There are so many interesting courses at Gettysburg College, so I wanted to highlight five fun facts I’ve learned throughout my four years here. I also provide which class I learned each fact from in case anyone is interested in learning more!
Advanced Lab in Perception with Professor Russell: Parental age is associated with how susceptible we are to youth cues. According to a study by Perrett et al. (2002) people that were born to parents younger than 30 show a more drastic decrease in ratings for older faces compared to ratings of younger faces whereas those born to parents over 30 still exhibit a decrease in ratings, but to a lesser degree.
- Perrett, D. I., Penton-Voak, I. S., Little, A. C., Tidderman, B.P., Burt, D. M., Schmidt, N., Oxley, R., Kinloch, N., & Barrett, L. (2002). Facial attractiveness judgements reflect learning of parental age characteristics. Proceedings ofThe Royal Society, 269, 873-880. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2002.1971
History and Theory of Photography with Professor Gillespie: The invention of photography is typically attributed to the patent that Louis Daguerre received in France in 1839 for his invention, the daguerreotype, though there were forms of photography that existed before 1839. One of his contemporaries, William Henry Fox Talbot, created the calotype which had a paper negative/positive process unlike the daguerreotype which was just a direct positive, much like a polaroid.
Bio 101 with Professor Ferster: The term ‘gymnosperm’ refers to a category of plants that have ‘naked seeds’ or cones. Although this term is outdated in actual taxonomy, it is still used in categorizing 4 divisions of plants including cycads, gingkos (which only have one living species), gnetophyta, and coniferophyta (or more commonly known as conifers).
The Brontës with Professor Cordes Selbin: Charlotte Brontë hated being compared to Jane Austen. Although Austen’s influence seems clear in Brontë’s works, she openly critiqued Austen’s writing after a contemporary critic urged her to read some of Austen’s work as a source of inspiration for her next novel (after she had written Jane Eyre).
Medieval Epic Literature with Professor Fee: The name of the Byzantine epic Digenes Akritas points to the role of the main character, Basil. ‘Digenes’ means twin origins or two-blooded, which points to the fact that Basil is half Greek and half Arab, and ‘Akritas’ roughly means border-lord which is the position that Basil holds in the epic.