James Watson’s The Double Helix: Inaccurate and Insightful
The Double Helix has become notable for its unique focus on the more tawdry, personal details of the lives of scientists as well as for its dramatic exaggeration of certain personalities and events.
Literacy’s Effect on Black Women: A Personal Narrative
Janie’s narrative in Their Eyes Were Watching God exemplified this for me. It allowed me to parallel myself with Janie, to compare my experience as a Black woman with hers, and embolden me to find my own truth and seek fulfillment within my life.
The Misleading Nature of Scientific Publications
This paper was composed as part of an honors writing intensive assignment in BIOCHM 2482H taught by Dr. Thomas J. Reilly. In the course, students were encouraged to analyze and criticize scientific publications that are often held to unrealistic standards of rigor by the public. The assignment entailed a reading of The Double Helix, which described the discovery of the structure of DNA from the perspective or Dr. James D. Watson, and then analyzing the wholly different experience depicted by this book as compared to the formal publication of the discovery in Nature. This paper explores the scientific endeavor as but one part of a web of beliefs and attitudes that constitute a social identity rather than a concept to be understood in isolation.
Reflections in a Black Mirror: Analyzing Bloody Mary and Her Presence in “The Wolf Among Us”
It’s a typical setting; a group of teens enjoying each others company at a sleepover, when suddenly, they decide to play a game. At the behest of the others, one of the teens gets up, goes to the bathroom, turns off all of the lights, and while staring into the mirror, she recites her name.…
Shitshow
What. A. Shitshow. I think to myself upon reading our final…
Book Review: Everything Bad for You is Good For You
Almost immediately, Steven Johnsons' Everything Bad is Good For You presents a compendium of intriguing arguments and ideas. The title itself seems to promise a collection of contradictions and oppositions to a supposedly uniform state of thought. Instead of the typical argument against a two-sided issue (such as whether moral ambiguity is justified), Johnson changes the roles of the main separation of agreement between the evolution of popular culture and its effects on the mental capabilities of those who partake in such activities.