Scientific Revolution + Human Body

Question 1

Which types of sciences are considered in the Scientific Revolution?

Answer 1

Mathematics
Physics
Astronomy

Question 2

What was the major contribution of the Scholastics and other Medieval Scientists? Why was that age not considered revolutionary?

Answer 2

they mostly assimilated Greek and Islamic science into Christian and European frameworks but they didn’t really do a lot of their own direct studies of nature - some of the Medieval scientists outside of the tradition did though like Hildegard and Frederick II

Question 3

What stimulated science in the 15th and 16th centuries?

Answer 3

Medieval technology

Question 4

Explain these sentences: ‘Science can exist without extensive technology and technology can exist without science. Science needs literacy, but technology does not.’

Answer 4

Science can exist without extensive technology = the ancient Greeks did science without technology like microscopes and telescopes

technology can exist without science = lots of technology was produced during the Middle Ages that weren’t the product of science because the only literate people were of the Church and the Church didn’t care for technological advancements

Science needs literacy, but technology does not = technology and its uses can be practically or verbally demonstrated, whereas science cannot be

Question 5

What is the Antikythera device?

Answer 5

An ancient Greek device that was an analogue computer used to calculate astronomical events with gears recovered from a trade vessel shipwreck

Question 6

What other medieval technology has been important for later science?

Answer 6

grain and milling

stamping of currency on coins

modified catapults and military tech

windmills

wine presses were modified into printers

metals were key for farming in Northern Europe and wood in south

eye glasses

Question 8

Why did the church lose control of science during the scientific revolution?

Answer 8

because science became established in technology and commerce, rather than written scholarship or the Church as it had been previously

Question 8

When was the scientific revolution?

Answer 8

15th and 16th centuries (after the Black Plague in the 14th century)

Question 9

Who initiated the Protestant Reformation?

Answer 9

Martin Luther in the 16th century

Question 10

What was the Reformation?

Answer 10

the separation of western European Christianity into Catholic and Protestant camps

via anti-authoritarianism, independence of the human mind, and individualism

caused the War of Religion

Question 11

Who was Martin Luther?

Answer 11

the initiator of the Reformation in the 16th century

Question 12

Who was Johannes Gutenberg?

Answer 12

in the 15th century, accredited for popularizing the printing press (did not invent it, but made it accessible)

Question 13

What was the significance of the printing press in the 15th century?

Answer 13

involved movable letters made of durable metal which could be used as stamps (instead of handwriting)

increased accuracy
it was inexpensive (comparatively to handwritten)
increased literacy
allowed for good, informative illustrations to be repeated
altered intergenerational relationships (no longer just received information from previous generation)
allowed for individualism and independent thought
no central authority controlling information - printing shops became prolific (inexpensive investment) = did not need the church

Question 14

What was coffee’s role in the scientific revolution?

Answer 14

introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries

opposite of alcohol as it clarified the mind

so popular it created a political subculture

Question 15

Who were the major contributors to astronomy, physics, and mathematics during the scientific revolution?

Answer 15

Copernicus
Johannes Kepler
Galileo
Isaac Newton

Question 16

Who was Copernicus?

Answer 16

an astronomer in the 15th century who wrote a book on the heliocentric model of the solar system (died before publishing)

known as the guy who ignited the scientific revolution

Question 17

Who was Johannes Kepler?

Answer 17

an astronomer in the 16th-17th centuries that showed the elliptical orbit of planets (not circular as previously thought)

Question 18

Who was Galileo Galilei? what did his work emphasize?

Answer 18

an astronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher of science in the 16-17th centuries

one of the first Europeans to use a telescope (did not invent) and discovered the celestial imperfections (sunspots, mountains on moon, and Jupiter’s moons) = unveiled the ‘perfection of the heavens’ which Aristotle believed in

he emphasized the importance of mathematics and quantitative science

Question 19

Who was Sir Isaac Newton?

Answer 19

a 17th-18th century astronomer, physicist, mathematician, philosopher of science

popularized the idea that universe operates according to simple, universal, quantitative laws (parsimony)

explained by the elliptical orbit of the planets
determined the relationship between gravity, sun, moon and the tidal patterns

Question 20

What influence did Newton’s work have on science? How did this affect historical sciences like biology and geology?

Answer 20

the idea that the universe operates according to simple, universal, and quantitative laws was so successful and powerful that it became the MODEL for what science should be doing

probably caused biologists and geologists to waste a lot of time in search of these universal laws, which have since been realized to not be applicable to historical sciences

Question 21

Who was Leonardo Da Vinci?

Answer 21

a Renaissance artist from the 15-16th centuries who finished few projects and never published any of his scientific work - not as influential as he could have been

a polymath, painter and illustrator, musician, anatomist

Question 22

What was Da Vinci’s main influence in biology/medicine?

Answer 22

his incorporation and study of anatomy into his art

he did his own legal dissections to study human anatomy

Question 23

Who was Andreas Vesalius?

Answer 23

A precocious anatomist in the 16th century

wrote the first accurate high-quality book of about human anatomy ‘On the Fabric of the Human Body’

Question 24

What book was published the same year as Vesalius’ On the Fabric of the Human Body?

Answer 24

Copernicus’ On the Motions of Heavenly Bodies - about the heliocentric model of the solar system

Question 25

What Copernicus was to ____, Vesalius was to_____

Answer 25

Copernicus was to Ptolemy (astronomy), Vesalius was to Galen (anatomy)

Question 26

What did Vesalius not agree with in Galenic anatomy? What did they agree on?

Answer 26

He realized that Galen never did dissections of human bodies, so there were many discrepancies

his anatomy understanding went way beyond Galen’s, but his physiology did not - they both understood blood flow to be tidal (no circulation)

they both thought that human body was designed perfectly by God

Question 27

Which famous university did Vesalius and many other anatomists attend?

Answer 27

University of Padua in Italy

Question 28

How did Vesalius acquire bodies for his class dissections? How did this create a gender bias in his studies?

Answer 28

death and dissection was a punishment for terrible crimes
self-reported grave-robbing

most criminals committing heinous crimes and being sentenced were adult males, so there were few dissections of female bodies or children (except for grave-robbing)

Question 29

Why was dissecting humans considered a ‘heroic’ feat?

Answer 29

during those times, they didn’t have adequate treatment for infections and infections were possible when working with sharp tools and human bodies that were not preserved well (no refrigeration)

and smelly

Question 30

How was Vesalius’ teaching style different from Galen’s?

Answer 30

he was methodical, thorough
displayed a skeleton
had multiple corpses at a time showing different structures
many pupils allowed
large anatomical posters on display
artists doing illustrations

Galen’s versions of dissections had few pupils, with a Galenist guy watching over and instructing a technician to do the dissection

Question 31

What were the major virtues of Vesalius’ book?

Answer 31

anatomically accurate
high-quality illustrations
printed = widely available

Question 32

why was Vesalius’ book denounced by Galenists?

Answer 32

because his anatomy contradicted and went beyond Galen’s and Galen was an infallible authority for centuries

Question 33

Who were the major contributors to understanding blood circulation in the human body? in chrono order

Answer 33

Michael Servetus
Realdo Colombo
Girolamo Fabrici
William Harvey

Question 34

Who was Servetus? Was he influenced by Galen or Vesalius?

Answer 34

16th century intellectual known as a martyr to freedom of thought and conscience

often fleeing, wandering student, scholar, theologian, physician and anatomist was burned at the stake with his works

influenced by Vesalius and did dissections for a Galenist

Question 35

What was Servetus’ book that got him persecuted?

Answer 35

in Restoration of Christianity - to understand the human spirit, we must first understand the human body

also contained an argument for pulmonary circulation (no pores)

Question 36

What were Servetus’ arguments for pulmonary circulation?

Answer 36

no pores separating right and left ventricles like Vesalius thought

pulmonary artery is huge and the lungs could not possibly consume all that blood through the tissues like Galen thought

blood in pulmonary artery was dark red, blood in pulmonary vein was bright red

proposed unidirectional and not tidal like Galen and Vesalius thought

Question 37

Who was Colombo?

Answer 37

16th century anatomist, succeeded Vesalius at Padua

posthumous publication of book had a clear argument for pulmonary circulation

Question 38

Who was Fabrici?

Answer 38

wrote a book “On the Valves in the Veins” with an argument for unidirectional blood flow - veins flow away from heart so one side must have valves to prevent back flow

Question 39

Who was William Harvey? why was his work so influential?

Answer 39

a student of Fabrici’s, a royal physician, a lecturer

INFLUENTIAL: ‘On the Movement of the Heart and Blood”
concluded that blood circulates in 2 circuits (pulmonary and systemic) in a unidirectional motion

used simple, clean experiments to show and support ideas

used quantitative methods

Question 40

What aspects of Galenic anatomy did Harvey disagree with?

Answer 40

if venous and arterial blood have different functions, as Galen thought, why did they only differ in colour shade?

if blood flow was tidal, like Galen thought, why do only veins have valves and not arteries?

why do the lung tissues need so much nourishment?

quantitative questions about blood - how much blood pumped per heartbeat? No one had asked this before

Question 41

How did Harvey’s observations contradict Galen’s ideas?

Answer 41

valves in veins allowed for one way flow of blood - easily demonstrated on a live person without dissection

heart pumps 2 oz blood/heartbeat = 600 lbs of blood per hour = there is no way the lung or body tissues are consuming this much blood so the flow MUST be circulatory

the first powerful, quantitative argument for double circulation

Question 42

What questions did Harvey leave unanswered?

Answer 42

if the liver doesn’t make blood, what does it do? needed to know the liver’s biochemical functions which no one did at the time

if tissues don’t consume blood, what do they do? needed to know the molecular make up of food and nutritional extraction

what is the function of respiration? what is in air that needs to be circulated through the body?

what IS the difference between venous and arterial blood in systemic circuit?

where are the connections between arteries and veins? he could have answered this but didn’t

Question 43

What were Harvey’s biggest contributions?

Answer 43

double-circuit blood circulation in humans and mammals established

model of experimental and quantitative biology

showed some mechanical aspects of organismal function

suggested possibility of blood transfusion

first time people understood anything about HOW organisms work except for external functions

Question 44

Explain mechanicism vs. vitalism and the change in perspective during scientific revolution

Answer 44

mechanicism: fundamental laws of physics, mechanics and chemistry allow living processes to exist

vitalism: living processes are a result of a vital force which cannot be explained by physical, mechanical or chemical terms

with Harvey’s work, the mechanical argument became more and more appealing and the vitalism argument died out

Question 45

Which 2 guys were involved in establishing mechanicism after Harvey?

Answer 45

Rene Descartes
Giovanni Borelli

Question 46

Who was Rene Descartes?

Answer 46

influential mechanist who developed a model for living things as mechanisms

used physics and engineering (no chemistry) and was inspired by Harvey’s work

Question 47

What did Descartes believe about humans and animal mechanisms vs. vitalism?

Answer 47

thought humans and animals were mechanisms, but only humans had souls to direct actions, animals did not have. souls

Question 48

Who was Giovanni Borrelli?

Answer 48

he described the digestive system as mechanical by demonstrating the pulverization of food in a turkey gut