The Barnhouse Effect

On the year of 1980 was when he received his second Nobel Prize. This Nobel Prize was also in chemistry, for inventing a method of so called “reading” the molecular letters that make up the genetic code. This discovery was a big discovery

Another issue that Mr. Stoll constantly had to deal with was that the government agencies did not like to share the results of their investigation. They would eagerly collect all the information they could get from him but in return maintain secrets about their progress and

B.F Skinner was an American Psychologist who invented the operant conditioning chamber. The chamber he set up had rats in it and a lever, once the rats pulled the lever they were given a piece of food. After this happened the rate of bar pressing would increase dramatically and remain high until the rat was no longer hungry. He was a firm believer of the idea that human free will was actually an illusion and any human

as a lucky number but in this ‘seven’ we find that this number isn’t so lucky, it’s the

Proceed to Slide 13. Click on the video of Dr. White to listen to his description of the discovery of

family, and offered not knowledge to the family of his findings after the fact. Not to mention no

Here I focus on his life as a scientist and inventor, touching briefly on his other

B.F. Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning has at its foundation a desire to demonstrate a “cause and

“[The protagonist] lunged for a yellow coin lying on the blue design of the carpet, touching it and sending a surprised shriek to join those around me. [He] tried frantically to remove my hand but could not let go. A hot, violent force tore through [his] body, shaking [him] like a wet rat. The rug was electrified. The hair bristled up on [his] head as [he] shook [himself] free. [The narrator’s] muscles jumped, [his] nerves jangled, writhed” (Ellison 1217).

Behaviorism is a theory that human or animal psychology can be studied through examination of observable behavioral events. Behavior is a subject matter in its own right; it is also the functioning of an organism that entails communication or exchanges with its environmental settings (Moore, 2011). it is also the functioning of an organism. One way Skinner influenced the field of psychology was by building a conditioning chamber or known to society today as the Skinner Box. A rat was placed into the Skinner Box which had a lever and a food tray. If the rat were to hit the lever, food would drop out onto the tray. After the rat hit the bar on accident and a food pellet would drop, Skinner observed that the rate the bar was hit increased and remained high until the rat was no longer hungry (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, Nock, 2014, 18-19). Skinner assumed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the reasons of an action and its result. He called this method operant conditioning which expanded the field of psychology. Operant conditioning is changing the behavior of an organism or being by reinforcement (Mcleod,

Skinner’s theory observes individuals from the point of view of the behavior that they demonstrate. The key weakness of this theory is its attempt to explain the behaviors of an individual solely through visible phenomena. Critics sometimes accuse behaviorists of denying that ideas and thoughts exist (Jensen & Burgess, 1997). The major opposition that behaviorists face is that behavior of a person cannot be understood without including the mental activity of the individual. Critics have accused behaviorists of focusing only on behavior and ignoring the role of physiology, neuroscience, and genetics (Weiss & Rosales-Ruiz, 2014). Sometimes the reactions that people demonstrate have are not related their experience and therefore they have another

Skinner conducted a series of research experiments with rats and pigeons under controlled laboratory conditions using a specially designed cage. By doing so he sought to demonstrate that behaviour can be created and reinforced by external factors. The puzzle box he created for his experiments has become so widely used that it is now known as the “Skinner box”. Animals would be placed in a cage which had a bar lever mechanism used to dispense food; Skinner would measure the frequency of the bar pressing and introduce different variables into the experiments. This led to his discovery of 'partial reinforcement' and its correlation to the slower extinction of shaped behaviour. When food pellets would only be dispensed once in a while (as opposed to every pressing) Skinner noticed that it took longer for the learnt behaviour to become extinct. The powerful phenomenon of partial reinforcement can be noticed in gambling establishments; a player on a slot machine is more likely to keep up their behaviour of playing if the rewards are unpredictable and occasional. The player becomes more persistent in their gambling in the hope that the next coin will be the winner (Hunt, 1993).

His creative break with the prevailing assumption that all molecules were based on two-ended strings of atoms came in a blazing flash of insight:

“The novelty of these things, as well as some consequences which followed from them in contradiction to the physical notions … as if I had placed these things in the sky with my own hands in order to upset nature and overturn the sciences.”

The book “Physics of the Impossible” was written by Japanese American theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. Kaku generally writes books about physics or physics related topics. Among his three New Work Times best seller, Physics of Impossible is one in which Kaku utilizes discourse of theoretical advancements to acquaint themes of basic material science with the reader. In this book, Kaku represents physics in various ways so that the reader understands the significance of physics and implement in his/her life. Kaku makes many references to physics by utilizing popular culture references, especially to books and films, for example, Star Trek, Back to the Future, Flash Gordon, The Fly, The Invisible Man, and more. Kaku utilizes these cases to