need an argumentative essay
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Samiha Al-Shantaf
English 1302
Professor Harris
April 20, 2015
Scientific Heroes in Different Cultures
A hero is usually a person who is admired and emulated. For this reason, a hero
always depicts the representation of the ideals in a culture. Historical events and
circumstances of different cultures cause different characteristics to become appreciated in
many heroes. These cultural ethics and values are reflected in both the actions and in this
case, the discoveries of the scientific heroes. Through centuries, the idea and meaning of a
hero has advanced. In ancient times, a hero was very well defined, such as Beowulf; he was
depicted as a strong warrior, one who is able to lead people and excel on a battlefield.
Though that can be one portrayal of a hero, there are many more, including scientific heroes.
Scientific heroes of the Arabic and European culture have had a great impact on the world
today; their lives and cultural circumstances shaped the portrayal of these heroes in their
works and discoveries.
Throughout the eighth and sixteenth century, the study of medicine went through
remarkable development in the Arabic culture. The contemporary medicine owes much of its
growth and development to the Arabic culture in those centuries. Among many of the
scholars who helped in sharing an enlightening path of medical human knowledge is Al-
Zahrawi, who was nicknamed “the chief of all surgeons” by Pietro Argallata. Abulqasim Al-
Zahrawi was born and raised in 936 AD, Cordova in Andalusia, now known as Spain; was
the torchbearer of knowledge, wisdom and civilization (Elgohary). At that time, education
was blooming in Cordova; it had 900 public paths, eighty Schools and twenty-seven High
schools, and 300 libraries loaded with at least one million books. Status and wealth of any
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person at that time were judged and measure by how much he has read, and by how many
books he owned. Hospitals at that time were constructed as masterpieces of beauty or else
grand palaces were converted into hospitals. Each hospital had a pharmacy dispensing free
drugs to patients, a conference room, a library, and a religious place for different religions
(Elgohary). That shows how much knowledge and science were appreciated and wanted by
many people.
Al-Zahrawi was an ingenious surgeon whose contributions added many benefits to
surgery and medicine, not known to his ancestors. During his lifetime doctors used to come
from all around the world to learn form his surgical talents. He remained the famous teacher
of surgery because of his prominent encyclopedia work “Al-Tasreef Liman Ajez Aan Al-
Taareef” (The Disposal of Medical Knowledge to those Unable to Get it from the Other
compilations), a thirty volume medical treatise which covered surgery, medicine,
orthopedics, ophthalmology, pharmacology, nutrition, etc (Elgohary). His effort and work has
been a marker in the history of science; many of the surgical instruments and procedures
explained in his book have not been experienced by another other person before Al-
Zahrawi’s time.
Al-Zahrawi is a great hero for all the outstanding work he donated to Arabic culture
and the rest of the world. He was the first to use cotton in surgical dressings, wax and alcohol
to control bleeding from the skull during cranial surgery, the first to describe how to treat
misaligned teeth, describe the tracheotomy operation, he was the first to use surgical sutures
as well, and many more first procedures. The famous French surgeon Guy de Chauliac said,
“it was nothing less than the greatest achievement of medieval surgery” (Elgohary).
Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth century had no idea how to explain new
explorations in the science world, despite all the advances in many fields; including
astrology, medicine, and literacy. Once the scientific revolution began to disprove many of
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the people’s past belief system, and new ideas surfaced to the people, many experienced
consternation. Though a great number of people experienced fearfulness, many of the other’s
scientific view of the universe changed drastically but gradually in this period. The European
society was changed in a positive manner regarding intellectuality, and shaped forever; it has
been set for the coming eras. People began relying more on experimental results and rational
reasoning, instead of going off around superstitions, and old stories and beliefs. Science also
impacted the European society’s culture and made knowledge more important and more
embraced as a part of people’s daily lives. Science became more of a compelling piece of this
culture as many new fields of science, such as the ones listed before, were developing during
that time. As Maurizio Iaccarino said in his article about the influence of culture on science,
“science is part of culture, and how science is done largely depends on the culture in which it
is practiced.”
Science flourished in Europe and that was caused and affected by various positive
developments at that time period. The most important outcome of the scientific revolution
was the independence of scientific thoughts from myths, religion and theology. As a result
too, the interaction among other different European cultures aroused creativity through new
ways of thinking. Many foundations of scientific academes have been established, notably
the Royal Society, which the great Enigma decoder Alan Turing later became a part of. Last,
but not least, Universities throughout Europe have been established, contributing to scientific
progress through the dissemination of new knowledge (Iaccarino). The European culture was
growing with knowledge and that has affected the coming generations in many ways,
including Alan Turing, which was later, the famous brilliant scientist who invented the first
“computing machine” and changed the entire direction of WWII.
Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912 in Paddington, London. He was the son of
Julius Mathison and Ethel Sara Turing; daughter of a chief engineer of the Madras railways.
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Both served for the Indian Civil Service, which caused Alan to be fostered in various English
homes as a child. Science for him was an extracurricular passion; at age twelve he had been
strongly interested in the use of “the thing that is commonest in nature and with the least
waste of energy, presentiment of a life seeking freshly minted answers to fundamental
questions” (Hodges). Such passion for science, specifically physics, led him deeper into
research of the area of physics and mathematics that later helped him build his first
“computer machine.”
How did Alan Turing’s break of the German Enigma code affect the world? Decade
after the scientific revolution, during World War II, Britain was almost losing to their biggest
enemy, Germany. Germany’s Army, Navy and Air Force transmitted thousands of coded
messages during that war. These messages ranged from top-level signals, such as orders by
Hitler himself, down to the important trivia of war including weather forecasts. Because of
Turing and his fellow code breakers’ discovery of the Enigma, much of the information
communicated between the enemies ended up in allied hands - sometimes within an hour or
two of being transmitted (Copeland).
The faster the messages are broken, the quicker the chances are to react to them. At
least once the British Admiralty has intercepted Enigma messages in less than 15 minutes
after the Germans had transmitted them (Copeland). Turing’s invention of the Enigma has
aided in saving lives of millions of people who could’ve been killed during the war, and for
that he must be considered as a hero. Jack Copeland gives some statistics in his article as of
how much the invention of Turing has helped the war:
At a conservative estimate, each year of the fighting in Europe brought on
average about seven million deaths, so the significance of Turing's
contribution can be roughly quantified in terms of the number of additional
lives that might have been lost if he had not achieved what he did. If U-boat
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Enigma had not been broken, and the war had continued for another two to
three years, a further 14 to 21 million people might have been killed.
Heroes don’t have to wear capes or have superpowers, they can be scientists that helped
change the course of war such as Alan Turing, or aided in developing medicine for hundreds
of generations such as Al-Zahrawi. Each of them established something special that makes
them named as heroes forever. As has been stated earlier, culture and society had a huge
impact on these great men; in turn it is such amazing contributions that shape many of the
values of each culture. Science and culture are not individual aspects: science is part of
culture, and how each culture shapes is largely affected by how science is practiced.
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Work Cited
Copeland, Jack, “Alan Turing: The codebreaker who saved 'millions of lives'.” BBC. BBC,
2012. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Elgohary, Mohamerd. “Al Zahrawi: The Father of Modern Surgery.” Annals of Pediatric
Surgery. N.p., 2006. Web. 7 Apr. 2015.
Hodges, Andrew. “Alan Turing: a short biography.” Alan Turing: The Enigma. Andrew
Hodges. N.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.
Iaccarino, Maurizio. “Science and Culture.” PMC US National Library of Medicine.
European Molecular Biology Organization, 2003. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.