radiation, EMR, to reveal specific structural details with which to piece together a model of a molecule. This subject is a step into the quantum world, because EMR is a quantum phenomenon. Over the remaining classes, we will explore the mysterious properties of quanta, seeking to compare and contrast them with the familiar world of our senses.

• To learn some basics about EMR, peruse the first section and included figures HERE. 

Class #5, April 24, 2025

The scientific subject of the day will be the molecules of life.

• Read “Merging Realms of Belief”, here

https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/title.html

• Watch “Molecules” at How Scientists Know, here

 https://howscientistsknow.blogspot.com/p/molecules.html

Don't worry if you find parts of these videos hard to understand. Just try to see an overview of the kinds of data that lead us to build models of molecules, in order to understand "how they work".

• Read “Ignorance and Mystery”, here


• and this little poem:


• Guess who wrote the following poem. At least, accumulate a few candidates. (No fair Googling!).

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!
Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.
Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,
Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?
How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,
Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering
To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies,
Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?
Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car,
And driven the Hamadryad from the wood
To seek a shelter in some happier star?
Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,
The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

• Finally, read just the first section (down to “Are There Any Passive Ways to Learn?") of this:

Did you guess the poet?

Class #4, April 17, 2025

If you are among the small number who have not informed me of a) a favorite work of art, b) a favorite piece of music, and c) a favorite poem or other piece of literature, please do so as soon as possible. I plan to use your music favorites in our next class.

Things to do before the fourth class:

• Watch this video:

• Read this poem: 

• Go to "The Science of Music" by clicking HERE. Read the home page, browse the "Air" page, and read more carefully the "Sound" page. You are now prepared to read any of the other topics that interest you. If you have a favorite type of instrument (wind, string, or percussion), learn more about how it produces sound from those pages. 

By the way, I have not tended to the "Science of Music" website in several years, so you might find some links that are broken. Let me know if there is a broken link you'd like me to fix. 

• Listen to the music favorites of your classmates HERE. We will listen to and discuss some excerpts in class.

• Finally, think about what kind(s) of "knowing" music offers us. And then, think about what it might mean to "connect" science with such knowing. 





NO CLASS, April 10, 2025



Class #3, April 3, 2025

Before the third class, carry out these tasks:

• Read, and read critically, "Science, Religion, and Beliefs" here: https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/science-religion-and-belief.html

What is your overall feeling about categorizing beliefs in this way? Are there specific points with which you agree or disagree? Come prepared to challenge the ideas in this essay.

• Read the file attached to the email I sent you today (3/30), which contains "The Spiral", a short story by Italo Calvino, from his Cosmicomics. Learn more about Cosmicomics HERE. (Attachment is a text file in .pdf format, which you should be able to open and read in Preview (Mac) or Adobe Acrobat Reader (Mac or Windows).

Last week, a student asked, in essence, why is there beauty? In trying to connect science to various ways of knowing, we will look at art, music, and literature, in all of which, beauty is an important idea. Can you think of Darwinian evolutionary ideas that might help us understand how beauty comes about? Do you find any ideas in "The Spiral" that pertain to this question?

(Yeah, I know -- what is beauty? Coleridge said, somewhere, that beauty is unity in variety. Good enough for me.)

• Last week, a student asked me what I mean in this course when I use the word know. Look up know and knowledge in any dictionary. 

You will find that each of these words has many definitions. This course pertains to "other ways of knowing." Think about which of the many ways to knowing, or many kinds of knowledge, might be within our sphere of interest. Can the word have any single meaning in a study like this one?

Do any of the definitions of know or knowledge contain the word certainty? Where do we find certainty?



Class #2, March 27, 2025

Before the second class, please familiarize yourself with these resources

• Review the last two sections of What is Science? (see assignments for Class #1, below),  It's not easy being anti-science and Science is not all there is. 

• Formulating a Law: https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/formulating-law.html

• Testing a Theory: https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/p/testing-theory.html

• Poem: On a Bird Singing in its Sleep, by Robert Frost: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Robert%20Frost%20Poet%20Poetry%20Picture%20Bio.htm




Class #1, March 20, 2025

Before the first class, please read the following

• Course Introduction

https://oc-olli2025.blogspot.com/2025/03/one-culture-connecting-science-with.html

• What is Science?

https://oneculture-reflections.blogspot.com/

• Poem: Introduction to Poetry, by Billy Collins

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46712/introduction-to-poetry



Class #6, May 1, 2025

Class #7, May 8, 2025

Class #8, May 15, 2025




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