Conflict between Free

Conflict between Freewill and Fate Essay Sophocles lived in the 5th Century BC, arguably the age at which the Greeks started questioning the validity of their Gods and Religious beliefs. As a playwright and as a keen social observer (he is credited with winning the maximum number of awards for his plays during his lifetime among his contemporaries), Sophocles might have felt an obligation to emphasize that Fate and Gods were what guided the human life. A healthy respect for Fate was required to accept Life in its entirety. The underlying concept of the story of Oedipus Rex is the all encompassing power of coincidences. One might choose to call it Fate or a deterministic Universe. For Sophocles and all his readers, it is the amazing possibility of symmetry in events. What is Free Will? Freewill is the ability to take independent decisions, and it also includes a deep rooted desire to counter any attempt to predetermine future. Freewill always tends to adopt measures to break loose from any prediction. This tendency to try and break away from any foregone conclusion has been the chief motivation for progress. But, in the limited context of Oedipus Rex, predictions, instigate the freewill to try and rebel. Prominent evidence of this struggle from Oedipus Rex â€Å"An oracle Once came to Laius (I will not say Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from His ministers) declaring he was doomed To perish by the hand of his own son, A child that should be born to him by me. †(lines 713-715) Jocasta and Laius were forewarned through a Prophecy that a son born through their union shall slay Laius. But this only led them to banish the child to be killed in the hope that the prophecy is belied. At the same time, the prophecy to Laius and Jocasta was not complete – it did not talk about the incestuous relationship their son would have with his mother. â€Å"†¦Apollo sent me back Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek. But other grievous things he prophesied, Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire; To wit I should defile my mothers bed And raise up seed too loathsome to behold, And slay the father from whose loins I sprang. †(lines 816-821) Thus was Oedipus forewarned. He had gone to the Oracle to find out if there was any truth in the scandal that was spreading in Corinth that he was not the son of the king Polybus of Corinth. Instead of giving him any clarity on his confusion, the oracle set him on the course of his life that would fulfill the prophecy. When he learnt that he shall commit murder of his father and incest on is mother, Oedipus was still under the impression that Polybus and Dorian were his parents. To avoid any such possibility in his life, Oedipus decided to leave Corinth and that journey (prompted wholly by the prophecy) actually set him on the path to his destiny – A self fulfilling prophecy. These two are the most important manifestations of freewill trying to rebel against a rarely revealed future events of fate. When it is prophesied that certain events of great magnitude or villainous impact are about to happen in the future, it is the absolute nature of the freewill to try and avoid it. Arguments suggesting that Sophocles does not support the supremacy of Fate over Free will Eminent scholar E. R. Dodds in his â€Å"misunderstanding of Oedipus Rex† criticizes the most significant ways of understanding Oedipus Rex. His most important grouse is that the scholars and students alike fall prey to viewing Sophocles’ work through the prisms of philosophical thought processes which were non-existent during Sophocles’ time. Besides, the student community that studies Oedipus Rex tries to ascribe motive where none might have been intended. Point wise rebuttal to Dodds’s arguments Dodds. In his scholarly analysis of the popular misunderstanding of Oedipus Rex puts forth the following points in defense of his arguments. †¢ Sophocles does not intend Oedipus to be a villainous person being punished by Gods for his evil thoughts and actions. †¢ Sophocles does not intend Oedipus to be the prototype Greek tragic hero, whose one tragic flaw creates all the tragic consequences in the drama. †¢ Sophocles does not intend to state that there is no scope for free will and that the Fate reigns supreme. The first point of the argument is valid as Sophocles designs the character of Oedipus as heroic and it is prominently mentioned in most conversations of the stand alone characters and the chorus. His valor, his compassion and his ability to seek truth even if it be detrimental to his own self are heroic characteristics designed to evoke a mixture of admiration for his strength of character and sympathy for the travails he undergoes. The chorus sing the virtues of the king in unequivocal terms and all the incidents that lead to the story of Oedipus Rex establish his character as admirable, if not entirely beyond reproach. (his suspicion of his brother-in-law might be a lapse, but not a flaw of character) â€Å"Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State! Look to thy laurels! for thy zeal of yore Our countrys savior thou art justly hailed:†(lines 53-55) Tragic Flaw While trying to relieve Oedipus of the tragic flaw, Dodds tries to reason that the concept of hamartia led by hubris is not evident in the Sophoclean hero. It can be argued that â€Å"Poetics† of Aristotle was a guiding light to playwrights and was a great contributor in shaping Greek literature. But it was within the capacity of the playwrights, creative geniuses all, to reinterpret the laws or rules of Poetics to further their own literary achievements. Even while adding his own interpretation to the concept of tragic flaw, Sophocles remains loyal to the concept per se. The tragic flaw of Oedipus might have been the fact that even when he was forewarned of a future in which his life shall harbor aberrations that the natural universe abhors, he had the courage to try and avoid it. A lesser man would have hid behind the inevitability of Fate or made such drastic changes to his won character as to avoid any such possibility. As Dodds suggests, some of the readers of Oedipus wonder why Oedipus did not give up fighting (even in self defense) against people older than him or in engaging in physical relationship with women older than him. Dodds answers saying that we are not to question what is not in the play. In fact, this might be the tragic flaw of the protagonist. Even after he is warned of the possibility of patricide and incest, Oedipus does not leave behind his virtuous qualities of valor (which leads him to kill Laius) and compassion (which leads him to free Crete from the songstress and take Jocasta as his wife). His sense of righteousness makes him leave Corinth to avoid patricide and incest as he believes Polybus and Dorian to be his parents. This flight is in the strongly held belief that he detests the unnatural acts of patricide and incest and it is within his capacity to avoid them by charting his own course and at the same time retaining his primary character traits of compassion and courage in the face of adversity. Dodds stresses his argument that Sophocles does not intend to make any statement on the finality of Fate and he bases it on two points. †¢ Sophocles is not the victim of any knowledge of determinism which was a later stage philosophical development largely credited to the Kantian determinism. †¢ Sophocles does not intend to preach the supremacy of fate because most incidents of the Play are a result of the exercise of Free will. Sophocles might not have been privy to the philosophical leanings of the determinism of the late 18th and early 19th century. But that does not exclude the gamut of his knowledge from knowing anything of that. In fact philosophical treatises have been, for the most part, clarified pronunciations of the existing thought derived through scientific observation. Determinism as a clear treatise might not have been available to the Greek playwrights but the concepts of a superior design to life which has the power to supersede human interventions has always caught the fascination of creative contributors as evidenced from the earliest forms of literature. The French concept of Poetic justice or the Christian concepts of adequate justice have been used in works earlier than these periods but they have been recognized and grouped only in the last four to five centuries. It is not that the critics are viewing the older works through newer prisms but the scholars are able to identify the evidence of such concepts even in earlier works. This is intellectually honest analysis and it is hard to understand why Dodd argues them to be invalid. For instance, if Pasteur discovered germ theory of disease in the early part of the 19th century, why is it not valid to find that similar germs or micro-organisms were cited in the out break of any contagious disease in the previous centuries. The scientists and philosophers in both cases have only discovered what was either already existent or known in some different form. Therefore, it seems invalid to argue that Sophocles might not have had the supremacy of Fate or determinism in mind when he crafted the symmetrical cycle of events in Oedipus Rex. Dodds says that Oedipus Rex is a manifestation of Free will. In his own words, â€Å"Oedipus might have left the plague to take its course; but pity for the sufferings of his people compelled him to consult Delphi. When Apollos word came back, he might still have left the murder of Laius uninvestigated; but piety and justice required him to act. He need not have forced the truth from the reluctant Theban herdsman; but because he cannot rest content with a lie, he must tear away the last veil from the illusion in which he has lived so long. Teiresias, Jocasta, the herdsman, each in turn tries to stop him, but in vain: he must read the last riddle, the riddle of his own life. The immediate cause of Oedipuss ruin is not Fate or the gods—no oracle said that he must discover the truth—and still less does it lie in his own weakness; what causes his ruin is his own strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth. In all this we are to see him as a free agent: hence the suppression of the hereditary curse. And his self-mutilation and self ¬-banishment are equally free acts of choice. †(Dodds 1985, p71) But these are not manifestations of free will but the struggle of free will against an all powerful fate. All the attempts made by the wise and virtuous Oedipus to avoid the aberrations of nature at his won hand are defeated partly by design and partly by curious coincidences. Conclusion Aristotle’s Poetics suggests that Greek drama is not pure entertainment. It had a communal function to contribute to the development of the community. It is easy to believe that Sophocles was a strict adherent to this principle because he won the most competitions during his lifetime compared to any of his contemporaries. His dramas were popular with both the entertainment-seeking public and the critics. Therefore it is safe to assume that Sophocles tries to establish the depravity of the acts of Patricide and incest through Oedipus. The message that resonates is that if a man of great wisdom, courage and all admirable qualities like Oedipus can fall prey to the hands of fate and commit the most heinous of acts, it is but the duty of the wider public to guard against any temptations that might make them break the natural or communal law. Besides, if Oedipus could not over come his guilt even after trying his entire life to avoid such acts and if the guilt is so all consuming that he blinds himself and seeks exile, it is better for the normal man to watch out for any of these sins. The all-consuming guilt is so over powering that no man can remain nonchalant after committing any of these crimes knowingly or unwittingly. A good moral for a drama that retains its mystique and appeal due to its craftiness and perfect symmetry in the cycle of events References Dodds. E. R. (1985). The Ancient Concept of Progress and Other Essays on Greek Literature and Belief: And Other Essays on Greek Literature and Belief. New York : Oxford University Press (Translated by Malcolm Heath). Aristotle. 1996. Poetics. London: Penguin Classics

Physics of Skiing :: physics ski skiing

The sport of skiing has been around for thousands of years, originally existing solely as a form of transportation. Today the sport is entirely dependent upon the laws of physics, and has even had advancements through reliance on physics. There are two types of Nordic Skiing. These are Classic (or diagonal) and Skate Skiing. Usually these two forms are raced separate. To be fair, there are actually two slightly different forms of skate skiing; V1 and V2. As these can get very very complicated and precise in the technique, I will focus mainly on classic skiing, which is also the type of skiing that most people are familiar with. Cross-Country Skiing is the most basic form of skiing, even preceding downhill skiing. Primitive skis may have even been used about 3000 B.C. in Norway. There have been cave drawing found that seem to depict men on skis. Skiing has its roots in Scandinavia; Vikings used skis as a form of transportation in the 10th century A.D. Early skis were made of wood, and even the word ski comes from the Norse word skith a stick of wood. Norse skies were very rudimentary, little more than snowshoes. Glide was little to none. It was not until the early 1800s when Sondre Norheim changed the face of skiing and gave skis glide that the sport was introduced to the world. Competitive skiing started in the late 1800s, again in Norway. In the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, Nordic Skiing as we know it was added. Today the sport has evolved to be both extremely competitive and leisurely. In the past 30 years the sport has changed dramatically, adding skis made of synthetic materials, and utilizing waxes for improved speed. Physicists have been at the front line of all this; from determining the coefficent of friction for both the wax and the ski, to helping skiers change their technique based on the laws of physics. To maximize speed, Nordic skiing is more about form than probably any other sport. Brute strength and athletic prowess certainly have their advantages, but these pale in comparision to proper technique. While the shape of classic skis is slightly different than that of skate skis, the real difference is that classic skis have a "kick zone." This is a spot directly underneath the foot that has kick wax applied to it. Kick wax is a sticky poly-hydrocarbon that in theory is only supposed to provide a sticky surface from which to push back from.

Fast Food Nation Synthesis

Sarah Whitaker Mrs. Kurtz A. P. Language and Composition 6 February 2013 The Meatpacking Industry: One of the Most Dangerous Jobs in the U. S. A report from the American Meat Institute shows that the U. S. is home to about 6,000 meatpacking plants. Millions of jobs all over the country are made through meatpacking plants. These low paying, risky jobs are swept up by men and women, these people unknowing of what exactly they have gotten themselves into. The meatpacking, today, has become one of the most dangerous jobs in America.As found by Steven Greenhouse of the New York times, â€Å"†¦the nation’s meat packing industry has such bad working conditions that it violates basic human and worker rights. † Ever since the publication of the famous book by Upton Sainclair–The Jungle— people all over the world have found it necessary for inspections to be considered and for changes to be done with little success. Workers in today’s plants seem to have the same problems that were faced almost 100 years ago.The Appleseed Center For Law found an estimated â€Å"total of 62 percent of those interviewed said they had been injured on the job in the past year, a rate seven times higher than the government’s official statistic for slaughterhouse workers†¦. †, as found in Reprt:Line Speed, Injuries Increase for Slaughterhouse Workers. So what happened to the much needed safety laws? It’s simple really, they just aren’t being followed. Many workers today, who live in horrible working conditions day by day to make their living for them and their families, are not being treated as they are meant to be and this has only made the industry bigger.One person quits or gets hurt and another is there, easily filling the new open position. Complaints don’t help either, as found by Gail Eisnitz, also cited in Reprt:Line Speed, Injuries Increase for Slaughterhouse Workers, â€Å"Slaughterhouse workers talk of a production system that moves to fast†¦despite numerous complaints to management—as well as countless injuries—the companies refuse to make changes because slowing the process would mean not making as much money. † As found in Eric Schlosser’s ook Fast Food Nation the underlying fact is that with power and money there comes damaged morals. The big business owners just don’t care! Now that the secrets are out and the industry is â€Å"naked† to the public now, the people are not calling the industry â€Å"The Jungle of the 2000s†, an article put out by the Associated Press States. Martin Cotez as interviewed by the Associated Press says, â€Å"You know what I like to say to the newcomers? They don’t kill cows. They kill people. † This, a response to his own story description, just puts a whole new label on the industry; murderers!Sinclair’s book published so long ago still seems to have barely effected the ind ustry of today. As discussed in Fast Food Nation, Schlosser also speaks of the injury of workers throughout chapter 8, effectively titled â€Å"The Most Dangerous Job. † One example of the horrible working conditions also comes from Fast Food Nation, Jesus â€Å"A soft spoken employee of DCS Sanitation Managerment, Inc† Talks of an experience he had on one of his cleaning duties, â€Å"One night while Jesus was cleaning, a coworker forgot to turn off a machine, lost two fingers, and went into shock.An ambulance came and took him away, as everyone else continued to clean. He was back at work the following week. ‘if one hand is no good,’ the supervisor told him,’use the other. ’† Not only did the supervisor not care, a person was injured and still returned to the job he obviously needed. So what needs to be done? Obviously whatever it is, its not happening. So even though the demand for food is high in this nation, what’s more imp ortant, our food or our citizens? increased demand at slaughterhouses has caused a rise in work related injuries† according to a report by a Nebraska-based non-profit. People in these plants are getting hurt not only because it’s what the job demands but because the more we as consumers want, the more the big industry owners will demand more work. So what will we as American citizens do? Work Cited â€Å"American Meat Institute. †Ã‚  American Meat Institute. Web. 8 Mar. 2013. â€Å"Report: Line Speeds, Injuries Increase for Slaughterhouse Workers. † Digging Through the Dirt, 8 Oct. 2009. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. Greenhouse, Steven. † Meat Packing Industry Criticized on Human Rights Grounds. † The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 25 Jan. 2005. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. â€Å"Dangers, tensions lurk in meatpacking industry†. Associated Press. Breaking News & Top Stories World News, US & Local: NBC News, 24 Apr. 2006. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. â€Å" Safety and Health Guide for the Meatpacking Industry. † Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. Schlosser,Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper And Perennial,2005. Print.

Biology The structure of Luciferase - 1588 Words

Proteins play a fundamental role in the existence of living organisms. They are major contributors of cell structure and mobility, hormonal interaction, information exchange, and, most importantly, regulation of essential reactions. Enzymes are proteins that activate or inhibit the conversion of a substrate to a product. Often, enzymes catalyze reactions that are crucial for biological processes, but a few regulate other aspects of life, such as communication between a species. The enzyme luciferase catalyzes the reaction that allows fireflies to communicate with each other via emission of a yellow-green to yellow-orange colored light (Nakatsu, T. et al., 2006, 372). This reaction is a bioluminescence reaction, where chemical energy†¦show more content†¦et al., 2006, 373). Researchers have taken a closer look at the structure of the active site that facilitates the bioluminescent reaction; they found the Arg218 residue plays a heavy role in the secure binding of luci ferin. The guanidinium side chain of Arg218 is particularly responsible for binding with the benzothiazole ring of the luciferin substrate. Moreover, Arg218 establishes electrostatic interactions with the ground state product of the phenol group ionization of luciferin, yet Arg218 also stabilizes the final excited state phenolate ion of oxyluciferin (Branchini, B.R., Magyar, R.A., Murtiashaw, M.H., and Portier, N.C, 2001, 2415-2416). The proper binding of luciferin determines the color of the light emission and is dependent on the amount of rotation of the excited oxyluciferin molecule. To further understand the role of Arg218, researchers created a mutant enzyme without the Arg218 residue to determine its impact on substrate production. When researchers converted the Arg residue to Lys, there was a 15-fold increase in Km for luciferin; the Km value suggests the substrate binding affinity of the enzyme. The increase in Km shows that luciferase has a lowered affinity to bind wit h substrates. This shows that a manipulation of the Arg218 residue can affect the catalytic activity of the enzyme. Usually, the enzyme loses its high binding affinity with luciferin.Show MoreRelatedMirna Essay1141 Words   |  5 Pagesof HIV-infected patients with HAND, differing from HIV-infected patients without HAND. To investigate this association between host miRNA expression and HAND development, with HIV-1 biology, brain miRNA profiles were observed in patients with and without HAND. This study also connected two different areas, HIV-1 biology and peroxisome function in the brain, providing insights into HAND. The function of peroxisomes for antiviral signaling is a relatively new. This study shows that the infection of HIV-1Read MoreCell Cycle And Dna Rn Mirnas Regulating Cellular Proliferation During Oncogenic Transformations Essay1076 Words   |  5 Pagescycle profile is also checked by flow cytometry. Cell proliferation and in vivo cytotoxicity is studied by MTT ass ay and colony formation assay. To further validate the putative target of miRNA, luciferase-based reporter assay is done by cloning the 3’ UTR of predicted target gene downstream the firefly luciferase gene in pmirGlo vector. shRNA Lentiviral mediated gene knock down is also done for the target protein by cloning the miRNA hairpin downstream the U6 promoter in pLKO.1 vector. Before joiningRead MoreBioluminescence in Fungi2114 Words   |  9 PagesThis aspect of bioluminescence especially interested early scientists who explored it. The light is the result of a biochemical reaction in which the oxidation of a compound called Luciferin and the reaction was catalyzed by an enzyme called Luciferase. The light generated by this biochemical reaction has been utilized by scientists as a bioindicator for Tuberculosis as well as heavy metals. On going research involving bioluminescence is currently underway in the areas of evolution, ecologyRead MoreRunx2 Binding Protein and the Regulation of Osteogenesis1786 Words   |  8 PagesA chromatin immunoprecipitation assay was then carried out, amplifying the binding site of TSSC1 with specific primers. Next, a luciferase assay was conducted by amplifying the TSSC1 promoter and cloning the fragment into luciferase reporter plasmids. The results of luciferase activity were measured using an assay kit and results were normalized again Renella luciferase. An invasion assay was conducted in vitro using Matrigel staining and finally, bone lesions were analyzed by radiography. TheRead MoreMapping Protein Proteins Of A Living Cell1424 Words   |  6 Pagescellular processes that occur inside a living cell. Recent advances in biological research have strongly instigated the need to map biochemical networks for improved understanding of living cells. Apart from prediction and determination of protein structures to ascribe them potential functions, characterization of proteins also needs to address how and when the proteins interact with other counterpart proteins to bring about much desired orchestration in the cellular physiology. Simultaneously, incredibleRead MoreThe Rna Interference ( Rnai ) Pathway2224 Words   |  9 PagesThe RNA interference (RNAi) pathway is an important biological system that is utilised by many organisms as a method of regulating gene expression. But what exactly is RNAi? And what is the importance of its use and application in biology? RNAi is a cellular process that actively silences specific genes. This method of post-translational gene regulation has been observed in many organisms including plants, fungi, some bacteria and animals. RNAi inhibits protein synthesis of the target transcriptRead MoreInfluenza A H1N1 Virus1818 Words   |  8 Pagesby acidification. (Gamblin Skehel, 2010) Neuraminidase (NA) is responsible for the removal of sialic acid from the membrane lipid bilayer from both of the virus glycoproteins. NA has a six-bladed, individually four antiparallel strands of ÃŽ ²-structure. (Gamblin Skehel, 2010) In the process of viral replication NA removes sialic acid resulting in the newly replicated genome to re-envelop and infect other cells versus aggregating with each other through HA-sialic acid interactions. The locationRead MoreThe Oceans And Its Effects On The World s Oceans2236 Words   |  9 Pagesthat the populations relocate to a different area, and then an issue arises with the species invading another territory, or the species simply dies off because their bodies cannot function. But, a recent study performed by several marine science and biology university professors showed that two different species of Atlantic Salmon may have actually developed the capability for cardiac acclimation to warmer water temperatures. Normally, cardiac colla pse begins around 21-23 °C with a maximum heart rateRead MoreThe Use Of Animal Models And Sirna Technologies On Autosomal Dominantly Inherited Neurodegenerative Disease3557 Words   |  15 Pages There are two main strategies to endogenous delivery, first is the siRNA and mRNA are two separate transcripts which hybridises to form the active dsRNA complex. The second is where the hairpin structure occurs as the siRNA and mRNA form part of the one transcript with separated by a loop. The structure can then be cleaved by the dicer creating active siRNA. (Sioud, 2004) Concluded by several research groups; short hairpin siRNA molecules can be synthesised from the expression on a plasmid. The