Microscopes and the Scientific Revolution (SVI)

Watch the videos in the 2nd Medio page; The Worlds Largest Microscope and The Scientific Revolution.

In 150 words or less state whether you think the following statement is true or false and explain why,

¨The invention of the microscope was the most important development during the scientific revolution in our understanding of life¨

You may have to do further research about the Scientific Revolution on the internet to answer this question. If you do please include references.

DUE DATE: You must answer these questions by the start of your second class during Week 22 (16/8/10)

In my opinion, the statement “the invention of the microscope was the most important development during the scientific revolution in our understanding of life” is true. To what concerns me, sight is one of our most important senses, because it enables us to receive information and understand our environment more clearly, but this ability can only be used in certain circumstances. Here is when the invention of the microscope is most relevant, because of it we were able to understand the spread of diseases and others, helping the society advance and create alternative methods to combat catastrophes that in the end, made earlier life difficult and with a high mortality rate.

I think the statement is true as far as it refers to "our understanding of life". Since its invention, the microscope has been improved and developed, allowing us to see things so small like atoms. They have allowed us to view all kinds of cells and living organisms, so yes, they have been the most important invention to help us understand life. However, inventions such as the telescope have allowed us to see important things concerning our understanding of the universe, so one cannot completely say that it it the most important development during the scientific revolution.

El microscopio ha sido un gran descubrimiento para la ciencia. Ha permitido ver a los cientificos lo más pequeños de objetos, células, etc.
Puede ser usado para entender la vida de una manera distinta. Algunos de sus usos lo podemos ver en las ciencias, crear nanotecnologías, o en la medicina, como por ejemplo, el descubrimiento de bacterias. Al saber estos detalles, en el caso de la bacteria, lo podemos ocupar para encontrar curas para enfermedades, ayudandonos a entender la vida de una perspectiva distinta y saber porque la gente se enferma. (en los tiempos antiguos se creia que era por maldiciones o el diablo)
Por lo tanto, el microscopio sí fue un avance muy importante para el entendimiento de la vida, ya sea tecnológico o biológico.


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Yo creo que la invención del microscopio fue una de las invenciones más importantes de la revolución científica ya que nos permitió ver las cosas más pequeñas y así entender mejor nuestro mundo. Sin embargo, otra invención relevante para el hombre hecha en la revolución científica, fue la del telescopio. Este instrumento permitió a gente como Copérnico desarrollar teorías tales como la teoría heliocéntrica que fue uno de los descubrimientos más importantes de la época.
La invención del microscopio fue importante en el entendimiento de nuestra vida cotidiana, sin embargo no fue la única invención que cambio nuestra forma de pensar y de entender la vida.

¨The invention of the microscope was the most important development during the scientific revolution in our understanding of life¨
Estoy de acuerdo con la cita de arriba, ya que definitivamente creo que el microscopio fue una invención esencial para lograr el entendimiento básico de la vida y por lo mismo también lo considero como el mayor aporte en la revolución científica. Durante la revolución científica surgen varias ideas, pensamientos, y teorías de cómo estaba formada la vida y la tierra. Sin embargo todos esos pensamientos parecían ser bastantes innovadores y ¨locos¨ en el siglo XVII ya que era algo bastante nuevo y nunca escuchado. Creo que el microscopio fue la invención más importante durante la revolución ya que este instrumento logró probar y demostrar las formaciones más pequeñas o unidades básicas que forman la vida. En otras palabras creo que el microscopio logró cambiar toda una forma de pensar en relación a la vida y formó la base para desarrollar grandes descubrimientos y tecnologías científicas hasta el día de hoy.

Paula Macdonald

The microscope was important to the scientific revolution, but there are things that are even more important than it. The microscope helped us to see the world in much detail and helped us to understand how everything is connected. As the woman in the video said, microscopes will continue to develop and there will be more scientific discoveries because of this. So it certainly is one of the most important inventions because it helped us to see the world from a different point of view, one with much more details in it. it also helped to prove things that only theorized in the past.

I believe the statement is true till a certain point. I think the invention of the microscope was vital for us to get to where we are now in terms of technology, health, life quality and other issues. Without it we would be much less developed as a society, and wouldnt have been able to get to where we are now, with such great lack of knowledge about ourselves turning us much more vulerable yet before nature. However, eventhough it was a clearly significant invention, it worked in hand with others to help us understand our world and surroundings better, therefore it was not the only apparatus used or needed to get further and deeper investigations.

Yes, it sis true that the microscope has allow the human beings to discover the misterys of nature. It has also enable us to develop in different aspects such us technology, style of life and knownledge, but this doesnt make it the most important invention in the scientific revolution.
the scientific revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences evolved, leaving a side the beliefs of that time (middle age). This statement, let us infer that there existed a huge variety of inventions at that time, possible the same or even more important than the mcroscope.
The microscope shows images that cant be seen with the naked eye, it has oppened the minds of scientists , for this reason we have to give credit to the inventor of this magnificent tool.

I think that the invention of the microscope is the most important invention in history because it enables the human race to understand nature from the core of itself. The microscope helps you understand what makes up the organisms of nature, which gives you a basis to understand from the bottom everything else. It gives you a point to start, from where to build up to bigger things like how tissues work and how they are made. The invention of the microscope led to lots of other different studies, like atomic structures and cell biology, which made the knowledge of the scientific world expand to what is now.
The development of new and more powerful microscopes led to new and very important discoveries, as the atoms, and these discoveries created the basis of many new technologies, which wouldn't have occurred if it weren't for the microscope. son in conclusion we can say that the microscope is is the most important invention of the scientific revolution as it created the basis of all the new technologies that we have now. If it weren't for the microscope I probably wouldn't be able to write this in a computer.

The invention of the Microscope was an extraordinary innovation which led to many discoveries and new understanding of many aspects of life. Thanks to this invention the world suffered many of the most important changes that improved life conditions, comprehension of bacteria and their effect in humans, within many others.
However I’m not certain that “the microscope was the most important development during the scientific revolution in our understanding of life”, because in the scientific revolution there were many other discoveries that also contributed in our knowledge of life. In the Scientific Revolution new ideas emerged to reject previous thoughts about life, separating the spiritual thoughts with logic. Many of these inventions such as the microscope changed the ideology of people at that time and still now a days contribute to new discoveries.

The microscope has indeed helped the world to have a better understanding of issues such as cells and other microscopic organisms thus I do belive ¨The invention of the microscope was the most important development during the scientific revolution in our understanding of life¨
As it is said in the same introduction of the the video it helped develop a wider understanding of life however with more "hilarious" results and theories. Although inventions such as the telescope have also been called very important as it has also helped the human race to understand aspects of the world, the microscope has provided use to the human race directly as it has helped study micro organisms in disease, reproducion and surounding organisms such as plants allowing us to come up with not only better explanation, but even better results such as cures for diseases and other health issues.

Though during this period of time there were numerous discoveries and advances in technology that were prominent and essential to the development of sciene, the microscope proved to be exceptionally important in the understanding of life at a diminute scale. It was a huge development that changed the life standards, and we probably would have a more lacking knowledge of the human condition and functioning, and of the virus and microbes that impede human development.
While this is true, the statement that "The invention of the microscope was the most important development during the scientific revolution in our understanding of life" is not necessarily true; there were many other things that greatly influenced and expanded our knowledge of life. While, yes, the microscope gave us a previously unknown perspective of the far-too-small, there was Andreas Vesalius' book that depicted the first human skeleton, there was an enhanced knowledge on astrology- from where we can highlight the invention of the telescope, and Ptolemy's 'Almagest'- and chemistry (as seen in the development of 'experimental science'). All of these produced a change in the way we saw life, and affected the way we live now, too.