The Convergence of the Twain Essay Example

The Convergence of the Twain Essay Example The Convergence of the Twain Paper The Convergence of the Twain Paper Essay Topic: The Convergence Of the Twain In April 1912, the RMS Titanic sank, with the loss of 1,517 passengers. In the weeks that followed, numerous responses to the disaster were published, one of which was Hardys The Convergence of the Twain. The poem portrays a view of the disaster relating to the complex relationship between the two dominant forces of man and nature, and the understatedly devastating consequences of the consummation of mans hubristically flawed ambitions with the enduringly relentless power of the Spinner of the Years. The challenge of public poetry also alters the ways in which Hardys literary techniques of theme, structure; form and imagery combine to form the verse that went out to the grieving masses of 1912. In terms of theme, The Convergence of the Twain follows the story of the Titanics sinking, as well as exploring another side of the disaster, away from the predictable hysteria and grief. One of the main themes is that of juxtaposition, and the idea of the conflict, or consummation between the eternal verities. Ideas surrounding this theme include And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she, referring to the contrasts between life and death, and with the capitalisation in Pride of Life, elevating mans ambitions to those on a par with the omnipotence of the higher verities, of Time and Fate, of The Immanent Will and The Spinner of the Years. This juxtaposition in premise between the desires, actions and feelings of man against the unflinching rigour of the eternal verities is also one of the enduring themes of the poem, as it is in many of Hardys more confessional works of verse. Reflections of this include the idea of Times unflinching rigour reducing a person to one phantom figure in At Castle Boterel, and the intimate and confirmatory lyric of Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me being reduced to the bitter indictment of And the woman, calling through the passage of time in The Voice. This suggests that Hardy keeps his main stylistic themes consistent, and applies them to differing events more in terms of scale, or levels of contrast, rather than changing the actual content of the themes. The form and structure of The Convergence of the Twain is very much unlike many of Hardys poems, a possible response to the scale of his commitment to write publically or perhaps simply an exploration of form to try and convey his own views, slightly antithetical in themselves, on the disaster. The poem is divided into eleven heroic triplets, self containing the stanzas with the rhyme scheme, and leaving the poem in an isometric form- possibly highlighting the impersonality of Hardys view on the events. Furthermore, these structurally static, contained triplets do not possess the natural speech rhythms caused by the heavy use of caesurae and changes in line length that exist of many of his more personal poems. This process of technique enacting meaning leads to poems like The Voice and Neutral Tones possessing a much deeper, heartfelt message as a result of the effervescent lines, Saying that now you are not as you were and the heavily accented pauses that convey effect and depth- Thus I; faltering forward/Leaves around me falling. This contrast in personal poetry having a more heartfelt feel and the public having a more stagnant, artificially composed nature suggests the impersonality of the public against the deeply confessional verse of the personal, and the lack of pronouns and simple lack of recognition of the dead in The Convergence of the Twain in contrast to the consistent I and You in the personal works adds to this feeling. A further comment that can be made on the form of structure of The Convergence of the Twain is the way that tense is portrayed in the poem, and how this contributes to its effect as well as how it contrasts or identifies with Hardys confessional work. The The Convergence of the Twain has a clear division between tense, and furthermore, this division is also key to the narration of events and the dynamic aspects of the narrative. Stanzas I-V are written entirely in the present tense, as Hardy describes the current situation of The Titanic- Steel chambers, late the pyres/Of her salamandrine fires/Cold currents thrid, and turn to tidal lyres- the ship itself is passive against the metaphor of the music of the tidal lyre sweeping over it, and the cold currents that employ the neologism of thrid to explain the meaning of their power over the once pristine ship. This passive stasis of the poem could highlight Hardys indifference to the loss of those who are described as the opulent, or the simple fact that the ship is now at the bottom of the ocean, at the mercy of the greater forces that Hardy discusses and references with such vigour in stanzas VI-XI. In stanza VI, the tense changes upon the heavily accentuated caesura of Well:, and Hardy proceeds to actively describe the events that contributed to the Titanics downfall- The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything/Prepared a sinister mate, exemplifies this through the stanza wide enjambment highlighting the unstoppable nature of the Will, and the stirs and urges adding to dynamism of the poem. This idea of a clear definition between tense is one that occurs much more sparsely in works of a direct importance to Hardy, as his verse of this type often blurs the boundaries between tense to highlight the distinction, or lack of distinction in his memories and the contrast and confusion between the past and present. Examples of this include lines in The Voice, Saying that now you are not as you were, and the recounting of a memory through present description in At Castle Boterel, Myself and a girlish form benighted/In dry March weather.

Famous Female Chemists and Chemical Engineers

Famous Female Chemists and Chemical Engineers Women have made many important contributions to the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering. Heres a list of female scientists and a summary of the research or inventions that made them famous. Jacqueline Barton - (USA, born 1952) Jacqueline Barton probes DNA with electrons. She uses custom-made molecules to locate genes and study their arrangement. She has shown that some damaged DNA molecules do not conduct electricity. Ruth Benerito - (USA, born 1916) Ruth Benerito invented wash-and-wear cotton fabric. Chemical treatment of the cotton surface not only reduced wrinkles, but could be used to make it flame resistant and stain resistant. Ruth Erica Benesch - (1925-2000) Ruth Benesch and her husband Reinhold made a discovery that helped explain how hemoglobin releases oxygen in the body. They learned that carbon dioxide functions as an indicator molecule, causing hemoglobin to release oxygen where carbon dioxide concentrations are high. Joan Berkowitz - (USA, born 1931) Joan Berkowitz is a chemist and environmental consultant. She uses her command of chemistry to help solve problems with pollution and industrial waste. Carolyn Bertozzi - (USA, born 1966) Carolyn Bertozzi has helped design artificial bones that are less likely to cause reactions or lead to rejection than their predecessors. She has helped create contact lenses that are better-tolerated by the cornea of the eye. Hazel Bishop - (USA, 1906–1998) Hazel Bishop is the inventor of smear-proof lipstick. In 1971, Hazel Bishop became the first female member of the Chemists’ Club in New York. Corale Brierley Stephanie Burns Mary Letitia Caldwell Emma Perry Carr - (USA, 1880–1972) Emma Carr helped to make Mount Holyoke, a womens college, into a chemistry research center. She offered undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct their own original resarch. Uma Chowdhry Pamela Clark Mildred Cohn Gerty Theresa Cori Shirley O. Corriher Erika Cremer Marie Curie - Marie Curie pioneered radioactivity research. She was the first two-time Nobel laureate and the only person to win the award in two different sciences (Linus Pauling won Chemistry and Peace). She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Marie Curie was the first female professor at the Sorbonne. Irà ©ne Joliot-Curie - Irà ©ne Joliot-Curie was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for synthesis of new radioactive elements. The prize was shared jointly with her husband Jean Frà ©dà ©ric Joliot. Marie Daly - (USA, 1921–2003) In 1947, Marie Daly became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. The majority of her career was spent as a college professor. In addition to her research, she developed programs to attract and aid minority students in medical and graduate school. Kathryn Hach Darrow Cecile Hoover Edwards Gertrude Belle Elion Gladys L. A. Emerson Mary Fieser Edith Flanigen - (USA, born 1929) In the 1960s, Edith Flanigen invented a process for making synthetic emeralds. In addition to their use for making beautiful jewelry, the perfect emeralds made it possible to make powerful microwave lasers. In 1992, Flanigen received the first Perkin Medal ever awarded to a woman, for her work synthesizing zeolites. Linda K. Ford Rosalind Franklin - (Great Britain, 1920–1958) Rosalind Franklin used x-ray crystallography to see the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick used her data to propose the double-stranded helical structure of the DNA molecule. The Nobel Prize could only be awarded to living persons, so she could not be included when Watson and Crick were formally recognized with the 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology. She also used x-ray crystallography to study the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus. Helen M. Free Dianne D. Gates-Anderson Mary Lowe Good Barbara Grant Alice Hamilton - (USA, 1869–1970) Alice Hamilton was a chemist and physician who directed the first governmental commission to investigate industrial hazards in the workplace, such as exposure to dangerous chemicals. Because of her work, laws were passed to protect employees from occupational hazards. In 1919 she became the first female faculty member of Harvard Medical School. Anna Harrison Gladys Hobby Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - Dorothy Crowfoot-Hodgkin (Great Britain) was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using x-rays to determine the structure of biologically important molecules. Darleane Hoffman M. Katharine Holloway - (USA, born 1957) M. Katharine Holloway and Chen Zhao are two of the chemists who developed protease inhibitors to inactivate the HIV virus, greatly extending the lives of AIDS patients. Linda L. Huff Allene Rosalind Jeanes Mae Jemison - (USA, born 1956) Mae Jemison is a retired medical doctor and American astronaut. In 1992, she became the first black woman in space. She holds a degree in chemical engineering from Stanford and a degree in medicine from Cornell. She remains very active in science and technology. Fran Keeth Laura Kiessling Reatha Clark King Judith Klinman Stephanie Kwolek Marie-Anne Lavoisier - (France, circa 1780) Lavoisiers wife was his colleague. She translated documents from English for him and prepared sketches and engravings of laboratory instruments. She hosted parties at which prominent scientists could discuss chemistry and other scientific ideas. Rachel Lloyd Shannon Lucid - (USA, born 1943) Shannon Lucid as an American biochemist and US astronaut. For a while, she held the American record for the most time in space. She studies the effects of space on human health, often using her own body as a test subject. Mary Lyon - (USA, 1797–1849) Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, one of the first womens colleges. At the time, most colleges taught chemistry as a lecture-only class. Lyon made lab exercises and experiments an integral part of undergraduate chemistry education. Her method became popular. Most modern chemistry classes include a lab component. Lena Qiying Ma Jane Marcet Lise Meitner  - Lise Meitner (November 17, 1878 – October 27, 1968) was an Austrian/Swedish physicist who studied radioactivity and nuclear physics. She was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, for which Otto Hahn received a Nobel Prize. Maud Menten Marie Meurdrac Helen Vaughn Michel Amalie Emmy Noether  - (born in Germany, 1882-1935) Emmy Noether was a mathematician, not a chemist, but her mathematical description of the conservation laws for energy, angular momentum, and linear momentum has been invaluable in spectroscopy and other branches of chemistry. She is responsible for Noethers theorem in theoretical physics, the Lasker–Noether theorem in commutative algebra, the concept of Noetherian rings, and was co-founder of the theory of central simple algebras. Ida Tacke Noddack Mary Engle Pennington Elsa Reichmanis Ellen Swallow Richards Jane S. Richardson  - (USA, born 1941) Jane Richardson, a biochemistry professor at Duke University, is best-known for her hand-drawn and computer-generated portaits of proteins. The graphics help scientists understand how proteins are made and how they function. Janet Rideout Margaret Hutchinson Rousseau Florence Seibert Melissa Sherman Maxine Singer  - (USA, born 1931) Maxine Singer specializes in recombinant DNA technology. She studies how disease-causing genes jump within DNA. She helped formulate the NIHs ethical guidelines for genetic engineering. Barbara Sitzman Susan Solomon Kathleen Taylor Susan S. Taylor Martha Jane Bergin Thomas Margaret E. M. Tolbert Rosalyn Yalow Chen Zhao  - (born 1956) M. Katharine Holloway and Chen Zhao are two of the chemists who developed protease inhibitors to inactivate the HIV virus, greatly extending the lives of AIDS patients.