Featured Post from Villanova University

Examining the Popularity of the Bernie Sanders Meme

Feb 3, 2021

2 min

The image is a familiar one to millions across the country: Senator Bernie Sanders sitting with his legs crossed and arms across his chest—wearing a face mask, warm coat and knitted mittens—and watching as Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on January 20, 2021.


Two weeks later, however, the photo looks different. That's because very quickly that inauguration snapshot became an internet sensation, with people photoshopping it to create social media memes—placing Senator Sanders in famous paintings or scenes in movies ranging from the Breakfast Club to Star Trek.


But what it is that draws people to these scenes and motivates them to create memes?


Charles L. Folk, PhD, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Villanova University, discusses the psychology behind it all.


“Scenes and people activate ‘schemas’ in our memory,” says Dr. Folk. “Schemas are organized structures of knowledge, stored in memory, that are built up through experience. For example, we all have a ‘restaurant’ schema that stores information about the things that are typically in restaurants and the kinds of interactions we can expect in a restaurant.”


Research suggests that our attention is drawn to objects that are incongruous with the “context” of a scene, Dr. Folk notes. “Thus, if we see a bedroom scene, our bedroom schema is activated, and our attention would be drawn to an object that is incongruent with that schema—like a toaster in a bedroom scene.”


Dr. Folk shares that we have schemas for people as well. “Seeing Bernie Sanders activates our Bernie schema,” he says. “Bernie, in particular, has a very unique schema—so just seeing the picture of Bernie with his Vermont mittens is interesting/humorous because it is quite consistent with our schema of him.”


“However, activating our Bernie schema in the context of an incongruent scene schema—like Bernie sitting on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise or a well-known movie set/scene—is particularly alluring precisely because of that incongruity,” continues Dr. Folk.


Dr. Folk notes that the development of the app that can place the Bernie meme anywhere in Google Maps motivates people further to create their own versions of outrageous incongruity. “This contributes to the viral nature of the meme,” Dr. Folk says.




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5 min

Villanova Biology Professor Looking to Natural World for Solutions as Field of Biomimicry Expands

Humans have long taken inspiration from the natural world. From the indigenous cultures of the world who understand and utilize the properties of plant and animal products, to Leonardo da Vinci’s “flying machine” sketches inspired by his observations of flying birds, humankind has often looked to nature to help solve its problems and drive innovation. With rapid scientific advancements of the 19th and 20th centuries, and the exponential growth of sustainability practices over the last quarter century, the concepts of bio-inspired design and biomimicry have been increasingly pursued across myriad disciplines of study and implementation. Alyssa Stark, PhD, associate professor of biology at Villanova University, is one of the “boots-on-the-ground” researchers in pursuit of nature’s solutions to human problems. She recently took the time to chat with us about these fields, her research interests and the future of biomimicry. Villanova PR: We sometimes hear the terms “bio-inspired design” and “biomimicry” used interchangeably. Are they the same concept? Alyssa Stark: I see those as two different things. Bio-inspired design is when we are looking at an organism and see that it’s doing something that we want to emulate as humans. I work with animals that have unique adhesive properties. I ask questions like: Can we see that? Can we build it? Can we transfer that information, those ideas, those principles – it could be chemistry, physics, biological structure – and make something useful for us? That is also true with biomimicry, but the big difference for me is that we're keeping in mind the sustainability components. The natural world is not polluting. If we're using this biomimicry lens, how do we learn from nature to make products or solve problems in a sustainable way, keeping in mind the specific environment in which we are located? As an example, we wouldn't use a heavy water process if we were in the Arizona desert, instead we should look to our immediate surroundings to solve problems. PR: It seems the work going on in this field really takes a unique level of interdisciplinary collaboration. What types of different professionals are working in biomimicry? AS: It really pulls together biologists, engineers, physicists, chemists, even design artists and businesspeople. I've worked with a lot of different businesses that want to have sustainability in their company at broad levels by using biomimicry. They are not motivated by making a cool product, but realizing it actually saves them money if they think about their whole company in a biomimetic perspective. There are people who work on the social side of biomimicry, helping these companies completely restructure themselves to be more efficient and more time and money sensitive, without ever making a product. But of course, products are a huge part of it, too. And to make that happen, all of those professions, and more, are vital and active in this space. PR: In terms of products, what are some of the most successful examples of biomimetic designs being implemented? AS: A classic one is a building in Africa that doesn't have any air conditioning units because it has a series of vents like a termite mound. Or the bullet train being shaped like a kingfisher’s beak. One scientist found that whales have bumps on their fins, which you might think is not hydrodynamic. But as it turns out, it actually cuts through water more efficiently by creating little vortices. This concept was then applied to wind turbines. There are many examples of biomimicry actually working and being used. My mind is blown when I talk to an artist or designer about biomimicry because it's just wild the way they think. PR: Where does your overall work as a biologist fit into the world of biomimicry? AS: My hard science work is very much functional morphology – shape and structure of things and how they function. That includes behavior and their organismal interaction with the environment. I ask questions like: How do their structures function and perform? How sticky are they? How fast are they? How do they behave in their environment? What happens if they hit different challenges in their environment? My work kind of naturally fits well with biomimicry, especially for product development. I observe the natural world and then I start testing questions and predictions that I have about it, like figuring out how the heck this ant is sticking to this wet leaf. My results can then be applied directly. We have to first understand how these organisms work, and then others can run with it to try to put it to use. PR: What organisms do you work with and what about them are you studying? AS: I mostly study geckos, ants, and sea urchins and I just started working with some coral, looking at why some coral undergo bleaching, and some don’t. With sea urchins, we're also figuring out where their incredibly hard teeth are mineralized so we can understand it enough to try to mimic it. I like playing in that zone, because it still provides me a chance to do the hard science, but also talk to engineers and others and provide them information. With geckos, what I kind of broke open with my PhD thesis was that they have an adhesive that works in wet environments. Having a reusable adhesive that can work on skin, especially in the medical world, is a big problem and where most of my research lies. Think of a bug that you can’t pry off, but then it suddenly runs. How do these organisms move with such sticky feet? Figuring out how to make a reusable adhesive that doesn’t get dirty and can handle all these different environments is a difficult problem to solve. PR: How do you see this field evolving, especially as we strive for a greener, more sustainable future? AS: I would say the next step is the social levels of these big ecosystems. How do we build a city that functions like a rainforest or like a coral reef? Not just a product, but how do we actually shape our world by taking behaviors, processes, or systems that we see in the natural world to help us? Look at a pride of lions and their hierarchy, or what kind of feedback loops are there in an ant colony that allow them to give information back to their colony members quickly and share resources. I think that is the future of this field, and it’s an exciting future. *To learn more about Dr. Stark’s research and the field of biomimicry, click here to listen to a recent episode of NPR’s science show, “The Pulse.”

3 min

Why Do We Tell Ghost Stories?

From collecting candy to carving pumpkins, Halloween is defined by its traditions, and few are as time-honored as the telling of ghost stories. Whether recounted by crackling campfires, read from well-worn books or streamed on big-screen TVs, supernatural tales seem to take on a special resonance in the lead-up to October 31. And, on the whole, we seem more than comfortable enduring chills and braving thrills to enjoy them. But what draws our attention, season after season, to things that go bump in the night? And what makes the paranormal such a powerful, and persistent, storytelling device? Mary Mullen, PhD, is an associate professor of English at Villanova University and the instructor of the course "Ghostly Matters," which delves into haunting's role in culture, history and society. From her perspective, our longstanding fascination with spirits, specters and phantoms speaks as much to our concern for the world around us as to our interest in the hereafter. "At their core, ghost stories unsettle us," says Dr. Mullen. "They raise questions about what we consider normal, what we view as 'everyday life,' what we value as 'modern' and whether the past is still with us or not." As Dr. Mullen explains, when we're presented with something that's "haunted," we're essentially being asked to consider the reasons why. The very existence of spirits, emerging from beyond the grave, compels us to reflect on their presence's meaning—and to think about what developments might draw the ire, intrigue or intervention of the dead. (When watching Steven Spielberg's "Poltergeist," for instance, a viewer might feel the movie's ghosts are completely justified in terrorizing the profit-hungry real estate firm that disturbed their eternal slumbers.) Spirits, in turn, consistently set our focus on items left unsaid, unconsidered or overlooked. Departed yet still present, drifting somewhere between this plane and the next, they often challenge the living's notions of progress, propriety and success—and signal a last-ditch effort at preserving something that has all but faded from recollection. In effect, they bring the past into dialogue with the present for the sake of the future. "Ghost stories are really useful for contemplating transition and change and what's lost in the process," says Dr. Mullen. "They give a name to things that are liminal… For example, Luke Gibbons [a professor at Maynooth University] says that ghost stories, in modern Irish writing, are frequently connected to memories that haven't yet become public history. So, they speak to facets of social life that exist, or have existed, but are not present in monuments or official accounts." From Virginia Woolf's "A Haunted House" to Toni Morrison's "Beloved," tales of the supernatural provide us with what Dr. Mullen terms "glimmers of possibilities." They serve to mirror and embody our complicated feelings on transformative happenings, whether personal, communal or generational, and they afford us the language and vocabulary to express sadness over what is done and hope for what is yet to come. "There are certainly ghost stories, like Elizabeth Bowen's 'The Demon Lover,' that end in absolute terror with no seeming resolution," says Dr. Mullen. "But I think that, in a lot of these tales, haunting leads to reconciliation, or different kinds of healing or important acknowledgements—of things that need to be acknowledged." As Dr. Mullen proceeds to explain, it's no coincidence that the roots of the contemporary ghost story can be traced to the 19th century, a period of great social upheaval, cultural displacement and scientific and technological advancement. The product and reflection of a tumultuous "new age," the genre, as we know it, took hold as a means of reckoning with that which was lost, actively transpiring and still to occur. Perhaps it's no surprise then that, as the leaves begin changing and autumn starts giving way to winter, we have an affinity for tales that center on visits from the afterlife, bridging the past, present and future. "I think that we tell ghost stories when we're open to moving beyond our sense of 'the everyday,'" says Dr. Mullen. "And there are certain points of the year, like the holidays and gatherings with family and friends, that are so rich with emotion and memory that the boundary between this world and the 'otherworld' seems maybe—just maybe—capable of being crossed."

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