And so I return to the Peter Medawar quote at the beginning of Chapter 5. Given that the reward for diligent observation and repeated experiments is the ultimate discovery of something new, how does this quote relate to the illustrations in this chapter?
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"A scientists is a man who by his observations and experiments, by the literature he reads and even by the company he keeps, is putting himself in the way of winning a prize; he has made himself discovery prone," one photo in the chapter is 3 monkeys and they look like they are having a potato washing contest with numbers on their chest and one with a 100 on its chest jumping up and down as if it won. This quote goes with this picture by "putting himself in the way of winning a prize..." and completing a task they believe monkeys have learned "that the habit could have jumped from Koshima to other islands after a critical mass of one hundred monkeys had learned it.
ReplyDeleteDe Waal gives this quote at the beginning of chapter five "A scientist is a man who by his observation . . . he has made himself discovery prone. " (Peter Medawar 179). De Waal puts everything in his text for a reason and based on this quote pretty much the prize you win is all going to be based on the things or people you surround yourself with, and that prize will be making some sort of discovery, and since pretty much this whole chapter is on scientists trying to get information on these monkeys the discoveries they make are going to be pretty important.
ReplyDeleteThe quote is related to the picture given on page 206 because in this picture there is three monkeys that seem too be having some sort of race of some sort? i don't know how they are racing exactly since the sweet potatoes are on the ground and the two monkeys on the left are doing the whole speak no evil hear no evil thing and the monkey on the right with the 100 on it is looking pretty excited, but by putting yourself to watch these animals you are making yourself discovery prone because sooner or later you are going to get more and more facts on these animals based on your observations.
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ReplyDeleteMedawar describes a scientist as "a man who by his observations and experiments, by the literature he reads and even by the company he keeps, is putting himself in the way of winning a prize. . ." He then states that scientists make themselves "discovery prone." This quote fits in with the illustrations of the chapter because throughout the chapter, de Waal describes how scientists are always making hypotheses and then venturing out to prove them. They observe their subjects with such narrowness that they often miss other information that could be beneficial to them. If scientists kept their ideas broad and were open to different kinds of findings, they would be much more successful. De Waal intentionally chose this quote to bring emphasis to his idea that scientists need to be very observative and open-minded in order to win their prize of a new discovery.
ReplyDeleteThe main illustration this quote relates to is the monkeys washing potatos of Koshima Island. De Waal states that the woman,Satsue Mito, who lived near the island began feeding the monkeys potatos. After many times of visiting the island she been to notice that the animals were developing techniques like washing the potatoes. He states that after a while the monkey “improved her technique by going deeper into the water, holding the potato in one hand and rubbing off the mud with the other” (200). Through time the woman had relized that she had discovered that the monkeys had culture. De Waal argues in Chapter 5 that we have to view and analyze new concepts with our eyes open so that we will see what is truely in front of us. In order to be successful you must think in broadly so that you won't overlook anything. De Waal states that is what the woman did; she had an open mind and was discovery prone to the things around her, which was culture among monkeys.
ReplyDelete“A scientist is a man by his observations and experiments, by the literature he reads and even by the company he keeps, is putting himself in the way of winning a prize; he has made himself discovery prone” (Medawar 179). De Waal fit this quote into the beginning of the chapter so that the reader now just how open minded a scientist must be in order to discover great thing. This quote certainly extends the purpose of the chapter because De Waal describes new discoveries throughout the chapter and showed that the people whether scientists or not, had to open their minds up in order to discover something great. This quote related to the discoveries made by Satsue Mito. Although she was not a scientist, Mito took interest and observed the Koshima monkeys. After observing them she finally discovered that a monkey named Imo began washing sweet potatoes in order to clean them off. “Eating soiled potatoes can wear down teeth, so it seemed a good idea to clean them” (De Waal 200). By patiently watching and being open minded, Mito discovered potato washing and how it eventually evolved and spread.
ReplyDeleteDe Waal's quote "A scientist is a man who by his observations and experiments, by the literature..." relates to him and his discovery from Mito the monkey observer. She illustrated how the monkeys would wash the potatoes and soon more and more of them were doing it. It is also like how the older male monkeys started eating raw fish first. The potato washing behavior was transmitted the opposite way through monkey society.
ReplyDeleteChapter five focuses on the importance and value of true, unbiased scientific studies. This quote fits perfectly because Medawar is supporting scientific study for the sake of discovery and not just to support your own claim. De Waal’s opinions about the flaws in a lot of aspects of modern science is an underlying theme of this book, particularly in this chapter. De Waal wants scientists to look at what is actually being presented to them instead of what they think they should see. The theory-based scientific method leaves room for scientists to make error if they forget to observe and then interpret.
ReplyDelete-"A scientists is a man who by his observations and experiments, by the literature he reads and even by the company he keeps, is putting himself in the way of winning a prize; he has made himself discovery prone,"
ReplyDeleteI believe that what De Waal is trying to state with this quote is that being a scientist takes a lot of dedication, patience, and determination. That its not just being stuck in a lab all day, but to put themselves out their and try to uncover something new by anymeans possible.