Sean Howard
Honors Seminar
Professor Habegger
What Is the Secret of Life? A History of Biology and Genetics
Humans have always pondered the mystery of who we are and why we became the species we are today. This intriguing and insightful documentary, What Is the Secret of Life? A History of Biology and Genetics, helps explore the numerous questions that scientists and individuals have always had. The documentary begins with the exploration of the life. For 1,500 years the prominent Roman, Claudius Galen, held deep beliefs that life was shaped by gladiator fights and if a gladiator perished, it was the fault of the physician. Galen also claimed that the liver was an important organ and it was where blood formed. Galen also stated that the blood from the liver contained spirits from all the other organs. While this view is primitive in nature, this shows humans history with trying to understand the wonder of life. The next major component in the step for understanding was Brunelleschi. He took a painting of a church and a mirror and asked individuals to look through this hole and line up the reflection from the mirror to the building in front of them. This was the start of modern perspective painting and how individuals can view the world changed greatly because of Brunelleschi. Furthermore, Leonardo Da Vinci took Brunelleschi’s ideas that painting can represent human life and drew around 600 very detailed portraits of the human anatomy. This was a major step forward in understanding the human anatomy. Da Vinci changed the way humans learned anatomy by describing what they see in a human corpse, rather than label what each organ is. Shortly after based on Da Vinci’s revolutionizing studies, Andreas Vesalius published a detailed book of the human body, especially the liver, heart and brain. Vesal...
