Social science, or social sciences, refers to a branch of science that uses scientific methods to study the behavior of human and the society. It includes language studies, psychology, econmics, anthropology, sociology, and many others. It is related to humanities.

Yes, because social science deals with unpredictable human behavior and societal movements, there is no absolutely true or wrong answer for most social problems. However, social theories are formed exactly the same way as other sciences do: first observe the phenomenon, then summarize it and form a theory, and then collect data and test the theory. It is a spiral process. The empiricism is the key in modern social science.

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The long awaited movie, Harry Potter IV–the Goblet of Fire, is frightening but also surprisingly entertaining. The movie is well crafted and the story flow is better than the novel itself, a rare case in the history of film.

The Harry Potter book IV is not my favorite one. The story in this book is complicate and JK Rowlings didn’t handle it well. In addition to pushing through the thrilling tri-school wizard competition, she tried her best to depict the romantic stories among teenagers whose activities are mostly driven by their abundant hormone. Harry Potter has a crush with Chou Chang, and Ron Weasley is fervently jealous about Hermine’s date with Victor. It seems everybody is dating with somebody, which is true at the age of 14. Fortunately, the movie made a good decision between these two conflicting themes.

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Last weekend, the CNN Paul Zahn show (hosted by Heidi) featured the contested debate between intelligent design and Darwin’s evolution. The absurdity in those ID believers made me laugh and furious.

In the show, Michael Behe, a biology professor in the Lehigh University, deceitfully reasoned that some intelligent beings, in his belief, God, must design everything because even a propel system in a simple bacteria was complicate, let alone human eyes. However, most of his colleagues felt ashamed of Behe’s theory. Some even posted a statement declaring they were Darwinists.

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Rumors are not new to human society. Words of mouth is the traditional way of spreading rumors. But information is likely distorted during the transmission. Messages posted on the bulletin boards and blogs are unverified and, in a sense, rumors. In the era of internet and multifunctional cellular phone, emails and text messaging also make rumors spread at light speed. In fact, we are surrounded by rumors.

Sometimes rumors come from nowhere. However, more commonly they are derived from some vague facts, or originate in ambiguous situations. As a result, rumors cause more confusion among common people, and the government is supposed to reject rumors. However, several recent big rumors in China suggested that government may be partially responsible for these rumors.

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Recently, Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk, the Korean scientist who pioneered the stem cell research which made the rest of world feel jealous, admitted that two of his junior researchers had donated their egg cells for his research.

The issue was raised by people who suspected that the junior researchers were coerced to donate their egg cells. However, Dr. Hwang explicitly stated that he didn’t know they had donated, and in fact tried to persuade them not to donate their egg cells.

The Korean ethical rules on stem cell research mandate that one should not use the egg cells from their team members, and should not use commercial egg cells. It seems that Dr. Hwang’s lab used both.

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When I was a child (yeah, I am getting old so I always start with “when I was …), I wrote diary in Chinese for school assignment. Although most of the journal notes were fake stories, they at least forced me to write something, and it happened that my writings were often posted on the bulletin board as exemplary articles. They were not brilliant or heavily decorated, but were generally considered clear writings.

I hadn’t written anything serious since I entered the college. But, not bragging myself, my writing skills gave me pretty good scores in most courses, particularly social science courses. Therefore, I was dismayed to discover that I could not write well in English.

In fact, I was disappointed of myself so much that I unconsciously refused to write anything. I didn’t feel confident in my language skills. So I procrastinated, and waited for a really long time.

Well, self confidence, or self-esteem in general, is a personal trait but can be improved. The first strategy to build up self-confidence is to master the technique through practice (see self-efficacy theory by Albert Bandura).

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China accounts for one sixth of the world population. About 1.3 billion people are living in a land of 3,750,000 square miles, but almost half of them are inhabitable. Two thirds of the population concentrate along the coastline. The population pressure is tangible everywhere.

The explosive growth of Chinese population started right after the communist party took in charge of the government in 1949. There was nothing wrong with the government during that time. The country was stabilized and foods were secured. The great improvement in health, especially in perinatal care, significantly reduced the infant mortality. More and more babies were born healthy and able to live to their adulthoods.

Malthus in “An Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798) warned that the exponential growth of population might exhaust the linearly growing food production. Yanchu Ma, a professor of the Beijing University, wrote a letter to Chairman Mao suggesting that the government should consider population problem seriously. However, Chairman Mao, being ignorant and arrogant, deliberately dismissed Ma’s advice. Instead, he proposed a famous slogan—the more people, the stronger the manpower.

The population problem emerged quickly even before Mao died. He tried to solve it by sending millions of urban young people to rural areas under the name of re-education by peasants. In addition, in the middle of 1970s, he started a campaign to dissuade the third or more childbirth. But the tough job had to wait after his death.

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Thomas Friedman in his “the World is Flat” labeled China as the manufacture of the world. China is the largest exporter of clothes, toys, small appliances, and other low profit products. The foreign investment, from mostly Hongkong and Taiwan investment in the early stage to the recent fortune 500 companies, has fueled the Chinese economic development. The explosive expanding of domestic consumption push the development even further, with a steady economic growth rate of 9% for more than ten years.

The downside of the fast economic growth is the high pollution. In a recent editorial in the Lancet, the air pollution in China was estimated to cause over 400,000 premature deaths annually. Beijing has been called the most polluted capital. One of every three days in Beijing is smoggy. The air quality in Beijing is often labeled as “dangerous to your health.”

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When I was little, I ate meats only on very rare occasions, for example, during holidays and wedding ceremonies. During that time, meats were precious foods. My dream then (and probably most Chinese people’s dream) was able to eat meats everyday.

Craving meats is hardwired in our genes. The taste of fat and the joy of chewing meats are so addictive that I can’t live for more than three days without eating meats. It is truly blessing that I am living in a society in which meats are cheap and abundant.

But wait, it seems that the body is not ready for the abundance of meats. Extra energy and fat stored in adipose tissues, originally prepared for the food crisis which never comes in industrialized societies, now become a burden to the body. In a sense, the body doesn’t know how to appropriately handle the overloaded fat.

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Today after escorting my son to the music class, I stepped into a charity store and found there were some books sitting in the corner. A casual treasure hunt surprised me with the book “The Bell Curve.” It is a clearly written and enlightening book with many tables and figures, although I don’t agree with the opinions expressed in that book. I borrowed that book from the U library last year and kept it since then (max 3 years). I am glad I can now return the library book because I bought the book for 50 cents.

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