2018 prescribed Titles

1. “The fields of study of academic disciplines can overlap, but adopting interdisciplinary approaches to the production of knowledge leads only to confusion.”  Discuss this claim.

2. “We know with confidence only when we know little; with knowledge doubt increases” (adapted from JW von Goethe). Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

3. “Without the assumption of the existence of uniformities there can be no knowledge.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

4. “Suspension of disbelief” is an essential feature of theatre. Is it essential in other areas of knowledge? Develop your answer with reference to two areas of knowledge.

5. “The quality of knowledge produced by an academic discipline is directly proportional to the duration of historical development of that discipline.” Explore this claim with reference to two disciplines.

6. “Robust knowledge requires both consensus and disagreement.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

 

 

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2 thoughts on “2018 prescribed Titles

  • November 24, 2017 at 6:24 am
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    Q2. Rough sheets of notes from Paul La Rondie’s group
    Q3. Notes on Uniformity
    Q4. Here are the slides from James Shillabeer from the Brainstorm on 16/11…
    Q6. Keynote from Caitlin Hutchinson

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  • November 29, 2017 at 4:28 am
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    DNA is a code, a means of storing biological data, in the form of genes. The code was systematically cracked in the 1960s, revealing that life is breathtakingly conservative. If DNA is an alphabet, then the words it spells out are amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. And yet only 20 amino acids are encoded by DNA in all life forms. The same alphabet, the same encryption, the same lexicon are applied in every bacterium or blue whale, in you, a sunflower and a mushroom.

    It is this uniformity that spawned the industrial revolution of biotechnology that we are in the throes of today. In California in the early 1970s, scientists invented ways to swap chunks of DNA between species, so that they acquired specific characteristics by design. Humans have been doing something similar for 10,000 years through breeding and farming, but with the advent of DNA editing tools, we were suddenly no longer bound by the limitations of creatures that could have sex. Genetic modification has become a mainstay of almost every aspect of the life sciences, and provided innumerable advances in our understanding of how life and diseases work.

    Adam Rutherford

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