Spring
2003 Honors Seminars
Back
to Spring 2003 Convocation
HNR 94-01 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
What is creativity and where does it come from?
Della Davidson
MW 4:10-6:00 pm
University Club Studio
Are you creative? Before you can
answer that question, you need to be able to define creativity
and to understand its origins. This seminar will explore
the nature and sources of creativity and innovation and
the ways to nurture and develop creativity. We will explore
the creative process as it manifests itself in various media
such as video, text, art, dance, music, and photography.
Among the issues that we will address are the relationship
of form to content, the importance of play in the creative
process, and how to identify your artistic impulses. We
will also examine creativity in other dimensions of daily
life with issues of problem solving and generating new ideas.
Our explorations will be channeled into the creation of
an original work in a medium to be determined by the seminar.
HNR 94-02 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
The Science of Kissing
Mary E. Delany
MW 11:00 am-12:50pm
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
Displays of affection and interest
come in several forms, e.g., in the Western world handshaking,
hugging, kissing; each form possesses various meanings depending
on context and intensity. Different cultures and religions
have different “signals and rules” regarding routine
forms of affection involving public physical contact, from
strongly encouraged to taboo. This seminar will seek to
explore the scientific aspects behind or underpinning one
form of affection, kissing, including its evolution, psychology,
physiology, and impact on culture, society and politics.
Consider, for example: How did kissing evolve, does it or
something like it exist in all cultures (do all primates
kiss?), what role does such affection have in child development
and for aged individuals, is it medicinal, what neurochemical
signaling pathways are invoked upon kissing, what role does
kissing have in cultural development and on politics and
society (why was Al & Tipper Gore’s kiss at the
Democratic National Convention in 2000 such big news?).
HNR 94-03 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Do We Gain Security by Giving up Freedoms: The Quintessential
American Dilemma in Times of War
Rick Freeman
TR 4:40-6:30 pm
176 Kerr
America, like all societies, needs
to provide security for its citizens. The problem is that
we have founded our Nation on numerous personal freedoms
and expectations of privacy. The saying "that would
be unconstitutional" is a familiar expression we all
say when we hear of some proposed gross "misconduct"
on the part of our government. But historically, Americans
are no different from their European or Asian counterparts:
we have always been willing to sacrifice our liberties if
the threat to group safety is significant enough. The question
always has been, and has never been more relevant than today:
"are we ever really more secure for the sacrifice of
freedom, no matter what the challenge?" Certainly our
politicians are not of one mind on this subject, so we must
turn to our own understandings to guide us. Participants
must be willing to attempt to form sound, significant positions
on this question based upon historical research and readings
from the current literature. A major public debate between
various sub-groups will be the highlight of this Seminar.
Willingness to think creatively, and to argue one's position
with clarity are definitely a requirement to succeed.
HNR 94-04 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
The Great Motivational Prize
Jeffrey Granett
TR 4:10-6:00 pm
2005 Plant & Environmental Sciences Building (Room 2004
on 3/27 & 4/10)
The Nobel Prize is a century-old
international award made by the Nobel Foundation in each
of six areas of human accomplishment. The dedication of
the industrialist Alfred Nobel’s monetary estate to
these prizes was a surprise to the executors of his will,
but the will seemed to reflect this man’s need to see
himself as a benefactor of and participant in the intellectual
developments of his age. There are many other prestigious
international and national prizes as well as many smaller,
regional or organizational prizes. The stated goal of most
prizes is to identify and award the greatest of accomplishments.
It seems to be in the nature of people to want to identify
and be aligned with the best through praise for accomplishments.
However, since it is highly unlikely that you or any individual
you know will ever receive one of the really prestigious
prizes, are they at all motivational? Do prizes merely identify
leaders and make donors feel good, while making everyone
else feel irrelevant or like losers? Do they actually influence
the way a scientific discipline or art form develops? Do
they make the world safer or a better place to live? The
central question of this seminar is whether a substantial
prize can be designed to both identify excellence AND alter
the direction of a discipline or art while encouraging all
people to strive for excellence.
Students in this seminar will design
a substantial international set of prizes to identify the
best of the best in selected disciplines and also motivate
future excellence and directions in those disciplines. Specifically,
we will assume a $3 billion bequest, and then make plans
for the establishment of a foundation (analogous to the
Nobel Foundation) to administer it. We will then determine
specific criteria for the awards, and determine how the
awarding process can be made to stimulate excellence and
direction in the broadest array of humanity. Lastly, we
will go through the first cycle of awards, naming specific
winners. We might see the end of the quarter DHC Convocation
as the awards ceremony!
HNR 94-05 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Genetically Modified Food
Krishnan Nambiar
TR 9:00-10:50 am
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
This seminar will explore the science
involved in this important process: what does genetically
modified mean? We will compare and contrast naturally occurring
genetic variations in plants and animals with man-made ones.
What are the potential benefits / negative side effects
of introducing genetic variations? Is "Franken-Food"
safe? We will also discuss the implication of genetic modification
to our society in humanitarian, economic, health, political
and religious aspects, its role in maintaining a viable
world food supply and its effect on international relations
and trade. The final report will be a recommendation to
the World Health Organization / United Nations regarding
genetically modified food.
HNR 94-06 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
IS OBESITY A DISEASE??
Ann Orel
TR 11:00 am-12:50 pm
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
The United States leads the world
in obesity, with estimates that over 60% of adults are overweight
or obese. Southwest Airlines has started charging 'larger'
passengers for two seats. An overweight Bronx man has sued
four fast food chains for jeopardizing his health. And on
a serious note, the American Obesity Association estimates
that 300,000 unnecessary deaths a year are due to obesity.
This has led to a call to classify obesity as a disease,
something which in April 2002 was done by the IRS. (Yes,
now your weight-loss program is tax-deductible - but not
diet foods. The IRS figures that everyone has to eat.) This
would obligate the cost of treatment programs to be covered
by insurance for example, or by Medicare, leading to increases
in health care costs. Is obesity a disease?? Or is being
overweight just a matter of choice caused by bad eating
habits and poor exercise?? This seminar will examine this
issue.
HNR 94-07 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Golf and the Environment
Geoff Schladow
MW 9:00-10:50 am
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
A surge in golf course construction
and golf tourism has been occurring world-wide since the
1970s. While providing pleasure, exercise and the appearance
of open space for some, these benefits need to be weighed
against the costs. These include the loss of habitat for
indigenous biota, large water use in areas that frequently
have water scarcity, overuse of fertilizers and pesticides,
and the construction of adjacent resorts and housing developments.
The class will first seek to quantify and prioritize the
individual and collective impacts of golf courses on the
local and regional scale. We will then look at the broader
context of golf courses, including impacts in developing
countries, highly urbanized societies, etc. The class will
culminate in the development of a proposal for and a position
paper against the construction of Aggie Hills, a golfing
resort to be built on the campus of the University of California,
Davis.
HNR 94-08 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Welcome to Davis… but Don't Drink the Water??
Wendy Silk
MW 3:10-5:00 pm
2004 Plant and Environmental Sciences Building
It's common to see students in
Davis carrying bottled water. Does anyone drink tap water
in Davis? How safe is the water that the city provides?
How healthful is bottled water, for people and for the environment?
How is the city planning to meet its growing water needs?
What are the implications of the different plans being considered
in terms of the cost of the water, the health of the environment,
and the needs of the citizens of Davis? In this interdisciplinary
seminar, we will examine issues related to the quality of
the water in Davis, the future needs of the city for water,
and various options for water use in Davis. The seminar
will conclude with a mock city council meeting with students
playing the roles of local politicians, scientists, agency
representatives, and passionately opinionated citizens.
HNR 94-09 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Mars Exploration - A waste of money or an ambitious attempt
to understand our nearest neighbor?
Dawn Sumner
TR 1:10-3:00 pm
186 Physics/Geology
Controversial reports of evidence
for life in a Martian meteorite sparked public interest
in Mars, resulting in more funding for missions to Mars.
In response, NASA's Mars exploration program was reshaped
to address four overarching goals*: 1) Determine if Life
Ever Arose on Mars; 2) Characterize the Climate of Mars;
3) Characterize the Geology of Mars; and 4) Prepare for
Human Exploration of Mars. What does society gain from pursuing
these goals? Are the potential results worth the financial
investments? If life does exist on Mars, what are the moral
and environmental issues raised by our exploration of the
red planet?
This seminar will focus on the
relationships among the scientific and technical aspects
of Mars exploration, benefits and risks to society, and
the morality of interacting with another planet. Important
influences include the politics of funding, enhancing technological
capabilities, the value of addressing fundamental scientific
questions, and public perception of the space program and
its results. Each has aspects that support and that limit
the exploration of our nearest neighbor. How should we plan
for the next two decades of Mars exploration? During the
quarter, we will identify and research a subset of these
relationships and produce an advisory report on the benefits
and concerns of the issues we choose, mimicking the processes
used by NASA to shape the Mars exploration program. By keeping
an archive of documents used and written through the quarter,
producing an executive summary with minority report if necessary,
and presenting our findings at the DHC convocation, we will
follow steps similar to those used by NASA to shape exploration
policy through the Mars Exploration Planning Advisory Group
(MEPAG). If the students choose to focus on an appropriate
topic, recommendations and findings from this seminar may
be presented to MEPAG in September 2003 with the potential
to be incorporated into official MEPAG recommendations to
NASA.
*NASA. 2002, March
1. "Mars: Science - Summary", Mars Exploration.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/science/ (viewed 2002, October
1)
HNR 94-10 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
The UC Davis Biohazards Lab – Friend or Foe?
Ken Verosub
TR 5:10-7:00 pm
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
Late in January, UC Davis announced
that it was going to propose that the National Institutes
of Health build a Level 4 Biohazards lab on the campus.
The facility, which would cost over $190 million, would
put UC Davis at the forefront of research of such diseases
as West Nile virus and Ebola. Reaction from the Davis community
was fast and furious. Many citizens were miffed that the
university had not consulted with them sooner. Others doubted
that high level containment procedures and security measures
would be as fail-safe as the university claimed. And still
others feared that the facility would indeed put Davis on
the map - of every terrorist organization in the world.
In this seminar, we will examine the issues swirling around
this timely and important topic, ranging from the risks
and benefits of having such a facility on the Davis campus
to the different strategies of community involvement used
by UC Davis and the other universities that are competing
for this facility.
Visit our Biosafety Lab web
site!
HNR 94-11 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns
Rance LeFebvre
TR 1:10-3:00 pm
1132C Haring Hall
The issue of gun control is one
of the key political issues in our society. Some argue that
the second amendment protects our rights to own and bear
arms. Others say that the amendment should not extend to
certain firearms and that all firearms should be registered.
When all is said and done will only the criminals have weapons
or will this society become a better and safer place to
live by stopping the sale of some firearms and registering
all others? Is the state of Texas a good model for protecting
the second amendment and the right not only to own firearms
but to bear them in public places? Could Columbine have
been prevented? Is the right to bear arms an essential part
of homeland security? Should pilots be permitted to carry
firearms and would that have prevented 9/11?
HNR 94-12 (4 units) GE Credit: Writing
Take My Wife, Please: The biology and sociology of laughter
Tom Famula
MW 3:10-5:00 pm
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
"Get a sense of humor!"
This common rebuke suggests that you are missing something.
But what? If you had to go out and buy a sense of humor,
what items do you put in your shopping cart? What makes
something funny and how and why do we laugh at it? What
role does laughter play in human evolution? Is laughter
beneficial to our health? Are humorous people more successful?
Do animals laugh? Why do we laugh? Why can't you tickle
yourself? And why is a television show without a laugh track
"missing something?" This seminar will explore
these and other questions related to the social and neuro-physiological
components of laughter.
HNR 94-13 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
AIDS in the 21st Century: A shift in prognosis?
Dan Potter
MW 4:10-6:00 pm
176 Kerr Hall
Over the last 22 years, AIDS has
become a global epidemic. Recent reports have called attention
to alarming rates of infection in areas of eastern Europe,
Asia, and Africa. In the US, where the rate of infection
stabilized during the 1990s, the rates may be on the rise
again. The increase in infection rates has been attributed
to increased high-risk activity among segments of the population,
and a variety of factors have been proposed to explain this
trend. Advances in treatment have led to a situation where
contracting AIDS is no longer necessarily a death sentence,
provided that those who need it get the treatment. Meanwhile,
researchers continue to seek new medical approaches to preventing
and treating the disease, including the exciting new development
of an experimental vaccine, which appears to show promise
for some ethnic groups.
AIDS remains the subject of numerous
controversies, some of which have existed since the disease
was first recognized and others that are more recent in
origin. Who is most at risk for contracting the AIDS virus?
Should AIDS be of concern to those who are not in high-risk
groups? How much funding should be devoted to AIDS research?
To treatment? To education? Apparently the new experimental
vaccine primarily benefits African-American and Asian-American
patients. Does this determination hold statistical significance?
If so, what are the implications for the use of the vaccine
in the U.S. and abroad? Has the fact that AIDS is no longer
viewed as a death sentence led people to take the disease
less seriously and consequently to engage in higher risk
behaviors? Are these attitudes reflected in AIDS education
programs?
In this seminar, we will investigate
the scientific, political, social, and economic factors
surrounding the AIDS epidemic in order to address these
and other questions. We will focus on local (the UC Davis
campus, communities in northern California) perceptions
and attitudes to try to gain a better understanding of the
issues, especially as they affect American youth.
Spring
2003 Convocation
top of page
Winter
2003 DHC Seminars
HNR 94-01 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
The practice of war in the modern world
Moradewun Adejunmobi
TR 4:10-6:00 pm
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
In this seminar, we will examine
a selected number of recent conflicts around the world in
order to try and gain a deeper understanding of the practice
of war in human society. Specifically, we will seek to address
a few of the following questions: How does the designation
of a conflict as a war affect the further course of that
conflict and how the conflict is perceived after it has
ended? Why have some conflicts resulting in great violence
not been described as wars? What actions and maneuvers are
involved in contemporary warfare? How have the rules of
engagement changed in recent wars around the world? What
kinds of targets are considered legitimate or illegitimate
in contemporary wars? What kinds of individuals have been
combatants in these wars? What kinds of combatants have
participated in different conflicts? What kinds of distinctions
are being made between combatants and non-combatants in
various conflicts? How have acknowledged enemies treated
each other in recent wars? What role has war played historically
in human society? To what extent do modern wars accomplish
their stated purpose?
Students in the seminar will also
work on a project evaluating current responses to the consequences
of war. They will constitute themselves into a mock Security
Council whose job is to propose additional guidelines that
may be used by individual governments and/or global bodies
in dealing with the changing nature of war.
HNR 94-02 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Clinical Trials and Anecdotal
Observations
Jack Goldberg
MW 3:10-5:00 pm
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
For many years, hormone replacement
therapy was used by doctors to deal with osteoporosis and
other ailments in women. However, the basis for this therapy
was a book, published in 1966 and funded by companies that
manufactured the hormones, that was largely based on the
personal observations of one doctor. Recently, the National
Institutes of Health conducted a large-scale clinical study
that showed that the risk of death from hormone replacement
therapy far exceeded the benefits.
This seminar will seek to determine
what lessons can be learned from this fiasco. Are there
other treatments that have the same supposedly scientific
basis? How should the results of large-scale trials be weighed
against previous observations of physicians and the positive
experiences of countless patients? What should women who
have been using hormone replacement therapy do now?
HNR 94-03 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Water reuse issues in California: From the toilet to the
tap and back again
Jerry Last
TR 3:10-5:00 pm
139 Hunt Hall
California, as is the entire western
United States, is a desert with a large and rapidly growing
population that uses vast amounts of water at home and for
industry, especially agribusiness. We have a limited supply
of water and real problems with finding enough to meet anticipated
growth and dealing with draught years. There are many competing
environmental demands with regards to water use and conservation.
There are also lots of lawyers, lots of politicians, lots
of scientists, lots of business interests, lots of TV and
newspaper reporters, and lots of public interest groups
very much involved in trying to influence the development
of public policy with regard to our competing needs for
high quality water. There are many voices in this debate,
including advocates for reuse of purified post-consumer
water. People worry about whether their drinking water is
safe, and many choose to drink bottled water (where does
bottled water come from?). Is our drinking water in Davis
(which comes from wells) safe? If we shift to the Sacramento
River as a source of reusable water (as is now being considered),
will the water be less safe? Just about every city in the
mid-western and eastern USA that takes their water from
a river drinks “reused” water. However, in California,
until now we have insisted that water be pure and pristine
as it comes out of our faucets.
This class will address the issues
concerning how we can be confident that the water we drink
is safe, and the issues surrounding reuse of post-consumer
water for recharging aquifers and for irrigation water,
where science may not have definitive answers about quality
and safety. How much should we trust government agencies
to protect us, and do they really do this? What do lawyers,
lawsuits, and public interest groups add to this debate?
What is the role of the media in guiding informed public
debate, and does the media generally present factual truth
or alarmist falsehoods that make for "a better story"?
We will try to analyze both the science and the shaping
of public opinion from multiple perspectives of a complex
issue where we do not know all of the answers, but public
policy demands that we take some action nonetheless.
HNR 94-04 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
West Nile Virus
Rance LeFebvre
TR 1:10-3:00 pm
1132C Haring Hall
Hypothesis: West Nile Virus is
not a serious disease threat to the populace or its animals.
The media is responsible for the attention and panic attributed
to this new disease in the United States.
A year ago West Nile Virus was
first identified in the Unites states on the east coast.
Since then the mosquito borne virus has steadily moved westward
across the country. Concomitant with this migration has
been an ever increasing media blitz of the problem and a
general under-current of panic in the American people. Is
this new pathogen a result of deliberate release or accidental
introduction? Should Americans be concerned and on alert
as to the potential spread of this agent into our cities
and towns?
The purpose of this honors seminar
is to investigate the virus, its vector, and the actual
risks they pose to Americans and their pets. A look at other
infectious agents that have emerged onto the scene in the
last few years will also be undertaken as to why they have
not garnered the attention that the West Nile Virus has.
HNR 94-05 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
How Should Individual Genetic Data be Used?
David Rocke
TR 10:00-11:50 am
166 Academic Center/The Colleges
With the human genome project and
other advances in the biological sciences, we will have
increasing ability to determine individual genetic characteristics,
and to understand the impact of these individual differences
on risks for different diseases. One concern that this raises
is that this information will be used for non-medical purposes,
such as determining charges for life and health insurance.
Someone at high risk for an expensive disease could even
be denied job opportunities as an indirect result of predicted
high health-care costs.
In this seminar, we will examine
this issue from a number of aspects. What do we know now
about individual genetic differences? Which of those differences
have known impacts on life expectancy or health-care costs?
What might we know in a decade or two? How should society
permit such data to be used? What factors do we and should
we consider available for determining insurance rates and
why? What is the ethical basis of these decisions about
what factors can be used in this way, and how does it differ
from whether they are under our individual control or not?
HNR 94-06 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
What’s going on with Lie Detector Tests?
Francisco J. Samaniego
MW 12:10-2:00 pm
176 Kerr Hall
O. J. Simpson failed one. Gary
Condit passed one. George Costanza claimed he could pass
one at will since, after all, his whole life was a lie.
This seminar is aimed at the careful examination of the
reliability and utility of polygraph tests. For example,
do they have a role to play in employment screening or in
criminal investigations? Students will research the literature
on methods related to these tests, and will examine, collectively,
their theoretical basis and the history of their use. We
will take an interdisciplinary approach to the subject,
delving, for example, into both the physical and psychological
underpinnings of these methods, and studying court rulings
that relate to their applicability in legal proceedings.
A bibliography of resource materials on polygraph tests
will be developed. The Fall 2002 report on this subject
by a National Academy of Sciences Panel will serve as a
key reference. If it can be arranged, we will witness and
discuss a live demonstration of a lie detector test. Each
student will contribute a chapter (a five-page essay) to
a class monograph in which our findings and conclusions
will be summarized.
HNR 94-08 (4 units) GE Credit:
Writing
Kashmir: A Conflict of Fundamental Ideas
Mani Tripathi
WF 10:00-11:50 am
176 Kerr Hall
Kashmir, a region divided between
India and Pakistan, has been the subject of conflict and
controversy for more than five decades. The partition of
the Indian sub-continent into the countries of India and
Pakistan, following independence from the British, has created
a history of wars and terrorism.
The story of Kashmir has three
different versions: Indian, Pakistani and Kashmiri. The
conflict itself is a microcosm of global issues: pitting
democracy against dictatorship, secularism versus fundamentalism,
and nationalism in the face of globalization. Recent escalation
of the violence in Kashmir has occurred in the shadow of
nuclear weapons tests conducted by India and Pakistan. There
is less hope for peace today than what was there 15 years
ago. Will Kashmir ever return to its prosperous past?
We will examine the history of
the region and develop an understanding of the various voices
in the conflict. The focus will be on the role that the
U.S. can play in diffusing the crisis and developing a sustainable
solution for peace. Our findings will be developed into
a report containing
proposed actions.
top
of page
