April's A-team pulls together

The experience

Today our plot was a man down, yet we persevered and completed our tasks with ample time remaining. On this occasion our group stayed on task, and worked swiftly, without the usual unnecessary chat. If there was something that we could have improved on it would be spending more time on our silent observations. What our group did surprisingly well was staying on task, we stayed positive even with one man down, we had a better attention to detail, and worked as a team unit. Working as a team unit was a great step for our group to make it sped up all processes, and allowed all three of us to try different jobs.

The plot

When we arrived at our plot we were astonished to have bright sunny skies for once. The plot had drastically changed since our last visit, for instance our leaf litter had gone down to one inch. Our soil samples revealed a much less water. One of the largest changes was the buds on plants and trees. Another considerable change was the water levels in Lake Ashenoca have lowered. On this outing specimens of a gray tree frog, numerous unknown larvae, ferns, two types of moss, and other assorted greens were brought back from the plot.

reflection

Plot reflection

            Our group has never been so unorganized; our group is forgetting to do jobs and forgetting to bring certain materials. Jake and I went back out to the plot on Sunday to complete the jobs that were ignored on the actual plot day. What has changed at the plot site is that there is an extra half inch of leaf litter on the ground; also there were many dead trees and plants. Even though there was substantial rainfall we did not find any mushrooms. To improve our group I feel we should make a plan the day before we go out, perhaps switch jobs around, and we could hold each other more responsible. My personal goal for this semesters plot time is to help others finish their jobs. Our plot has some issues, but I am sure that our group will overcome the problems.

Is poverty genetic?

Jade’s Harvard identification photo

My scientist is Jade D’alpoim Guesdes. She is currently a candidate for a PhD at Harvard Universities’ Anthropology department. I choose my scientist due to the fact that she had just published a paper within the last month on an issue that I was interested in. Her latest paper was a critique on is poverty passed down by the generations. The title of the piece is “is poverty our genes?” Jade is a very interesting scientist researching social tough topics.

By reading d’Aloin Guedes’s thoughts on the casual link between the degree of genetic heterogeneity, I have decided that there is no such link, due to the fact that the original paper misused scientific terminology, had factual errors, and their theory was flawed with robust data. I also found out about how assuming conclusions in the scientific community, leads to colleagues bashing in your work. Another thing that was interesting was how harshly the critique was on Asharaf and Galors work calling it: “false and undesirable” (77). She used their textual evidence against them, which made the reading very entertaining. d’Aloin Guedes is a interesting scientist on the upward swing.

If I had the chance to ask my scientist questions about their thoughts, I would ask the following

·         How can you be certain there is no correlation between diversity and economic prosperitities?

·         Do you feel remorse for destroying another’s work, and credibility?

·         Why did you decide to critique Asharef and Galor’s work?

·         What makes you better informed than Asharef and Galor who wrote the original paper?

·         You made a point to talk about political repercussions; do you actually feel that their research could be used in a negative way?