Antoni van Leeuwenhoek essays

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek essays Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (layu-wen-hook) was born in Delft, a city in the western Netherlands, on October 24, 1632. His father was a basket-maker, while his mother's family were brewers. Antoni was educated as a child in a school in the town of Warmond. In 1676 he served as the trustee of the estate for Jan Vermeer, a famous painter, who had had been born in the same year as Leeuwenhoek and is thought to have been friends with him. Also some time before 1668, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek learned to grind lenses, and made simple microscopes, and began observing with them. He seems to have been inspired to take up microscopy after having seen a copy of Robert Hookes illustrated book Micrographia, which illustrated Hooke's own observations with the microscope and was very popular Leeuwenhoek used double-convex lenses mounted between brass plates and held close to the eye. He viewed objects on pinheads, magnifying them up to 300 times this a lot better than any earlier compound microscopes. In 1668 he confirmed and developed the discovery by Italian anatomist Marcello Malpighi of the capillary systems, he showed how the red corpuscles circulated through the capillaries of a rabbit's ear and the web of a frog's foot. In 1674 Leeuwenhoek gave the first accurate description of red blood corpuscles. Leeuwenhoek was not a good artist so he hired an illustrator to prepare drawings of the things he saw, to go with his written descriptions. Later he observed what he called animalcules, which today are known as protozoa and bacteria in pond water, rainwater, and in human saliva. In addition in 1677 he described the spermatozoa of both insects and humans. He was the first to observe human sperm under the microscope. Leeuwenhoek believed that sperm contained a child in miniature, which grew larger inside the females body. Two centuries of experiment and debate followed. Then in 1879, with the use of imp ...

Studying Abroad Just Go For It! [Interview]

Studying Abroad Just Go For It! [Interview] Have you thought of studying abroad? Probably, yes. However, most likely you are not sitting right now at your laptop in some European country reading this post. That means you are not using your opportunities to spend a semester at some country youve never visited, to learn about their culture and their education. Why are you still in doubt? Probably there are some questions on studying abroad which still bother you and keep you from applying for the program. We decided to help you with that and interview a student who already used her studying abroad opportunity. Judy Su is one of the applicants of Danish Institute for Study Abroad program. She has recently got back home from Copenhagen, where she studied graphic design. She kindly agreed to answer several questions about her time spent in Denmark and share her impressions about the experience she had. We started from the most basic question: How did you decide to apply for studying abroad? I go to the University of Michigan, where study abroad is required for Art Design students. I decided to apply to the Danish Institute for Study Abroad because Ive always admired Scandinavian design, and because my University has a good relationship with theirs. So, making a decision was not a problem for you. What about the application? Is the study abroad application process competitive? To my knowledge it wasnt too competitive given our schools requirement, but the application did include questions about my GPA and required a transcript. Next step after the application is preparation for the trip. A bit of packing advice from Judy: Less clothes, only pictures (no souvenirs) from home, less art supplies. So, your trip started and you arived in Copenhagen. What were the barriers youve faced at first? Obviously, the language. I was lucky that in Copenhagen, nearly everyone speaks English very well. Despite that, all the signs that appear on the streets, public transportation, and in grocery stores (among many other places) are entirely in Danish, so I had to piece things together the best I could. What about other cultural differences youve noticed? It appears that mainly the small things you dont really think about are the most interesting cultural differences. For example, there were bicycles everywhere. It was interesting to get used to looking out for bikes more so than for cars when crossing the street. Another interesting difference is that Danes will almost always wait to cross the street until the walk signal is displayed. Jaywalking results in a lot of glares from those waiting. Lets talk a bit about your studies. What subjects have you studied? Visual Journal, Photojournalism, European Art of the 20th Century, and Graphic Design Studio as my core course. What were the most interesting tasks/projects? In my Graphic Design studio, we were designing an identity for Copenhagen Harbor Farming. For my Photojournalism project, I had an assignment to photograph someone Danish for the semester. We also went for field trips for European Art and Graphic Design. For European Art, we went to Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek to look at their Gauguin collection. Did you get writing assignments while studying in Denmark? What kind of them? Besides being an official blogger for the school, I also did some writing for classes. They were pretty standard papers; I took an art history class, so the majority were for that class. Do they have strict plagiarism policy in college? Does it differ from US plagiarism policies? Yes, but my school was a school specifically for study abroad students, so they followed standard US plagiarism policies. I cant imagine plagiarism rules would be any different in other countries. Youve posted weekly plans in your blog. Did they help you manage your time? The weekly goals were more for me to make the most of my time while I was abroad. I wanted to make sure I didnt miss out on anything that I wanted to see, because I didnt know when I would ever be back. What helped you make your studying more effective? I always found it difficult to get things done in my room (I was sharing my room with two other girls), so I would go to the school and finish work up there. By the way, Judy described her accomodation at Copenhagen on her blog. (quote) The three of us share a bedroom. There are also two bathrooms in my hall. There are people on the floor who have singles too, and all of us have keys to our individual rooms. My building is much more apartment style, so you are living independently†¦ Keep in mind though, there are some DRCs that are more dorm style. Some of the building rules can be a challenge to get used to, especially if you’re used to living in a house or off-campus. In a DRC, you will have an RA, and you will have to follow rules regarding quiet hours, chore rotations, and guests. Would the experience of studying abroad be relevant for your future profession? In what way? Oh, absolutely! I studied graphic design as my core course, and learning about it through an international lens is such a valuable experience. It makes you much more aware of the background and perceptions of your work, and Im glad I was able to learn it this way. In addition, I was just exposed to so much thats different from what I used to see in the States. That definitely helped for drawing inspiration. On her return home in Michigan, US, Judy wrote on her blog: Things here seem kind of like they always have, and it’s only the little things that remind me my semester in Copenhagen wasn’t just a dream. So, we decided to ask Judy: How would you describe your Copenhagen time in just one sentence? Going abroad was one of the most exciting and eye-opening experiences Ive ever had. As a final question, please, give some advice for all the students who are considering to study abroad. Just go for it! I have never heard of anyone who regretted going abroad. Once youre there, make sure you make the most of your time. Studying abroad is such a great opportunity, and you wont want to miss a thing! Thanks, Judy Su, for such an inspirational advice and interesting interview! Hopefully, the thoughts of this cheerful design student will change minds of our readers and help them make the right decision on studying abroad.