The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Different sciences exhibit different science cultures and practices. For example, in astronomy, observation - until what is today called the new astronomy - had always been limited to what could be seen within the limits of optical light. Indeed, until early modernity the limits to optical light were also limits of what humans could themselves see within their limited and relative perceptual spectrum of human vision. With early modernity and the invention of lensed optical instruments - telescopes - astronomers could begin to observe phenomena never seen before. Magnification and esolution began to allow what was previously imperceptible to be perceived - but within the familiar limits of optical vision. Galileo, having learned of the Dutch invention of a telescope by Hans Lippershey, went on to build some hundred of his own, improving from the Dutch 3x to nearly 30x telescopes - which turn out to be the limit of magnificational power without chromatic distortion. And it was with his own telescopes that he made the observations launching early modern astronomy (phases of Venus, satellites of Jupiter, etc.). Isaac Newton’s later improvement with reflecting telescopes expanded upon the magnificational-resolution capacity of optical observation; and, from Newton to the twentieth century, improvement continued on to the later very large array of light telescopes today - following the usual technological trajectory of “more-is-better” but still remaining within the limits of the light spectrum.
Today’s astronomy has now had the benefit of some four centuries of optical telescopy. The “new astronomy,” however, opens the full known electromagnetic spectrum to observation, beginning with the accidental discovery of radio astronomy early in the twentieth century, and leading today to the diverse variety of EMS telescopes which can explore the range from gamma to radio waves. Thus, astronomy, now outfitted with new instruments, “smart” adaptive optics, very large arrays, etc., illustrates one style of instrumentally embodied science - a technoscience. Of course astronomy, with the very recent exceptions of probes to solar system bodies (Moon, Mars, Venus, asteroids), remains largely a “receptive” science, dependent upon instrumentation which can detect and receive emissions. Contemporary biology displays a quite different instrument array and, according to Evelyn Fox- Keller, also a different scientific culture.
She cites her own experience, coming from mathematical physics into microbiology, and takes account of the distinctive instrumental culture in her Making Sense of Life (2002). Here, particularly with the development of biotechnology, instrumentation is far more interventional than in the astronomy case. Microscopic instrumentation can be and often is interventional in style: “gene-splicing” and other techniques of biotechnology, while still in their infancy, are clearly part of the interventional trajectory of biological instrumentation. Yet, in both disciplines, the sciences involved are today highly instrumentalized and could not progress successfully without constant improvements upon the respective instrumental trajectories. So, minimalistically, one may conclude that the sciences are technologically, instrumentally embodied. But the styles of embodiment differ, and perhaps the last of the scientific disciplines to move into such technical embodiment is mathematics, which only contemporarily has come to rely more and more upon the computational machinery now in common use.
None of the following statements, if true, contradicts the arguments in the passage EXCEPT:
Correct Answer :
because of the relatively recent entry of computational machinery in mathematics, the field is only now beginning to develop a scientific culture.
Solution :
The correct option is: because of the relatively recent entry of computational machinery in mathematics, the field is only now beginning to develop a scientific culture.
To answer this question, we must understand what the prompt is asking. The phrase "None of the following statements... contradicts the arguments in the passage EXCEPT" is a double negative. It simply means we need to identify the one statement that DOES contradict the arguments made in the passage. The other three statements will either align with the passage or present possibilities that the passage does not explicitly reject.
Let us analyze the passage's stance on "scientific culture" and mathematics. In the opening sentence, the author establishes that "Different sciences exhibit different science cultures and practices." This implies that every scientific discipline inherently possesses its own unique scientific culture.
Later in the text, the author discusses how various sciences rely on instruments, calling this "technical embodiment." The passage notes, "perhaps the last of the scientific disciplines to move into such technical embodiment is mathematics, which only contemporarily has come to rely more and more upon the computational machinery now in common use."
The passage makes a clear distinction between possessing a "scientific culture" and achieving "technical embodiment" (the reliance on physical instruments or machinery). The correct option claims that mathematics is only now beginning to develop a scientific culture because it has recently started using computational machinery. This directly contradicts the passage, which categorizes mathematics as an existing scientific discipline (which, by the passage's own definition, means it already has a scientific culture) that is merely late to adopt technical embodiment. A discipline does not need machinery to have a scientific culture; it only needs machinery to become "instrumentally embodied."
For context, let us look at why the other options do not contradict the passage:
1. "some scientific instruments may be classified as both receptive and interventional..." - The passage categorizes astronomy as generally receptive and biology as interventional, but it never claims that an instrument cannot be both. Thus, this statement does not contradict the text.
2. "like telescopy, microscopy has also sought to move beyond the visible spectrum..." - The passage explains that astronomy expanded beyond the visible spectrum. It does not rule out the possibility that microscopy has done the same, so this is not a contradiction.
3. "Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity was accomplished without the help of instruments." - The passage states that early astronomy heavily relied on telescopes and mentions Newton's improvements to them. However, it does not argue that every single scientific discovery (such as the theory of gravity) required physical instruments. Therefore, this historical statement does not contradict the author's arguments.
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