Al-Shantaf 1 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 Al-Shantaf 2 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 .

1. Al-Shantaf
1
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

2. 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

3. 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
Al-Shantaf
2
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

4. 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

5. 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
Al-Shantaf
3
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

6. 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

7. 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.
Al-Shantaf
4
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

8. 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).

9. 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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5

10. 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.
Al-Shantaf
6
Work Cited

11. 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.
The CRAAP Test Worksheet
Use the following list to help you evaluate sources. Answer the
questions and then rank each of the 5 parts from 1 to 10 (1 =
unreliable, 10 = excellent). Add up the scores to give you an
idea of the quality of the resource.
Currency:
…………………………………………………………….…….……..
…...........................…..
• When was the information published or posted?

12. • Has the information been revised or updated?
• Is the information (also links) current or out of date for your
topic?
Relevance:
…………………………………………………………………….......
..................….………
• Does the information relate to your topic or answer your
question?
Authority:
…………………………………………………………….…………..
…........................…….
• Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
• Are the author's organizational affiliations given? If yes, are
they appropriate?
(Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?)
• What are the author's qualifications to write about the topic?
• Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email
address?
Accuracy:
…………………………………………………………….….............
.........………..……….
• Is the information supported by evidence?
• Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
• Can you verify any of the information in another source?
• Does the language or tone seem unbiased and is it free of
emotion?
• Are there spelling or grammar errors, do links work?
Purpose:
………………………………………………………………..............
.......…….….…………
• What is the purpose of the information?

13. • Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose
clear?
• Ιs the information a fact, an opinion or propaganda?
• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious,
institutional, or personal biases?
Total CRAAP:
…………………………………………………………………….......
....…..
45 - 50 Excellent | 40 - 44 Good | 35 - 39 Average | 30 - 34
Borderline Acceptable | Below 30 Unacceptable
Text2: 0: 1: 2: 3: Text3: Currency: 0: [Select]Relevance:
[Select]Authority: [Select]Accuracy: [Select]Purpose:
[Select]Total: [Select]
Unit 3: Heroic/Villainous Journeys
Guidelines: This assignment has three major components that
work together as you write an argumentative essay on some
aspect of heroes, villains, heroics, villainy, and/or the heroic
journey.
You may write an inductive or deductive argument, using
whatever argumentative approach best suits your topic and
stance.
Below are some topic options you have for this essay:
1. Take a person typically thought of as a villain or hero, and
argue the opposite--what heroic qualities do this villainous
person possess? How do they manifest? How do characteristics
of villainy manifest in heroes? You will need to offer a
definition of a hero prior to developing your argument here.
0. History is full of stories of heroes who worked for the greater

14. good of society and had a profound, positive impact on the time
period in which they lived. However, history is also the story of
duplicable villains whose acts of greed and corruption left scars
in time that may still be healing today. Sometimes, the
distinction between heroes and villains is clear. Martin Luther
King Jr, for example, is universally accepted as a force for good
because of his brave work to bring equality to a society plagued
by the disease of racism and bigotry. Adolf Hitler, on the other
hand, is readily recognized as the very embodiment of hatred
and evil in its most extreme form. Still other times, the line
between good and evil can be blurry. This topic asks you to
consider a historical figure and develop your own opinion of
this person based on carefully guided research. Note that
choosing a figure like King or Hitler will not work, as they are
universally accepted as Hero and Villain. Instead, choose a
person that history has not made it mind up about or someone
you have great interest in or seem to understand. With history
as your guide, you will judge your figure and come to the
determination: Is this person a hero or a villain?
0. Identify a hero from a text (a novel, short story, poem, comic
book, graphic novel, film, etc.) and analyze his/her hero’s
journey based on Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth. You can
analyze how a character fits into the heroic archetype AND note
ways in which he or she does not fit. Discussing the character
critically is more important than forcing your character’s
journey into the Monomyth perfectly.
0. Using news and current events, define the contemporary
hero/villain. What qualities must a contemporary hero/villain
have? How do these qualities manifest? What news and current
events demonstrate these contemporary heroes/villains?
0. Using works of fiction (i.e. movies, books, etc.), define the
contemporary hero/villain. What qualities must a contemporary
hero/villain have? How do these qualities manifest in the

15. text(s)?
0. Using news/current events AND fiction, demonstrate the
similarities and/or differences in the heroic/villainous ideal as
presented in these sources.
0. Treat the progression of the hero/villain over time. How has
the hero/villain figure changed over time? Use either real-life
events and/or text/characters to demonstrate this change.
0. What kinds of heroes/villains are found in any one given
text?
These, of course, are just a few of the possibilities open to you.
If you think of another route you’d like to take in this essay,
please let me know.
Onto the particulars of the formal assignment:
Part 1: Essay
Your intended readers are intellectual (college-educated) people
with an interest in heroes/villains or your specific topic.
Inductive or Deductive Reasoning; 1000-1300 words; Standard
MLA format and documentation; Failure to meet page and/or
formatting requirements will result in ten points EACH
deducted from your essay grade. Failure to include a works
cited page will result in an instant 30 point deduction.
Use of four library/academically credible sources and third
person POV is required.You must use at least FOUR
academically credible sources in your essay, which should be
documented in the text, and bibliographical citations for the
sources should be listed on a Works Cited page at the end of
your essay. These sources can be any combination of primary

16. and secondary. Since this is a scholarly research project, you
must write in third person POV. There will be a 10 point
deduction for each missing source AND for any first/second
person pronouns.
Part 2: Research Presentation
Present the findings of your research in an in-class presentation
of 4-5 minutes. A visual aid is required, but there is no limit
upon what you can use to meet this requirement.
Grading:Research Presentation Rubric
Reminders!
· All direct quotations must have lead-ins and commentary to
explain their importance to your claim.
· A thesis statement should not be an announcement of what you
will do in the paper.
· Double-check the alignment of your sources before
submitting.
· Use only third person POV. First and second person are okay
only if they are used inside a direct quotation.
· Avoid LONG quotations. Audiences don’t read them. Better to
summarize/paraphrase and document.
· If working in a group, all group members’ names should be in
the heading and all last names should be in the header.