I have two Eyes
Francis Bacon: The Advancement of Learning
Physically, why do people have two eyes? It is not to see more colors, or to see an image clearer. People have two sets of eyes so that they can gain depth perception. The Gutenberg printing press made it possible for Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning to be reviewed, but Bacon understood the importance of having his work reviewed just as scientists today push to have their discoveries examined by a scientific board of review.
Historical Contextualization
Oral tradition did not leave much room for questioning a source, because there was a lack of comparison. In antiquity, whole societies depended on a single person to remember the oral history of their tribe. Generations upon generations of lineage, events, and records were memorized from one orator to the next. One of the problems with oral tradition is that there is very little room for review, because it is based on the memory of one person. Aristotle, Plato, Isaiah, and even Jesus Christ himself taught orally. It is not that oral tradition is bad, but simply that oral tradition is difficult to critique because it depended on the knowledge of the single informer.
After the Gutenberg printing press was invented, people were better able to question traditional ideas because they were able review ideas. Just over a hundred years before Bacon was born, Johannes Gutenberg invented the Gutenberg Printing Press. As books became more popular literacy increased. Instead of each village assuming that one man’s memory was accurate, people could write a letter to their cousin two towns away and ask what that town believed. Ideas no longer remained stagnant in one village but they moved across towns, regions, and kingdoms. Books were being printed by the hundreds, purchased, read, and more importantly talked about and reviewed by thousands. This is the generation Bacon was born into. In his book The Advancement of Learning Bacon challenges his audience to question traditional beliefs through the written word.
Critical Analysis
Bacon keeps his audience in mind while he is writing. The book opens with Bacon writing to the King. He complements the King’s intellect, judgment, and superiority first, and then Bacon asks the King to read and judge The Advancement of Learning with his own powerful intellect. Bacon does not plead with the King to think about the text, but rather, like any good entertainer, he invites the King to read the book. Think of two comedians on one stage. The first says, “You are the funniest person I know. I have this really good joke that I think you will like. Let me tell it to you,” and the other comedian says, “This is the funniest joke in the world, and I am going to tell it to you,” It could be the same joke, but naturally I know that I would rather hear the first comedian tell the joke. The idea that Bacon is writing to please his audience makes me believe that Bacon intended his book to be reviewed. From Bacon’s word choice it appears he understood that his audience was real and did not just care about facts and figures but wanted to be entertained as well.
In Bacon’s closing statements he encourages the reader to review and reread his text. In the last passage Bacon first tells the read that he would not be true to his argument if he was not willing to let the reader review and refine his text and ideas. He then goes on to state that if the reader has any questions they should reread his book. Push aside the idea that multiple people can review Bacon’s book for a moment and concentrate on the idea that a single reader can review his text over and over again word for word. It appears from his request that the reader should reread his text that Bacon did not want his book to be mobbed but reviewed by an individual willing to ask themselves if there are any falsities in The Advancement of Learning . Bacon closes his text by encouraging the reader to look inside his own thoughts and find out what his perception is on Bacon’s work.
The author continues to encourage the reader to review philosophies for truth by searching for pieces of truth in each philosophy and that the reader should not feel obligated to accept the philosophy as a whole. Bacon uses Aristotle’s idea that like children in their innocence call everyone mother, people in their ignorance calls every theory mother. However, as a child grows older he learns to recognize only one mother, and the same can be said for matured people who recognize only one truth. Although in this example Bacon assumes people can learn to recognize truth as easily as they recognize their own mother he does not deter from the importance of reviewing a theory. In this example he caution the reader not only to review but to break down a philosophy into pieces. From there Bacon encourages the reader to judge the individual ideas of the packaged philosophy. Bacon seems to believe the proper review of a philosophy will discover truth in the individual ideas and not the philosophy as a whole. In that sense he not only encourages the reader to review philosophies, but to strain the philosophies enough that the reader has to piece together his own.
Personal Reflection
I believe scientific review boards embody the message from Francis Bacon to review a study before considering it scientifically sound. Something that I learned in college was to not trust scientific studies published first in the local newspaper for the simple reason that they have not yet been reviewed by a scientific review board. I don’t type my question into Google without setting the search engine to “scholar” anymore. Today, I know I take the thousands and millions of people actively review each other’s publications. It should be incredible to me that I am instantly able to have thousands reviewed studies at my fingertips ready for me to read, review, and analyze as long as I have my laptop and a wireless connection. Truthfully, I rarely think about life without the internet; that would be like life without food in a refrigerator and pumping water. Only in my imagination can I depict a life without literature, international communication, and published books. It is remarkable for me to imagine someone publishing a book to tell people that they should question traditional beliefs when the world I live in only a little too mouse-click-happy about publishing the next big discovery on their blog for all to read. The amount of people who publish freely on the internet is why I think Francis Bacon’s message is important for me to read and understand. That it is important for me to realize that I should trust reviewed articles, because a reviewed article has be broken into pieces by multiple educated people each with their own perspective.
The message I was able to take from reading Francis Bacon was that it takes a group of people (able to communicate) to review a text, an idea, or a philosophy. At the same point that group cannot be a mob running into the study with their pitchforks or ready to smother the text with golden stars. A good review board seems to be composed of individuals who can effectively communicate their perception to the group. How does an individual gain depth perception? Well, we have two eyes for one reason; that reason is not so that we can see colors better or an image clearer but so that we can have depth perception. I think that I learned the importance of rereading and reviewing texts so that I can gain a better depth perception of what I believe and what I agree or disagree with in the text.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
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http://www.practicalbiology.org/areas/advanced/control-and-communication/control-of-heart-rate/investigating-factors-affecting-the-heart-rate-of-daphnia,92,EXP.html
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Childers_Raising_Daphnia.html\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnia#Reproduction
Caffeine
While Reading up on Daphnia we learned that many pet owners use Daphnia as fish food. We thought that it would be a practical experiment to see how extreme the living conditions a Daphnia fish can handle to improve or reduce shipping and storage cost. Daphnia females can reproduce parthenogenesis (asexually) during ideal conditions about every ten days. In the fall and winter the Daphnia reproduce sexually, and create what is called winter eggs. These winter eggs have an extra layer to them so that they can survive the winter and begin the cycle in the spring. We began to wonder if harsher living conditions would be better to cultivate Daphnia because it seemed to produce eggs that could survive more strenuous living conditions than eggs cultivated in ideal living conditions. After reading we learned that Daphnia’s heart rate increases when caffeine is introduced into their environment, and that we could count the Daphnia’ heart rate by watching the heart beat through a microscope. This gave us the idea to use change the amount of caffeine in the water and monitor the effects this difference has on the heart rate of the Daphnia. The higher the heart rate we are assuming the greater level of stress, which is the aspect that we will be testing. If the Daphnia are stressed they will being to reproduce sexual. When they are not stressed they produce asexual in a reproduction process that takes approximately ten days. The Daphnia eggs produced during higher stress levels should be the winter eggs (sexually produced eggs that have a harder outer shall) but if the Daphnia eggs are produced asexually they will not have the harder outer shall and therefore the eggs will die easier after being placed in harsh living conditions. After the Daphnia have had their heart beats reordered and assumed stress levels recorded for a period of ten day we will put the all of the colonies into the refrigerator to put all of the variables under the same strenuous living conditions. After a short period in the refrigerator (which supposable Daphnia can survive) we will take all of the colonies out and put them all into ideal living conditions with out the caffeine present. This period of time we will call the ideal period or spring period of time. During this spring time period we will observe the eggs that were frozen and record which ones colonies had the most eggs that hatched and from the eggs that hatched which of those Daphnia did not miserly hatch but lasting survival.
Materials
1 Shrimp net
2 Shallow tank
3 Water
4 Light
5 Thermometer
6 Microscope – low power, transmission
7 Petri dish
8 Small piece of cotton wool
9 Stop watch
10 Pasteur pipette
11 Caffeine powder
12 yeast
13 soy flour
14 hard-boiled egg
Maintenance of the Daphnia
Food (document how often each tank is feed)
1 package of dry active yeast w/ one cup of soy flour
¼ teaspoon of this dry mixture into a 1 cup of warm water 1 or 2X daily
Note: when water is clear again it is time to feed
Blending 1 hard-boiled egg in 500 cm3 of water
Caffeine powder
Harvest (document how often each tank is needed to be harvested)
Pour old water down the drain while using a shrimp net to filter out Daphnia
Refill tank with clean water
Water temperature
Keep water at room temperature; preferably 72 degrees F (if tank is close to floor)
Use a temperature tank; if not available to maintain water temperature put Daphnia tank in a larger tank that will help to slow the loss of heat. We will allow the water to vary slightly in degree, and will have the specific water temperature in the data and results.
Light
Give them some light 24 hours a day
Oxygen
Shallow tank to ensure enough oxygen
Cleaning (document how often each tank is needed to be cleaned)
Take scum off surface of the water
Leave debris at the bottom – it is probably Daphnia eggs
Taking Heart Rate
1 Take cotton wool in Petri dish.
2 Transfer Daphnia onto cotton
3 Cover Daphnia in water
4 Observe Daphnia under microscope on low power. Locate heart on the dorsal side just
5 above the gut but in front of the brood pouch.
Note: Don’t count the flapping of the gills/movement of gut. The heart can only be seen with transmitted light.
6 Count heart beats in 3 periods of 20 seconds
Note: to count the heat beats the best tap a pencil for every heat beat during the 20 seconds and then count the number of pencil dots after the 20 seconds are up
7 Return Daphnia
http://www.practicalbiology.org/areas/advanced/control-and-communication/control-of-heart-rate/investigating-factors-affecting-the-heart-rate-of-daphnia,92,EXP.html
http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Childers_Raising_Daphnia.html\
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnia#Reproduction
Caffeine
While Reading up on Daphnia we learned that many pet owners use Daphnia as fish food. We thought that it would be a practical experiment to see how extreme the living conditions a Daphnia fish can handle to improve or reduce shipping and storage cost. Daphnia females can reproduce parthenogenesis (asexually) during ideal conditions about every ten days. In the fall and winter the Daphnia reproduce sexually, and create what is called winter eggs. These winter eggs have an extra layer to them so that they can survive the winter and begin the cycle in the spring. We began to wonder if harsher living conditions would be better to cultivate Daphnia because it seemed to produce eggs that could survive more strenuous living conditions than eggs cultivated in ideal living conditions. After reading we learned that Daphnia’s heart rate increases when caffeine is introduced into their environment, and that we could count the Daphnia’ heart rate by watching the heart beat through a microscope. This gave us the idea to use change the amount of caffeine in the water and monitor the effects this difference has on the heart rate of the Daphnia. The higher the heart rate we are assuming the greater level of stress, which is the aspect that we will be testing. If the Daphnia are stressed they will being to reproduce sexual. When they are not stressed they produce asexual in a reproduction process that takes approximately ten days. The Daphnia eggs produced during higher stress levels should be the winter eggs (sexually produced eggs that have a harder outer shall) but if the Daphnia eggs are produced asexually they will not have the harder outer shall and therefore the eggs will die easier after being placed in harsh living conditions. After the Daphnia have had their heart beats reordered and assumed stress levels recorded for a period of ten day we will put the all of the colonies into the refrigerator to put all of the variables under the same strenuous living conditions. After a short period in the refrigerator (which supposable Daphnia can survive) we will take all of the colonies out and put them all into ideal living conditions with out the caffeine present. This period of time we will call the ideal period or spring period of time. During this spring time period we will observe the eggs that were frozen and record which ones colonies had the most eggs that hatched and from the eggs that hatched which of those Daphnia did not miserly hatch but lasting survival.
Materials
1 Shrimp net
2 Shallow tank
3 Water
4 Light
5 Thermometer
6 Microscope – low power, transmission
7 Petri dish
8 Small piece of cotton wool
9 Stop watch
10 Pasteur pipette
11 Caffeine powder
12 yeast
13 soy flour
14 hard-boiled egg
Maintenance of the Daphnia
Food (document how often each tank is feed)
1 package of dry active yeast w/ one cup of soy flour
¼ teaspoon of this dry mixture into a 1 cup of warm water 1 or 2X daily
Note: when water is clear again it is time to feed
Blending 1 hard-boiled egg in 500 cm3 of water
Caffeine powder
Harvest (document how often each tank is needed to be harvested)
Pour old water down the drain while using a shrimp net to filter out Daphnia
Refill tank with clean water
Water temperature
Keep water at room temperature; preferably 72 degrees F (if tank is close to floor)
Use a temperature tank; if not available to maintain water temperature put Daphnia tank in a larger tank that will help to slow the loss of heat. We will allow the water to vary slightly in degree, and will have the specific water temperature in the data and results.
Light
Give them some light 24 hours a day
Oxygen
Shallow tank to ensure enough oxygen
Cleaning (document how often each tank is needed to be cleaned)
Take scum off surface of the water
Leave debris at the bottom – it is probably Daphnia eggs
Taking Heart Rate
1 Take cotton wool in Petri dish.
2 Transfer Daphnia onto cotton
3 Cover Daphnia in water
4 Observe Daphnia under microscope on low power. Locate heart on the dorsal side just
5 above the gut but in front of the brood pouch.
Note: Don’t count the flapping of the gills/movement of gut. The heart can only be seen with transmitted light.
6 Count heart beats in 3 periods of 20 seconds
Note: to count the heat beats the best tap a pencil for every heat beat during the 20 seconds and then count the number of pencil dots after the 20 seconds are up
7 Return Daphnia
Bacon
Francis Bacon The Advancement of Learning
Physically, why do people have two eyes? It is not so that they can see colors, or see pictures clearer. People have two sets of eyes so that they can gain depth perception. The Gutenberg printing press made it possible for Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning to be reviewed, but Bacon understood the importance of having his work reviewed just as scientist today push to have their discoveries examined by a scientific board of review.
Historical Contextualization
Oral tradition made did not leave much room for questioning a source, because there is a lack of comparison. Traditionally societies learned by listening to orators, because there were few opportunities for literacy. In antiquity whole societies depended on a single person to remember the oral history of their tribe. Generations upon generations of linage, events, and records were memorized from one orator to the next. One of the problems with oral tradition is that there is very little room for review, because it is based on the memory of one person. Aristotle, Plato, Isaiah, and even Jesus Christ himself taught orally. It is not that oral tradition is bad, but simply that oral tradition is difficult to critique because it depended on the knowledge of the single informer.
After the Gutenberg printing press was invented people were better able to question traditionally ideas because they were able review their ideas with others. Just over a hundred years before Bacon was born Johannes Gutenberg invented the Gutenberg Printing Press. It was a miraculous invention because as books became more popular literacy grew. True, not everyone was able to read, but more people were able to read and write. Instead of everyone assuming that one man’s memories were accurate people could write a letter to their cousin two towns away to know what that town believed. Ideas no longer remained stagnant in one village but they moved across towns, regions, and kingdoms. Books were being printed by the hundreds, purchased, read, and more importantly talked about and reviewed by thousands. This is the generation Bacon was born into. In his book The Advancement of Learning Bacon challenges his audience to question traditional beliefs through the written word.
Critical Analysis
Bacon keeps his audience in mind while he is writing. The book opens with Bacon writing to the King. He develops the King’s intellect, judgment, and superiority first and then Bacon writes, “yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimity and wisdom,” Bacon does not plead with the King to think about the text, but like any good entertainer he invites the King to read the book. Think of two comedians on one stage. The first says, “You are the funniest person I know. I have this really good joke that I think you will like. Let me tell it to you,” and the other comedian says, “this is the funniest joke in the world, and I am going to tell it to you,” It could be the same joke, but naturally I know that I would rather hear the first comedian tell the joke. The idea that Bacon is writing to please his audience makes me believe that Bacon intended his book to be reviewed. From Bacon’s word choice it appears he understood that his audience was real and did not just care about facts and figures but wanted to be entertained as well.
In Bacon’s closing statements encourages the reader to reviewed and reread his text. The last passage of Bacon’s book captures his message, “for I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again,” It appears that Bacon is asking the reader to question his book. He then goes on to state that if the reader has any questions they should reread his book. Push aside the idea that multiple people can review Bacon’s book for a moment and concentrate on the idea that a single readers can review his text over and over again word for word. It appears from his request that the reader reread his text that Bacon did not want his book to be mobbed but reviewed by an individual willing to ask themselves if there are any falsies in The Advancement of Learning . Bacon closes his text by encouraging the reader to look insider their own thoughts and find out what their perception is on his work.
The author continues to encourages the review philosophies for truth by searching for pieces of truth in each philosophy. Bacon uses Aristotle’s idea that like children in their innocents call everyone mother people in their ignorance call every theory mother, but as a child grows older they learn to recognize only one mother and the same can be said for matured people who recognize only one truth. Although, in this example Bacon assumes that the individual will be able to identify the truth by simply recognizing the truth, this example does not deter from the idea that Bacon believes theories need to be reviewed before accepted as truth. He goes even further to caution the reader not to get caught up in the entire packaged philosophy but to break it down into pieces. Bacon seems to believe the proper review of a philosophy will discover truth in the individual ideas of a philosophy and not the philosophy as a whole. In that sense he not only encourages the reader to review philosophies, but to strain the philosophies enough that the reader has to piece together their own.
Personal Reflection
I believe scientific review boards embody the message from Francis Bacon to review a study before considering it scientifically sound. Something that I learned in college was to not trust scientific studies published first in the local news paper for the simple reason that they have not yet been reviewed by a scientific review board. I no type in my question into Google with out setting the search engine to scholar. It should be incredible to me that I am instantly able to have thousands reviewed studies at my finer tips ready for me to read, review, and analyze as long as I have my laptop and a wireless connection. Truthfully, I rarely think about life without the internet; that would be like life without food in a refrigerator and pumping water. Only on the stage of my imagination can I depict a life without literature, international communication, and published books. It is remarkable for me to imagine someone publishing a book to tell people that they should question traditional beliefs when the world I live in is a little mouse-click-happy about publishing the next big discovery on their blog spot for all to read it.
The message I was able to take from reading Francis Bacon was that it takes a group of people who are able to communicate to review a text, an idea, or a philosophy. At the same point that group can not be a mob running into the study with their pitchforks or ready to smoother the text with golden stars. A good review board seems to be composed of individuals who can effectively communicate their perception to the group. How does an individual gain depth perception? Well, we have two eyes for one reason; that reason is not so that we can see colors better or an image clearer but so that we can have depth perception. I think that I learned the importance of rereading, and reviewing texts so that I can gain a better depth perception of what I believe and what I agree or disagree with in the text.
Physically, why do people have two eyes? It is not so that they can see colors, or see pictures clearer. People have two sets of eyes so that they can gain depth perception. The Gutenberg printing press made it possible for Francis Bacon’s The Advancement of Learning to be reviewed, but Bacon understood the importance of having his work reviewed just as scientist today push to have their discoveries examined by a scientific board of review.
Historical Contextualization
Oral tradition made did not leave much room for questioning a source, because there is a lack of comparison. Traditionally societies learned by listening to orators, because there were few opportunities for literacy. In antiquity whole societies depended on a single person to remember the oral history of their tribe. Generations upon generations of linage, events, and records were memorized from one orator to the next. One of the problems with oral tradition is that there is very little room for review, because it is based on the memory of one person. Aristotle, Plato, Isaiah, and even Jesus Christ himself taught orally. It is not that oral tradition is bad, but simply that oral tradition is difficult to critique because it depended on the knowledge of the single informer.
After the Gutenberg printing press was invented people were better able to question traditionally ideas because they were able review their ideas with others. Just over a hundred years before Bacon was born Johannes Gutenberg invented the Gutenberg Printing Press. It was a miraculous invention because as books became more popular literacy grew. True, not everyone was able to read, but more people were able to read and write. Instead of everyone assuming that one man’s memories were accurate people could write a letter to their cousin two towns away to know what that town believed. Ideas no longer remained stagnant in one village but they moved across towns, regions, and kingdoms. Books were being printed by the hundreds, purchased, read, and more importantly talked about and reviewed by thousands. This is the generation Bacon was born into. In his book The Advancement of Learning Bacon challenges his audience to question traditional beliefs through the written word.
Critical Analysis
Bacon keeps his audience in mind while he is writing. The book opens with Bacon writing to the King. He develops the King’s intellect, judgment, and superiority first and then Bacon writes, “yet I may excite your princely cogitations to visit the excellent treasure of your own mind, and thence to extract particulars for this purpose, agreeable to your magnanimity and wisdom,” Bacon does not plead with the King to think about the text, but like any good entertainer he invites the King to read the book. Think of two comedians on one stage. The first says, “You are the funniest person I know. I have this really good joke that I think you will like. Let me tell it to you,” and the other comedian says, “this is the funniest joke in the world, and I am going to tell it to you,” It could be the same joke, but naturally I know that I would rather hear the first comedian tell the joke. The idea that Bacon is writing to please his audience makes me believe that Bacon intended his book to be reviewed. From Bacon’s word choice it appears he understood that his audience was real and did not just care about facts and figures but wanted to be entertained as well.
In Bacon’s closing statements encourages the reader to reviewed and reread his text. The last passage of Bacon’s book captures his message, “for I could not be true and constant to the argument I handle, if I were not willing to go beyond others; but yet not more willing than to have others go beyond me again,” It appears that Bacon is asking the reader to question his book. He then goes on to state that if the reader has any questions they should reread his book. Push aside the idea that multiple people can review Bacon’s book for a moment and concentrate on the idea that a single readers can review his text over and over again word for word. It appears from his request that the reader reread his text that Bacon did not want his book to be mobbed but reviewed by an individual willing to ask themselves if there are any falsies in The Advancement of Learning . Bacon closes his text by encouraging the reader to look insider their own thoughts and find out what their perception is on his work.
The author continues to encourages the review philosophies for truth by searching for pieces of truth in each philosophy. Bacon uses Aristotle’s idea that like children in their innocents call everyone mother people in their ignorance call every theory mother, but as a child grows older they learn to recognize only one mother and the same can be said for matured people who recognize only one truth. Although, in this example Bacon assumes that the individual will be able to identify the truth by simply recognizing the truth, this example does not deter from the idea that Bacon believes theories need to be reviewed before accepted as truth. He goes even further to caution the reader not to get caught up in the entire packaged philosophy but to break it down into pieces. Bacon seems to believe the proper review of a philosophy will discover truth in the individual ideas of a philosophy and not the philosophy as a whole. In that sense he not only encourages the reader to review philosophies, but to strain the philosophies enough that the reader has to piece together their own.
Personal Reflection
I believe scientific review boards embody the message from Francis Bacon to review a study before considering it scientifically sound. Something that I learned in college was to not trust scientific studies published first in the local news paper for the simple reason that they have not yet been reviewed by a scientific review board. I no type in my question into Google with out setting the search engine to scholar. It should be incredible to me that I am instantly able to have thousands reviewed studies at my finer tips ready for me to read, review, and analyze as long as I have my laptop and a wireless connection. Truthfully, I rarely think about life without the internet; that would be like life without food in a refrigerator and pumping water. Only on the stage of my imagination can I depict a life without literature, international communication, and published books. It is remarkable for me to imagine someone publishing a book to tell people that they should question traditional beliefs when the world I live in is a little mouse-click-happy about publishing the next big discovery on their blog spot for all to read it.
The message I was able to take from reading Francis Bacon was that it takes a group of people who are able to communicate to review a text, an idea, or a philosophy. At the same point that group can not be a mob running into the study with their pitchforks or ready to smoother the text with golden stars. A good review board seems to be composed of individuals who can effectively communicate their perception to the group. How does an individual gain depth perception? Well, we have two eyes for one reason; that reason is not so that we can see colors better or an image clearer but so that we can have depth perception. I think that I learned the importance of rereading, and reviewing texts so that I can gain a better depth perception of what I believe and what I agree or disagree with in the text.
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