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    • 2013 Publication

Past Discoveries Matter
by Eli Harrell('20)

Early contributions to science are the foundation for our current understanding, despite how ignorant or primitive they might seem through modern eyes. While it is difficult to remove ourselves from a modern perspective on scientific knowledge, this presentism should not cloud our appreciation and understanding of the past. For much of human history, wood was wood, dirt was dirt, and flesh was flesh: substances simply were. As time went on, this would not hold up, and philosophers like Empedocles were the first to challenge this notion through logic. He contended that all substances have certain properties which are determined by a unique ratio of his four “elements”: fire, earth, air, and water. Turtles had more earth and less fire than hares, and birds more air than either—Empedocles shifted the paradigm from a monistic view of all matter and reality as simply being to understanding matter as divisible. These four “Classical elements” are a concept which ought to be more widely considered a scientific milestone, and not merely a misconceived attempt at understanding matter. It would be easy to disprove Empedocles’ notion, for no matter how small matter is divided, the resultant particles never approach what he believed to be “elemental” fire, earth, air or water. What matters is not the validity of his contention, but rather how he sowed the seeds for later discoveries about the structure of matter. Empedocles’ groundwork of popularizing matter as divisible enabled his successor Democritus to develop his own theory of matter with indivisible atomos, more closely resembling our modern atomic model. While not all past theories were influential or productive contributors to modern science, Empedocles’ early notion of elements composing matter certainly deserves to be more widely considered scientific thought. Empedocles was far from the only early contributor to science—he is merely an example of the presentism we unfairly heap on all past understandings and events. There are certainly happenings and practices of the past we may correctly interpret as wrong or misguided—the witch trials came to mind—but the skill to be more discriminate when interpreting such events should be taught and encouraged to a greater extent. If we are to become truly empathetic, as Packer so fervently wishes, we must not conform to modern condescendence on historical beliefs, and rather view the past from perspective of then. In an isolated system such as the scientific community, time is an arrow dictated by the second law of thermodynamics—what is once discovered always influences what is to be discovered. Ancient understandings appear faulty, inaccurate, and downright wrong, but they nonetheless deserve wider appreciation as elemental in modern science.

Bibliography
​Campbell, Gordon. “Empedocles”. Internet Encyclopedia Of Philosophy, 2018, https://www.iep.utm.edu/empedocl/. Accessed 4 Mar 2018. Carpi, Anthony, Ph.D. "Early Ideas About Matter: From Democritus To Dalton". Visionlearning, 2003, https://www.visionlearning.com/en/library/Chemistry/1/Early-Ideas-about-Matter/49/reading. Accessed 4 Mar 2018.
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  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • HOW TO SUBMIT
  • Past Publications
    • 2019 Publication >
      • Scientific Research
      • Mathematical Exploration
      • Scientific Exploration
      • Computer Science
    • 2018 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Scientific Research
    • 2017 Publication >
      • Artistic Creations
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Exploration
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Scientific Research
    • 2016 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
      • Scientific Research
      • Reactions and Responses
      • Artistic Creations
    • 2015 Publication >
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Bell Curves
        • Birds Vs. Turbines
        • Energy in the Obama Era
        • The Future of Neuroscience
        • Gender Gap in Math
        • GMOs--Yes or No?
        • The History of Minecraft: How a Swedish Indie Game Came to Dominate the World
        • The Effect of Prozac on the Brain
        • Philae Lander's Discovery of Organic Molecules
        • Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Turbines
        • Your Own Worst Enemy: An Overview of Lupus
        • The Methylhex Ban
        • The Effect of Lyme Disease on the Immune system
        • Infectious Mononucleosis
        • Replacing CFCs
        • The Switch
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • The 43rd Figure
        • The Clock
        • The Collatz Conjecture
        • Constructing a Soccer Ball
        • Determining how Ballparks Affect Batter's Ability to Create Hits
        • The Rotating Conundrum
        • Pythagorean Puzzle
        • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations
        • Kinetics Lab
        • Math in the Restaurant Business
        • Math as a Vessel for Social Change
        • Sustainability of Bottled Vs. Tap Water
        • Thoughts on the Lottery
        • Understanding Player Efficiency Rating
      • Scientific Research >
        • Communicating With Computers
        • The Mystery of Asthma
        • The Nanoscopic War Against Cancer
        • Phytochemistry
        • Solving the energy crisis with Intermediate Band Solar Cells
        • A Pain That Never Ends
        • Rapamycin Resistance
        • Ampacity of a Single Core Horizontal Cable
        • Morphological Properties of Texting Acronym Formation
        • cGAS and STING Expression
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Can Humans Survive the Climate Crisis?
        • My Experience as a Teacher's Assistant
        • Ted Talk Responses
        • Teens For Food Justice
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Chandelier
        • Deltoidal Hexacontrahedon
        • Dodecahedron Card Trick
        • Eye of the Triangle
        • Free Radric Delantic Davis
        • The Grid
        • What Does A Randomly Composed Song Sound Like?
        • Science Wing Mural
    • 2014 Publication >
      • Cover Photo
      • Artistic Creations >
        • Art Using the Fibonacci Sequence
        • Computer Generated Architecture and Designs
        • Mathematical Landscape
        • Math Art
        • Math in Music
      • Historical and Current Explanations >
        • Algae Bio-Fuel
        • An Energy Alternative
        • Clean Energy In Transportation
        • Calorie Restriction
        • Creating Energy in the Modern World
        • Dietary Intervention Impact on Gut Microbial Gene Richness
        • Earthly Applications for NASA Technology
        • Explaining Relative Motion
        • Exploring Artificial Inteligence
        • Gamma Function
        • How Leaves Work
        • Hydrogen Fuel Cells
        • Music and Brain Development
        • Programming Calculators
        • The Science of Microsatellites
        • Sci-Fi Taser
        • Sloane's Gap
        • Sustainable Energy: Why Some Ideas Shine Brighter than Others
        • Understanding The Galvanic Cell
        • The Virus: Our Unforeseen Philosopher's Stone
        • What Are Fuel Cells and How Do They Work?
      • Mathematic and Scientific Explorations >
        • Astrocytes Expressing ALS-Linked Mutated SOD1 Release Factors Selectively Toxic to Motor Neurons
        • Big Bang
        • Dictyostelium Discoideum
        • The Future of Solar Cell Technology
        • And Many More...
      • Reactions and Responses >
        • Alternative Energy Sources, New but Unused
        • An Insight Into the Curious World of Ethnobotany
        • Challenging What We Think We Know
        • The Current State of American Education
        • Discovering New Numbers
        • Interview With an Architect
        • Life of Pi Response
        • Mathematical Art Video Commentary
        • Missing from Science Class
        • The Museum of Math
        • The Inside Scoop on a Real Mathematician
    • 2013 Publication