Dr.Dunston's Lecture- Jasmine Rice

Dr. Dunston’s Lecture
Jasmine Rice
Sept. 9th 2010 

I found that the purpose of this lecture was to make us understand ourselves on an atomic level. In the first lecture we were to see ourselves as equals in academic thought and this lecture is meant to go a step further and present evidence of our atomic similarities through the Human Genome. To understand the acquisition of knowledge we seek, we must place ourselves into the nature of life, as but a piece of the world around us. We are individuals and collectively “human” because we have the power to think; this sets us apart from animals and plant life. It is said that we are 99% the same as all other races of people but that the remaining 1% is responsible for our genetic diversity and the evolution of us as a human race. What I learned though is that the Human Genome comes out of three sub categories, which are; 1. The Clinical Phenotype. 2. Cultural Factors and 3. Environmental Factors. Those three things determine ones family history (biology, disease, gender, age), attitudes/ beliefs, and where they grow up (climate, parasites, pollutants, smoking, alcohol use, and drug use). These factors create the disparities between people in that 1%. With the information the Human Genome provides about human behavior, historians are then able to categorize the human race further into specific races and attribute academic successes, traits and stereotypes to them. In this way I felt the two lectures went hand in hand to explain the scientific and social existence of humans beings.