Circulating Reference and the Human Element

After reading the prompt and being told to reflect on ONE thing from the class I felt this was going to be harder than the entire class. There has been so much stuff that has interested me in many different ways throughout the semester, but perhaps the idea that jumps out the most is the concept of the “snowshoes in the snow”. I cannot remember who shared the story in the first 1/3 of our semester but it was the idea that a tribe of Indians lived in the forest and saw these weird tracks in the snow, and then someone told them that they were made from snowshoes. Thus those tracks were snowshoes then, have always been snowshoes, and always will be snowshoes.  This is also known as Circulating Reference, or I may have it wrong, like most applications/ usage of course terms by myself and my peers.

I think this concept has grabbed my interest and will stay with me for a long time because of its associated nature with history, discovery, and language. The idea that until a name was put on something it didn’t really “exist”, like Pasteur’s’ bacteria, illnesses, economic recessions, color, and certainly, snowshoes. This idea and concept embodies the artifacts of our lives and the history of our culture and science. It is so critically linked with our understanding of life and the very things we know within it. Once you have that moment of discovery, the moment you learn it was a snowshoe, everything changes.

One of my favorite videos from YouTube is a perfect way to summarize the things I have learned from this class. The connectedness of science, humanity, and culture, all in one. Together. Those are the lessons that will remain valuable, the lessons that continue to educate and shed light into the discovery. This video tells a cool story, and then you find out it was produced by the global chemical company Dow. Again, everything comes full circle. Enjoy.