Category Archives: Science Poetry

It Matters

Leave a reply 
Shut down the streets,
Rip up your walls.
Let your life be crumbled.
 
Why should I care if it doesn’t affect me?...
 
----------------------------------------------------------------
Only the old will wither away,
But what about the human spirit?
In the triumph of chaos monsters were unleashed,
Far worse than the bent-necked lady.
 
For in this tangled web of biological warfare,
Things could not have become more clearer.
The deadliest demons lie within us,
And they are drenched in the salvation of self-pity.
 
The truth is…
 
There exists no such thing as compassion,
It’s all a hoax created by globalization.
Under this deception we fool ourselves into thinking,
That humanity is kind, sweet and caring.
 
Yet all I can hear is….
“Only the old are dying”
 
How did you forget the softness of the arms that raised you?
How dare you banish the wisdom that created you?
Who are you to decide the value of life?
 
Maybe it wasn’t really you…
Maybe it was the conniving man inside you.

-Sharon Joseph
COVID-19. Completed in oil pastel.

Normally I write about a science topic and create a work of art to accompany the concept. But today I’ve decided to do something a little different. This is an opinion based post and there will be no scientific component to it, however, it is still extremely relevant and maybe even more relevant than my usual posts.

When they say that difficult times bring out the best in people…I completely disagree. Throughout the past few weeks I have been hearing the frustration of those around me regarding the coronavirus. I’ve seen numerous individuals coping with it in different ways including memes, spending time with their family and trying to stay positive in this disastrous situation. None of this is an issue.

The issue started when ignorance began to take over. Though this does not apply to every individual person, I have come across many conversation where I’ve heard the comment, “Only the older people are at risk…I am not going to die from this.” I am not sure exactly when it is that we decided that the life of a 20 year old boy mattered more than the life of a 70 year-old man, or when we threw away our morals for the sake of our own wellbeing. But let me ask you this….

What if the virus only targeted those between the ages of 12-35? Would you still think the same? Would it be ok for you to be the vulnerable individual while others say.. “Oh, it doesn’t affect us”? What if it was someone you knew? Your grandparent, or a family friend who had a heart defect?

Would you still embrace your ignorance?

Fortunately, this is not the case. We have time to change the way we react and respond to situations like this. If this has been your mindset during this time, it is understandable. Fear can make us act out of character. But there is time to change and there is time to understand the depth of this issue; because by the looks of it, it seems like the virus will impact our lives for longer than we anticipated.

I hope that we can put this fear aside and realize that one life is not more valuable over another. I hope that every time your actions are driven by fear, you take a moment to think about the consequences and put yourself in other people’s shoes. The worst times CAN bring out the best in us, all we need to do is try.

We will get through this.

A Fools View 

How dare you judge me
Through those deep blue oceans
Are we not the same
You and I?

Thrones crested in gold
Is where you held yourself
And you gave me nothing
But a raggedy old stool to lay in the darkness you’ve conjured up for me.

But I’m here to tell you that you and I,
We are not so different.
When our clocks stop ticking and our bodies become engulfed by the soil you so proudly walked upon...you will think of ME.

You will remember my title which you so easily destroyed.

You will remember how quickly you ripped apart my character.

We will become one with the earth and my soul will spread over yours. My identity, bleeding through the soil which we share.

You will finally see me.

The real me.


~ POV: everyone you’ve ever met
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is img_9907.jpg
A blue eye representing the outsider. The painting was done in watercolour.

Have you ever had that moment when you are driving and someone zooms right past you? All of a sudden you start creating different reasons for why they could be driving this fast. You may even go as far as calling them a maniac to justify their actions. Now let’s turn the tables. Imagine waking up one day to write your final exam and finding out that you woke up with 15 minutes to get to your exam location. Obviously you run out of your house in your PJ’s and hit the gas because you know that it takes you 30 minutes by car to get there. Now you’re the maniac speeding through the highway. But this time you know the story… you’re not crazy! You are simply driving as fast as you can so you can go kill that exam that’s been killing you the entire semester. But this is not how others see it. What we have here is a phenomenon known as the fundamental attribution error.  

Fundamental attribution error is the tendency to attribute peoples behaviours to a personal trait and overlook the situational factors that may have contributed to that behaviour (1). We are able to experience our emotions and understand our thoughts and sensations. This allows us to judge our actions from a deeper and more internal perspective. But our experience of others is based off what we see externally and through their overt behaviours (2). This might explain why we rate ourselves as more positive and more considerate than others would rate us (2).  

Another example is when we watch something on TV and attribute character traits to the individual actors on a show. We are very aware that there is a script that the actor has to follow, but there is an assumption that their traits on television will be reflective of how they are in reality. In a study done by Tal-Or and Papirman, they tested for the fundamental attribution error in participants by showing the same actor playing 2 completely opposing roles. The study showed that even though 2 completely different traits were expressed in the 2 scenes, the fundamental attribution error still occurred. Additionally, whichever role the actor played in the last scene was the one that determined how the participants evaluated the actor’s character traits (1). Once again we have a scenario where we overlook the situation and attribute the behaviour to a personal trait.

  Does this mean we are selfish and arrogant? Well, to be honest…yes. But we are all victims of this simple but tricky error. It is much easier to assume that someone is a maniac rather than going through a list of reasons as to why they are driving so fast. No wonder we judge so blindly! This leaves room for a lot of misunderstanding and conflict which can actually be avoided. So maybe it’s time to put ourselves in others shoes and be mindful of the fact that other peoples behaviours are also situationally constrained. Let’s not be too quick to judge. 

1. Tal-Or, N., & Papirman, Y. (n.d.). The Fundamental Attribution Error in Attributing Fictional Figures' Characteristics to the Actors. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15213260701286049?src=recsys&journalCode=hmep20.
2. Pronin, E. (2008, May 30). How We See Ourselves and How We See Others. Retrieved from https://science.sciencemag.org/content/320/5880/1177/tab-pdf.

The Encapsulated Beauty

3 Replies 
 I am passion. 
 So free and melodically wild
 More vibrant than what you think you see.
 With an ounce of my grace
 Your weak heart will lust 
 And chase after me.
 But you can never capture my wandering spirit.  

 Structure. Solidity. Accuracy. 
 Lay within my textured surface.
 Between every groove and hill
 I hide my genius.
 My memories.
 My elegant use of tongues.
 My knowledge -soaring, penetrating,
 Limitless. 

 Braided in my desire and glory
 Encapsulated in my intricate linings
 I scream for your attention.
 But you claim you only hear a whisper.
 For to be heard is one thing,
 But to be understood…
  
 That my friend, is something else.
 
~Sharon Joseph
This is a visual representation of the poem to demonstrate the left and right lateralization of the brain. The colourful right side was completed using watercolours and the left side was sketched. The background for the left side was done using newspapers. Go easy on this guys….I’m not the best artist.

This is a piece I wrote on the asymmetry of the brain to portray the general differences between the left and right hemisphere. This poem emphasizes a more extreme split between the two hemispheres, as studies have shown that some functions may be processed predominantly in one hemisphere over the other (Raemaekers et al. 2018). This does not mean that only the left hemisphere processes language functions or that only the right hemisphere cares about emotional functioning; rather, it is a more collaborative system that the two hemispheres create.

Generally, both of the hemispheres are very similar to each other in their representation. The left part of the brain interprets and controls movement on the right side of the body, while the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body (Raemaekers et al. 2018). But there are some really cool features that are specialized within each hemisphere. For example, in most right handed individuals, the left hemisphere shows a dominance for understanding and producing language. On the other hand (literally), left handed individuals show a larger likelihood of showing right hemisphere dominance than right-handers. The general trend is that the more right-handed the individuals are, the lower the likelihood of right hemisphere dominance for language (Knecht et al. 2000).

The right hemisphere is described in the poem as the being the creative, wild side of the brain. This hemisphere is seen to be the one that is more strongly activated in functions like emotional processing, facial recognition and non-verbal communication. Even when generating certain emotions, the left side of the face is seen to move first/faster than the right since it is controlled by the right hemisphere (Corballis 2017).

We may have evolved to develop these preferences for a variety of reasons. Maybe having one hemisphere in charge of speech production would get rid of the competition between the two hemispheres and would make communication more efficient, or maybe its faster to process information in one area before distributing it everywhere else. Regardless of how and why, the brain is an intelligent organ that deserves to be appreciated for its strategic way of handling all the information we keep throwing at it. It’s natural ways of coping with all these factors could actually inspire us on how to handle our own situations.

References:

1. Corballis, M. C. (2017, June 16). The Evolution of Lateralized Brain Circuits. Retrieved from 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5472687/. 
2. Raemaekers, M., Schellekens, W., Petridou, N., & Ramsey, N. F. (2018, May). Knowing left from right: asymmetric functional
connectivity during resting state. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5884915/.
3. Knecht, Deppe, Bobe, Lohmann, Ringelstein, & Henningsen. (2000, December 1). Handedness and hemispheric language dominance in 
healthy humans. Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/123/12/2512/325690.