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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.
All of the following statements may be rejected as valid inferences from the passage EXCEPT:
We evaluate each option individually, against what the passage truly supports, and then reject it if it is an invalid inference.
Option A should be rejected. The passage does not set “interventionist instruments” and “embodied instruments” as separate categories. Instead, it states that sciences are “technologically, instrumentally embodied,” whether the instruments are receptive or interventional. The author’s point is about different styles of embodiment, not a contrast between embodiment and intervention. So, this inference misunderstands the main idea.
Option B should also be rejected. The passage credits Galileo with observing “the phases of Venus” and “the satellites of Jupiter,” saying “it was with his own telescopes that he made the observations launching early modern astronomy.” Newton’s reflecting telescopes are mentioned as later improvements, not as the tools for those discoveries. This inference does not match the historical order described.
Option C is valid and should NOT be rejected. The passage clearly compares astronomy and biology based on how they use instruments. Astronomy is called “largely a ‘receptive’ science, dependent upon instrumentation which can detect and receive emissions,” while biology, especially with biotechnology, uses instruments that are “far more interventional in style.” This comparison is a key part of the author’s point.
Option D should be rejected. The passage links the “new astronomy” to the use of the full electromagnetic spectrum, starting with radio astronomy in the twentieth century. Newton’s reflecting telescopes belong to optical astronomy and the trend of increasing magnification and resolution. Calling Newton’s work the start of the “new astronomy” does not fit the passage.
Therefore, option C is the only valid inference.
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