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Instructions

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 resolution 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.

Question 10

None of the following statements, if true, contradicts the arguments in the passage EXCEPT:

The passage compares scientific fields by looking at their use of instruments. It highlights the difference between receptive sciences, such as astronomy, and interventional ones, like biology. It also points out that all modern sciences rely on technology and instruments. Each option should be evaluated based on these ideas.

Option A does not go against the passage. The author describes astronomy as mostly “receptive” and biology as more “interventional,” but does not say these categories cannot overlap. The phrase “largely a ‘receptive’ science” suggests there can be some crossover. The passage does not say that instruments cannot have both roles, so this option fits with the argument.

Option B contradicts the passage. The passage says mathematics is “perhaps the last of the scientific disciplines to move into such technical embodiment,” and that it “only contemporarily has come to rely more and more upon the computational machinery.” This is about using instruments, not about whether mathematics had a scientific culture before computers. The passage does not say that mathematics lacked a scientific culture before, so saying it is “only now beginning to develop a scientific culture” is inaccurate and goes against the author’s point.

Option C does not contradict the passage. The text says astronomy now explores the whole electromagnetic spectrum, not just visible light, and that biology, especially microscopy and biotechnology, uses many instruments. The passage never directly discusses microscopy moving beyond the visible spectrum in the way astronomy does with the electromagnetic spectrum. Since the passage does not explicitly restrict microscopy to the visible spectrum, nor deny that it might move beyond it, the claim in option C cannot be said to contradict the argument. It simply goes beyond what is stated. 

Option D also does not go against the passage. The passage talks about Newton improving telescopes and their use in astronomy, but it does not say that all of Newton’s discoveries relied on instruments. Newton’s discovery of gravity without instruments does not conflict with the discussion about telescopes in astronomy.

So, only option B contradicts the passage.

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