Question 1. What is a paradigm? Present one example of a scientific paradigm and one of a non-scientific paradigm.

The examples should illustrate in a few sentences what the paradigm implies.

A paradigm can be understood as a model of understanding and as means of organizing and condensing sensory information. (1) It is consistently free of contradictions and works as a reference to guide expectations and the questions we ask (and what we try to understand). An individuals brain will incoprorate knowledge and experience to form a personal paradigm, which is then used to process sensory input. (1) A paradigms ability to help organize information also makes it useful in the study of physical science. One example of its scientific application is the Heliocentric (suncentered) model of the Solar System, which Nicolaus Copernicus postulated in 1543. (2) This paradigm replaced the longstanding framework that had positioned the earth as the central fixture of our system. Empirical observation continuosly reaffirmed Heliocentrism over the next several centuries. One non-scientific (cultural) paradigm that can be considered is the food deemed as appropriate for breakfast. (1) Food and culture are closely linked, with the later determining why we usually eat certain foods at certain times of the day like cereal for breakfast.
Question 2. Ideally science should be free of cultural bias. This is unlikely as long as there are humans doing science and using the paradigms inculcated by their culture, education and religion. Defend your stand on cultural bias in science, but make sure your answer contains examples.

As long as human beings are responsible for research, cultural bias will permeate into findings. As pointed to in the first highlighted reading of the lesson, our own paradigms affect the way we design, record, and interpret our experiments and observations, [both] as scientists and as humans. (1) An article on Project Syndicate by Frans de Waal, an esteemed zoologist (and ethologist), further examines the implications of cultural bias in science. He takes in depth look at an intellectual conflict that occurred in his field between Japanese and European scientists. Following World War Two, Primatologist Kinji Imanishi argued that nature is inherently harmonious rather than competitive, with species forming an ecological whole. (3) Western thinkers such as Beverly Halstead responded in outrage at the un-Darwinian perspective, which seemingly undermined the foundation of the study. Nevertheless, Japanese primate researchers would prove ahead of their time in asserting (back in the 1950s) that animals themselves might have culture. Today cultural learning is used in explaining such phenomena as the use of tools by chimpanzees and the hunting techniques of whales. (3) Frans de Waal notions that Japanese scientists were able to make this discovery before European researchers due to a Western cultural bias that prompted an aversion to acknowledging human-like characteristics in animals.
Bonus Question (I decide what the Bonus is worth on the basis of the giggle factor achieved!). Make up a paradigm joke! Some examples are given below: