Transdisciplinarity is one of the most important pursuits at IUB. Students from all over the world have gathered together in an attempt to unify their forces in order to grasp the ultimate meaning of the world. Lie the answer in Psychology, Philosophy, Chemistry or Mathematics, our students are determined to find it. Therefore, the administration has tried to meet their requirements and has designed the so-called University Studies Courses, where science and humanities go hand in hand.
"Monsters of the Sea" is the most famous among these courses, because of its struggle to deal with the unknown. For centuries, mankind has tried to understand the curious phenomena occurring in nature, starting with the destructive power of fire and ending with the mysterious black holes that populate the universe. Whether the explanations people have found are of a more realistic or mystical approach, their drive was the same: to make our world a nicer and friendlier place to live in.
Why is then that these fabulous and terrifying beings occur in humanity's history? Why is it that dragons, vampires and giant squids are "populating" mankind's dreams? Could it be because in ancient times there was no other explanation for lightning than that God was trying to punish men for their ugly deeds by sending celestial dragons to cast their inner fire on us? Or could it just be the pure and simple attempt to bring the brutal killings of such fierce beings as sharks into a more "humane" view, by making them God's tools of punishment? The answers have not been found yet. All we have are theories over theories, but nothing consistent to base them on.
The purpose of this particular University Studies course is therefore to look at these suppositions from the point of view of both literature and science. Some 30 students from both schools (School of Engineering&Science and Humanities&Social Sciences) have embarked together on a deep-sea journey to discover the "Monsters of the Sea". One of their graded assignments was to present in front of the class the specific monsters they have chosen (Big Foot, Loch Ness, The Shark and so on) or facts somehow related to them, after having conducted some research. Here is what they came up with…