TPO 10 Conversation 1
Narrator
Listen to a conversation between a student and her Photography Professor.
Student
Professor Jason, there is something that’s been on my mind.
Professor
Ok.
Student
Remember last week, you told us that it's really important to get our
photography into a show, basically as soon as we can?
Professor
Yes up, it's a big step, no question.
Student
Thing is, I am sitting here and I am just not sure how I get there. I mean I’ve got
some work I like, but is it the really what the gallery is looking for? How would I
know, how do I make the right context to get it into show, I just really don't...
Professor
Ok, slow on, slow on. Um…these are questions, well, just about every young
artist has to struggle with. Ok, the first thing you should do is you absolutely
have to stay true to your artistic vision; take the pictures you want to take.
Don't start trying to catch the flavor the monsoon, be trendy because you think
you are getting into a show--- that never works, because you wanna them
creating something you don't really believe in. That sounds uninspired, and
won’t make any shows. I've seen that have happened so many times. This
doesn’t mean that you should go into the caves. Keep up with the trends, even
think about how your work might fit in with them, but don't mindlessly follow
them.
Student
Well, yeah, I can see that. I think though I have always been able to stay pretty
true to what I want to create, not what others want me to create. I think that
comes through my work.
Professor
Ok, just remember that is one thing to create works that you really want to
create one that in the classroom. The only thing is stake is your grade. But
what create outside the classroom? That could be in different story. Eh, I'm not
talking about techniques or things like that. It's just there is so much more
stake when you are out there ** art for living. There are a lot of pressures
to become something you are not, and people often surrendered to that
pressure.
Student
But to get stuff it exhibited…
Professor
Well, you need to be a bit of opportunists. Now, a common sense things like
always having a sample if you worked on hand to give the people. You won’t
believe the kind of contacts and opportunists you get it in this way. And try to
get your work seen in the places like restaurants, bookstores, you will be
surprised how world get surround it about photography in places like then.
Student
Ok it's just so hard to think about all of these practical things and make good
work, you know
TPO 10 Lecture 1 Marine Biology
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a Marine Biology Class
Professor
We know whales are mammals and that they evolved from land creatures. So
the mystery is figuring out how they became ocean dwellers. Because until
recently there was no fossil record of what we call “the missing link”- that is
evidence of species that show the transition between land-dwelling mammals
and today’s whales. Fortunately, some recent fossil discoveries have made the
picture a little bit clearer. For example, a few years back in Pakistan, they
found a skull of a wolf-like creature. It’s about 50 million years old. Scientists
had seen this wolf-like creature before, but this skull was different. The ear
area of the skull had characteristics seen only in aquatic mammals, specifically
whales.
Err, well, then also in Pakistan they found a fossil of another creature, which
we call Ambulocetus natans That’s muffle lay. The name Ambulocetus natans
comes from Latin of course, and means “walking whale that swims”. It clearly
had four limbs that couldn’t have been used for walking. It also had a long thin
tail, typical of mammals, something we don’t see in today’s whales. But, it also
had a long skeletal structure. And that long skeletal structure suggests that it
was aquatic. And very recently in Egypt, they found a skeleton of Basilosaurus.
Basilosaurus was a creature that we’ve already known about for over a
hundred years. And it has been linked to modern whales because of its long
whale-like body. But this new fossil find showed a full set of leg bones,
something we didn’t have before. The legs were too small to be useful. They
weren’t even connected to its Power San and couldn’t have supported its
weight. But it clearly shows Basilosaurus an evolution from land creature. So
that’s a giant step in the right direction. Even better, it established
Ambulocetus natans as a clear link between the wolf-like creature and
Basilosaurus. Now these discoveries don’t completely solve the mystery. I
mean, Ambulocetus natans is a mammal that shows a sort of bridge between
walking on land and swimming. But it also is very different from the whales
who know today. So really we are working just a few pieces of a big puzzle.
Emm…a related debate involved some recent DNA studies. Remember, DNA
is the genetic code for any organism. And when the DNA from two different
species is similar, it suggests that those two species are related. And when we
compared some whale DNA with DNA from some other species, we got quite a
surprise. The DNA suggests that whales are descendants of the hippopotamus.
Yes, the hippopotamus! Well, it came as a bit of a shock. I mean, that a
four-legged land and river dweller could be the evolutionary source of a
completely aquatic creature up to 25 times its size. Unfortunately this evolution
of the hippopotamus apparently contradicts the fossil record, which suggests
that the hippopotamus is only a very distant relative of the whale, not an
ancestor. And of course as I mentioned, that whales are descendent not from
hippos but from that distant wolf-like creatures. So we have contradictory
evidences. And more research might just raise more questions and create
more controversies. At any rate, we have a choice. We can believe the
molecular data- the DNA, or we can believe the skeleton trail, but unfortunately,
not both.
Err… and there have been some other interesting findings from DNA research.
For a long time, we assumed that all whales that had teeth including sperm
whales and killer whales were closely related to one another. And the same for
the toothless whales, like the blue whale and other baleen whales, we
assumed that they be closely related. But recent DNA studies suggest that
that’s not the case at all. The sperm whale was actually closely related to the
baleen whale, and it’s only distantly related to the toothed-whales. So that’s
the real surprise to all of us.
