Reading Test 23
Tomas Young The Last True Know-it-all
A. Thomas Young (1773–1829) contributed 63 articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica, including 46 biographical entries (mostly on scientists and classicists) and substantial essays on “Bridge,” “Chromatics,” “Egypt,” “Languages” and “Tides”. Was someone who could write authoritatively about so many subjects a polymath, a genius or a dilettante? In an ambitious new biography, Andrew Robinson argues that Young is a good contender for the epitaph “the last man who knew everything.” Young has competition, however. The phrase, which Robinson takes for his title, also serves as the subtitle of two other recent biographies: Leonard Warren’s 1998 life of paleontologist Joseph Leidy (1823–1891) and Paula Findlay’s 2004 book on Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), another polymath.
B. Young, of course, did more than write encyclopedia entries. He presented his first paper to the Royal Society of London at the age of 20 and was elected a Fellow a week after his 21st birthday. In the paper, Young explained the process of accommodation in the human eye on how the eye focuses properly on objects at varying distances. Young hypothesized that this was achieved by changes in the shape of the lens. Young also theorized that light traveled in waves and he believed that, to account for the ability to see in color, there must be three receptors in the eye corresponding to the three “principal colors” to which the retina could respond: red, green, violet. All these hypothesis were subsequently proved to be correct.
C. Later in his life, when he was in his forties, Young was instrumental in cracking the code that unlocked the unknown script on the Rosetta Stone, a tablet that was “found” in Egypt by the Napoleonic army in 1799. The stone contains text in three alphabets: Greek, something unrecognizable and Egyptian hieroglyphs. The unrecognizable script is now known as demotic and, as Young deduced, is related directly to hieroglyphic. His initial work on this appeared in his Britannica entry on Egypt. In another entry, he coined the term Indo-European to describe the family of languages spoken throughout most of Europe and northern India. These are the landmark achievements of a man who was a child prodigy and who, unlike many remarkable children, did not disappear into oblivion as an adult.
D. Born in 1773 in Somerset in England, Young lived from an early age with his maternal grandfather, eventually leaving to attend boarding school. He had devoured books from the age of two, and through his own initiative he excelled at Latin, Greek, mathematics and natural philosophy. After leaving school, he was greatly encouraged by his mother’s uncle, Richard Brocklesby, a physician and Fellow of the Royal Society. Following Brocklesby’s lead, Young decided to pursue a career in medicine. He studied in London, following the medical circuit, and then moved on to more formal education in Edinburgh, Göttingen and Cambridge. After completing his medical training at the University of Cambridge in 1808, Young set up practice as a physician in London. He soon became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a few years later was appointed physician at St. George’s Hospital.
E. Young’s skill as a physician, however, did not equal his skill as a scholar of natural philosophy or linguistics. Earlier, in 1801, he had been appointed to a professorship of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution, where he delivered as many as 60 lectures in a year. These were published in two volumes in 1807. In 1804 Young had become secretary to the Royal Society, a post he would hold until his death. His opinions were sought on civic and national matters, such as the introduction of gas lighting to London and methods of ship construction. From 1819 he was superintendent of the Nautical Almanac and secretary to the Board of Longitude. From 1824 to 1829 he was physician to and inspector of calculations for the Palladium Insurance Company. Between 1816 and 1825 he contributed his many and various entries to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and throughout his career he authored numerous books, essays and papers.
F. Young is a perfect subject for a biography – perfect, but daunting. Few men contributed so much to so many technical fields. Robinson’s aim is to introduce non-scientists to Young’s work and life. He succeeds, providing clear expositions of the technical material (especially that on optics and Egyptian hieroglyphs). Some readers of this book will like, Robinson, find Young’s accomplishments impressive; others will see him as some historians have – as a dilettante. Yet despite the rich material presented in this book, readers will not end up knowing Young personally. We catch glimpses of a playful Young, doodling Greek and Latin phrases in his notes on medical lectures and translating the verses that a young lady had written on the walls of a summerhouse into Greek elegiacs. Young was introduced into elite society, attended the theatre and learned to dance and play the flute. In addition, he was an accomplished horseman. However, his personal life looks pale next to his vibrant career and studies.
G. Young married Eliza Maxwell in 1804, and according to Robinson, “their marriage was a happy one and she appreciated his work.” Almost all we know about her is that she sustained her husband through some rancorous disputes about optics and that she worried about money when his medical career was slow to take off. Very little evidence survives about the complexities of Young’s relationships with his mother and father. Robinson does not credit them, or anyone else, with shaping Young’s extraordinary mind. Despite the lack of details concerning Young’s relationships, however, anyone interested in what it means to be a genius.
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Skyscraper Farming
A. With a global food crisis predicted, a group of scientists is advocating an innovative alternative to conventional farming that could radically transform the way that food is produced. Today’s environment scientists are in no doubt that the world’s resources of fertile sol are rapidly deteriorating, and that new land for agriculture is becoming ever more sparse. Intensive farming, urbanisation, desertification and sea-level rises are all putting growing pressure on the planet’s agricultural land and therefore on food supplies. Currently 24 per cent of the world’s 11.5 billion hectares of cultivated land has already undergone human-induced soil degradation particularly through erosion, according to a recent study by the UK Government Office for Science.
B. The global population is expected to exceed nine billion by 2050 – up a third from today’s level and studies suggest that food production will have to go up by 70 per cent if we are to feed all of those new mouths. This means that scientists will have to develop new ways of growing crops if we are to avoid a humanitarian crisis. Indeed, UN Food and Agriculture Organization figures suggest that the number of undernourished people is already growing. And with escalating climate change, crop yields in many areas have been projected to decline.
C. With this in mind, some scientists and agricultural experts are advocating an innovative alternative to traditional farming whereby skyscrapers packed with shelf-based systems for growing vegetables on each storey -known as ‘vertical farms’ – could hold the key to revolutionizing agriculture. Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier claims that vertical farming could boost crop yields many times over. A single 20-storey vertical farm could theoretically feed 50,000 people, according to Despommier. And if the theory translates into reality as proposed, 160 skyscraper-sized vertical farms could feed the entire population of New York City, while 180 would be needed to feed London, 289 to feed Cairo and 302 to feed Kolkata.
D. It’s a compelling vision, and one that has already been put into practice in Asia. Albeit on a smaller scale. But there are problems, such as ‘initial investment and operating costs that are too great’ says a spokesman for Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Nevertheless Tokyo-based producer Hokuto Corporation is a model example of how a vertical farm can be profitable. With 28 vertical mushroom farms operating across the country, it produces some 68,000 tonnes of mushrooms annually. Vertical mushroom farms have more advantages than ground-level farms,’ says Hokuto’s Ted Yamanaka. Yamanaka goes on to highlight the ‘relative cost-effectiveness of his organisation’s farming practices together with reduced emissions of greenhouse gases’.
E. The impact of vertical farms could extend beyond feeding established urban populations. Despommier sees them as being capable of helping centres of displaced persons – such as refugee camps – in much the same way that Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) units are deployed in emergency situations. “Developing an emergency-response system for crop production inside specially constructed modular and highly transportable greenhouses would allow for humanitarian interventions, at least for refugees that are forced out of their countries by political tumor,” he says. If you have three or four storeys of food already growing some place, they could become mobile units that could be picked up by helicopters and dropped into the middle of a crisis zone. The food would be ready to pick and eat. It could be designed to supply
F. But it isn’t only about increasing food production. Despommier is concerned about the harm which farming has done to the world’s landscape over a relatively short time span, particularly the elimination of hardwood forests. Farming is only 12,000 years old. ‘he points allows us for the first time to feed everyone on earth and still return land to its original ecological function.’ Natalie Jeremijenko, associate professor at New York University, agrees. ‘The challenge that we have now is how we can design urban agriculture systems that not only reduce food miles, but also improve the world’s ecosystems,’ she says. By significantly reducing the amount of land required for food production, vertical farms could help to enrich biodiversity. And according to Jeremijenko, this can, in turn, help to improve the productivity of conventional farms, as the health of agricultural land is often tied to the health of the surrounding ecosystems. Furthermore, vertical farming could dramatically cut the utilisation of fossil fuels. And also reduce geopolitical tensions in countries where poor farming conditions cause conflict and malnutrition.
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Marketing And Mind Control
How marketing and advertising appeal to the associative nature of the brain
While there had been a long tradition of giving rings as a commitment to marry, the custom of giving diamond engagement rings was in large part manufactured by one of the most effective marketing campaigns in history. In the early 1900s, diamond sales were declining, posing a serious problem for the company that essentially had control over the diamond market. In 1938, this company hired an advertising agency, which proposed reshaping social attitudes toward diamonds. As well as magazines showing film stars draped in diamonds, the agency arranged for “educators” to incorporate diamond engagement rings into their lessons. A campaign was created with the slogan: “A diamond is forever.” At the time, the approach was unique. Rather than directly promoting the product, the campaign promoted diamonds as the symbol of everlasting love. This was achieved by exploiting the associative nature of the brain: associating neurons activated by the concept of love with neurons that encoded the concept of diamonds. By 1941, diamond sales had increased by 55%.
Advertising comes in many forms, from blatant neon signs to subtly embedded products in movies. In each case, the goal is to mould our habits, desires, and opinions. Our visual system is bombarded by an avalanche of information on the internet, street posters, and billboards and in movie theatres. Our auditory system catches radio jingles and telemarketers. More surreptitiously, our olfactory system is targeted by variations of vanilla and citrus perfumes manufacturers use to linger in a retail environment.
It is difficult to measure how effective these campaigns are, but as in the ‘A diamond is forever’ campaign, they can be so successful that they change the fabric of our culture. In the case of bottled water, we are swayed by advertising into paying for something that we can obtain for free. Most people cannot distinguish bottled from tap water, much less between brands of bottled water, which is why you rarely hear of a bottled water company proposing a blind taste test.
So why is marketing such an effective mind-control technique? It is interesting to consider whether animals exhibit anything analogous to humans’ susceptibility to advertising. If we provide a lab rat with two types of cereal, it will consume approximately the same amount of each. However, if we introduce a rat that spent its day eating just one type, when given a choice, our rat will now show a preference for the same type as the other rat was eating. Psychologists call this “socially transmitted food preference.”
What many regard as the first documented examples of cultural learning in primates started when young Japanese macaques were observed washing sand from the yams on the island of Koshima. One began taking her dirt-covered sweet potatoes to the river to wash them before eating them. She taught her peers. A few years later, 18-month-old monkeys picked up the idea. Potato washing then spread from monkey to monkey and, over the course of a few years, most members of the troop began the behaviour. Humans are clearly the only animals whose learning involves social learning.
Learning by observation can be an extraordinarily valuable brain feature; this is how we learn to communicate and perform motor skills, as well as to deal with many everyday problems. For example, a newcomer struggling to purchase tickets and navigate the subway system in a foreign city may step back to learn from people nearby. Humans and other primates exhibit multiple forms of imitative learning — this is called cultural transmission. A component of advertising relies on the marketer’s ability to tap into the brain’s propensity for imitation. Anybody who has watched TV knows advertisements are disproportionately populated with attractive, successful-looking individuals. If we are going to imitate someone, we are more inclined to imitate those who appear to be popular and appealing.
Although not all researchers are convinced by the findings, a number of studies indicate that humans also imitate dominant members of their group. Primatologist Frans de Waal provides anecdotal evidence of preferential imitation among chimpanzees. He noted that in one particular group the dominant male was hurt and was limping as a result. Soon, unlikely as it seemed, a non-dominant male began limping too.
Imitation is undoubtedly an invaluable ability, but often our propensity to imitate generalises indiscriminately, leading to poor decisions. When athlete Dick Fosbury revolutionised the high jump by jumping over the bar backward in 1968, imitators obviously copied his jumping style, not his brand of sports shoes. However, today, sports people appear in advertisements asking us to buy the logos or sports drinks that they promote. Rationally, we know these people’s success did not depend on these products, so it seems our propensity to purchase relates more to neural programs that evolved to encourage imitation of those further up the social ladder.
Today, companies engage in stealth marketing campaigns in which people are paid to frequent bars or other venues to covertly promote certain products. Companies also perform studies in which they track the eye movements of people viewing displays, and carefully craft names, places, and jingles associated with their products. While we may be inclined to believe that marketing on a grand scale would not be possible, that’s not to say that advertising is innately harmful. To the contrary, the marketing of products or ideas is essential to human culture. The point is that we should ensure our choices reflect our actual goals and desires, and we must distinguish between the dissemination of information which is for our own good, and our manipulation for the benefit of companies.
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