How important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?
Telescope
A telescope is a toll that is used to or magnified images of distant objects, it is one of the most important tools in the scientific field of astronomy. Ithelps to collect and analyse addition from celestial objects, going as far as the reaches of the universe. Galileo was the first person to apply the use of telescopes to study extraterrestrial bodies the early 17th century, before this telescopes were not used for that. With Galileo’s start many revolutionary changes have been made to telescopes, and a big range of tools capable of detecting and measuring radiation in every region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These developments contributed to advancements in scientific knowledge of the solar system, Milky Way Galaxy and the universe overall.
Answering the prompt question of “how important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?” by using telescopes as an example the answer to this question would be that material tools help us access new informations and confirm or deny our hypothesis, either answering or causing new questions to occur.
Telescopes range from models that you can buy in toy stores to the largest telescope on earth built in China called Gran Telescopio Canarias with an aperture of 10.4 metres and 500 metres wide. Telescopes helped us learn how old the universe is, which is 13.8 billion years, telescopes also confirmed that black holes exist, scientists conspired for centuries about the existence of black holes. The Hubble telescope gave us images clear enough to show that the pull of gravity did affect light. Most importantly telescopes made space travel possible, telescopes helped us understand the environment in space and how to make missions safer for astronauts.
Telescopes have started off as building blocks for us to learn more about the universe we live in, we use them still as tools to understand the universe and how it can be used to develop life on earth. Currently scientists are aiming to send first astronauts to Mars, and thanks to the help of telescopes, this can be achieved soon.
Endoscope
Endoscope is a flexible tube with a light and camera attached to it, designed to perform endoscopy on a patient to view images of the patients digestive tract on a TV monitor. Endoscopes can also be used to take a biopsy to look for presence of disease, and it may not only detect active bleeding but it can also have devices pass through itself to be used to stop the bleeding, such procedure can even prevent colon cancer from occurring. Endoscopy by itself is a non surgical procedure used to examine a person’s digestive tract, it is recommended In order to evaluate such things as stomach pain, digestive tract bleeding and more. Instruments similar to endoscopes were found to be aging back to the BC era the Ancient Greek and Roman periods. The instrument thought to be the prototype of an earlier version of on endoscope was discovered in the ruins of Pompeii. Philip Bozzini made the first attempt in 1805 to observe a living human body.
Answering the prompt question of “how important are material tools in the production or acquisition of knowledge?” by using endoscope, we can say that it helps to gain better knowledge of ourselves, quite literally. In this case if we use the example of colon cancer as an example, the endoscope is a life-saving tool that will not only make doctors and patients aware of the issue, but will also act as a vessel to help solve it.
Now endoscopes are not seen as anything usual since it could be seen that we already know everything we need to about the human body, it only acts as a regular tool to keep everything, it doesn’t create new discoveries so far. However it can still be said that in this case the material tools don’t only let us acquire knowledge, it allows us to use it to save lives.
citations
DerSarkissian, Carol. “Endoscopy: Purpose, Procedure, Risks.” WebMD, WebMD, 26 Aug. 2019, www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/digestive-diseases-endoscopy.
“Five Reasons Why Telescopes Are so Important – CBBC Newsround.” BBC News, BBC, 17 Dec. 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/50819852.
Kitmondo Marketplace. Olympus Endoscopes 2.
“Light Gathering and Resolution.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/science/optical-telescope/Light-gathering-and-resolution.
“Origin of Endoscopes: Endoscopes: History of Olympus Products: Technology.” OLYMPUS, www.olympus-global.com/technology/museum/endo/?page=technology_museum.
“What Is the Biggest Telescope on Earth?” BBC Science Focus Magazine, www.sciencefocus.com/space/what-is-the-biggest-telescope-on-earth/.
Wick, Ryan. Telescope.
