1.

Considering any of the ancient civilization discussed in class, give two contributions they
have and discuss how these contributions have answered their concerns during their time.
Chinese Civilization
Great Wall of China
Considered one of the most amazing architectural feats of the ancient world, the Great Wall of
China stretches over 5,500 miles inland, beginning at the coast of the Yellow Sea. In this lesson,
we'll learn more about this amazing piece of construction.

In the third century BCE, Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China - concerned by attacks from rival
tribes living in the northern part of the Chinese Empire - decided to build a wall as a line of
defense against those attacks. The Chinese weren't building this wall from scratch; there were
existing walls that had previously separated different Chinese states. Now that China was unified
under Qin Shi Huang, he ordered many of them be destroyed and others be fortified and joined to
create a northern wall.
Roughly 2,000 years later, the Ming dynasty finished the wall - at least into the form that we
know it today. During that 2,000-year-long construction project, different emperors and
dynasties had different ideas about the Great Wall and put varying degrees of work into building
it. However, enough building was done, and the significance was great enough, that in 1987 the
Great Wall of China was named a World Heritage Site.

Significance of the Great Wall

There are two ways to consider the significance of the Great Wall of China. The first is to
consider the significance it played for each dynasty or emperor and how it impacted their power
during the period of their rule. The second is to consider the significance of the Great Wall of
China as a symbol to, and of, the Chinese people, and the whole world, as an incredible feat of
engineering and construction.
While the primary purpose the Great Wall throughout most of its construction was defensive,
during the Qing dynasty, the Great Wall became more meaningful as a symbol of Chinese
culture than as an actual wall of fortification. First, the Great Wall was a symbol of Chinese
strength - this society had built a 3,000-mile-long, 50-foot-high, stone wall. Such a feat is not for
the faint of heart.
Second, it became a psychological wall - showing the importance to the Chinese people and the
rest of the world, of China is a sovereign, independent, culture and nation. In a way, the Great
Wall represents a blockade against Western ideas and culture, something many Chinese leaders
and citizens feel is just as much of a threat now as the rival tribes in north China were in 300
BCE.
The Great Wall of China begins near the coast of the Yellow Sea in Hebei province, just under
200 miles east of Beijing. From there, it continues 5,500 miles west through northern China,
going through 15 provinces on its way to Jiayu Pass in Gansu province, where it ends. 
Gunpowder
In Chinese, gunpowder is called huo yao, meaning flaming medicine. Unlike paper and printing,
the birth of gunpowder was quite accidental. It was first invented inadvertently by alchemists
while attempting to make an elixir of immortality. It was a mixture of Sulphur, saltpeter, and
charcoal. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder was being used in military affairs. During
the Song and Yuan Dynasties, frequent wars spurred the development of cannons, and fire-
arrows shot from bamboo tubes.

Chinese scientists had been playing with saltpeter — a common name for the powerful oxidizing
agent potassium nitrate — in medical compounds for centuries when one industrious individual
thought to mix it with sulfur and charcoal.
Gunpowder was quickly put to use by the reigning Sung dynasty against the Mongols, whose
constant invasions into the country plagued the Chinese throughout the period. The Mongols
were the first to be subject to flying fire — an arrow fixed with a tube of gunpowder that ignited
and would propel itself across enemy lines. More gunpowder-based weapons were invented by
the Chinese and perfected against the Mongols in the next centuries, including the first cannons
and grenades.

The psychological effect alone of the mystifying new technology likely helped the Chinese win
battles against the Mongols, historians believe.

In the 12th and 13th centuries, gunpowder spread to the Arab countries, then Greece, other
European countries, and finally all over the world.
2. Choose from any of the Philippine Presidents listed below and research on their
accomplishments in the area of Science and Technology during their term particularly in
the areas of education, infrastructure, agriculture and environment.
List of Philippine President
a. Ferdinand Marcos
b. Corazon Aquino
c. Fidel Ramos
d. Joseph Estrada
e. Gloria Arroyo
f. Benigno Aquino III
During Ferdinand Marcos' presidency, the importance given to science grew. In the amended
1973 Philippine Constitution, Article XV, Section 9 (1), he declared that the "advancement of
science and technology shall have priority in the national development." In his two terms of
presidency and during Martial Law, he enacted many laws promoting science and technology.
In his Second State of the Nation Address on January 23, 1967, he declared that science was
necessary for the development programs, and thus, directed the Department of Education to
revitalize the science courses in public high schools. The Department of Education, with the
National Science Development Board (NSDB), is organizing a project to provide selected high
schools with science teaching equipment over a four-year period.
In his Third State of the Nation Address on January 22, 1968, he recognized that technology was
the leading factor in economic development, and channeled additional funds to support projects
in applied sciences and science education.
In his Fourth State of the Nation Address on January 27, 1969, he gave a big part of the war
damage fund to private universities to encourage them to create courses in science and
technology and to research. He stated that he planned a project to have medical interns do a tour
of duty in provincial hospitals to arouse their social conscious and reduce the "brain drain." On
April 6, 1968, he proclaimed 35 hectares in Bicutan, Taguig, Rizal as the site of the Philippine
Science Community. The government also conducted seminars for public and private high
school and college science teachers, training programs and scholarships for graduate and
undergraduate science scholars, and workshops on fisheries and oceanography.
In his Fifth State of the Nation Address on January 26, 1970, he emphasized that the upgrading
of science curricula and teaching equipment is crucial to the science development program. He
added the Philippine Coconut Research Institute to the NSDB to modernize the coconut industry.
The NSDB also established the Philippine Textile Research Institute. The Philippine Atomic
Energy Commission of the NSDB explored the uses of atomic energy for economic
development. Marcos assisted 107 institutions in undertaking nuclear energy work by sending
scientists to study nuclear science and technology abroad, and providing basic training to 482
scientists, doctors, engineers, and technicians.
In his Seventh State of the Nation Address on January 24, 1972, he spoke about his major
development projects in reforming sectors of education. Such projects included research and
development schools, technical institutes, science education centers, and agricultural colleges
and vocational high schools.
In 1972, he created the National Grains Authority to provide for the development of the rice and
corn industry to fully harness it for the economy of the country. (Presidential Decree No. 4, s.
1972). He established the Philippine Council for Agricultural Research to support the progressive
development of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries for the nation. It was attached to the
Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources for administrative purposes. He provided
further support for the promotion of scientific research and invention with Presidential Decree
No. 49, s. 1972. This decree contains details on the protection of intellectual property for the
creator or publisher of the work. He established the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and
Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) under the Department of National Defense to
provide environmental protection and to utilize scientific knowledge to ensure the safety of the
people. (Presidential Decree No. 78, s. 1972).
In 1973, he created the Philippine National Oil Company to promote industrial and economic
development through effective and efficient use of energy sources. (Presidential Decree No. 334,
s. 1973).
In 1976, he enacted a law under Presidential Decree No. 1003-A, s. 1976 to establish the
National Academy of Science and Technology, which is composed of scientists with "innovative
achievement in the basic and applied sciences," to serve as a reservoir of scientific and
technological expertise for the country.
In 1978, he created a Task Force on the formulation of a national action program on science and
technology to assess policies and programs of science and technology. (Executive Order No.
512, s. 1978).  In his Fourteenth State of the Nation Address on July 23, 1979, he said that the
government invested funds and time in organizations for scientific research, such as the NSDB,
the Philippine Council for Agricultural Research and Resources, the Plant Breeding Institute, the
International Rice Research Institute, the Bureau of Plant Industry, and the Bureau of Forest
Products. While these projects have had breakthroughs, the market machinery did not adapt and
invest in this technology due to the high-risk front-end costs.
In 1979, he constituted the Health Sciences Center created by R.A. No. 5163 as an autonomous
member within the University of the Philippines System to improve the internal organization and
unity of leadership within its units. (Executive Order No. 519, s. 1979).
In 1980, he created the National Committee on Geological Sciences to advise government and
private entities on matters concerning development in geological sciences. (Executive Order No.
625, s. 1980)
In 1982, he reorganized the National Science Development Board and its agencies into a
National Science and Technology Authority to provide central direction and coordination of
scientific and technological research and development. (Executive Order No. 784, s. 1982). He
granted salary increases to the people with teaching positions in the Philippine Science High
School due to their necessity in the advancement of national science. (Executive Order No. 810,
s. 1982). He enacted a law on the completion of the National Agriculture and Life Sciences
Research Complex at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. (Executive Order No. 840,
s. 1982)
In 1986, he established the Mindanao and Visayas campuses of the Philippine Science High
School to encourage careers in science and technology and to be more accessible to the talented
students in the Mindanao and Visayas areas. (Executive Order No. 1090, s. 1986).

3. What does Aristotle say about the good life does it still stand in the contemporary world?
Aristotle is known as a philosopher and scientist. He has great contributions in the society. He is
also known for his quotable quotes. What does he say about the good life? Here is what Aristotle
says about the good life and if it still stands in the contemporary world.
According the Aristotle, happiness and having a good life is about virtue. He considers the end of
humans to be the good life. According to him, having a good life is having happiness or
prosperity which can be accomplished by living a life according to virtue which is achieved by
continually living in a virtuous manner or living with high moral standards.
This MUST still stand in the contemporary world because most people are being obsessed with
material things. For most people, having a good life is being rich with material possessions. They
miss to remember that happiness and having a good life is living a life that is consistent with
having high moral standards.
4. Choose one of the technologies listed below and provide the following information about
it:
a. Definition of the Technology
b. Types/Kinds (if there are) and representative examples
c. Procedure/s involved in the technology
d. Advantage of the technology
e. Disadvantage of the technology
f. Your personal reaction to the technology
A stem cell is a cell with the unique ability to develop into specialized cell types in the body. In
the future they may be used to replace cells and tissues that have been damaged or lost due to
disease. Our body is made up of many different types of cell. Most cells are specialized to
perform particular functions, such as red blood cell that carry oxygen around our bodies in the
blood, but they are unable to divide. Stem cells provide new cells for the body as it grows and
replace specialized cells that are damaged or lost. They have two unique properties that enable
them to do this:
 They can divide over and over again to produce new cells.
 As they divide, they can change into the other types of cell that make up the body. 
Different types of stem cell
There are three main types of stem cell:
 Embryonic stem cells - Embryonic stem cells supply new cells for an embryo as it
grows and develops into a baby. These stem cells are said to be pluripotent, which means
they can change into any cell in the body.
 Adult stem cells - Adult stem cells supply new cells as an organism grows and to replace
cells that get damaged. Adult stem cells are said to be multipotent, which means they can
only change into some cells in the body, not any cell, for example:
 Blood (or 'hematopoietic') stem cells can only replace the various types of
cells in the blood.
 Skin (or 'epithelial') stem cells provide the different types of cells that
make up our skin and hair.
 Induced pluripotent stem cells - Induced pluripotent stem cells, or ‘iPS cells’, are stem
cells that scientists make in the laboratory. ‘Induced’ means that they are made in the lab
by taking normal adult cells, like skin or blood cells, and reprogramming them to become
stem cells. Just like embryonic stem cells, they are pluripotent so they can develop into
any cell type.
Stem cells have several uses including:
Research– to help us understand the basic biology of how living things work and what happens
in different types of cell during disease.
Stem cell research
Research is looking to better understand the properties of stem cells so that we can:
  understand how our bodies grow and develop
 find ways of using stem cells to replace cells or tissues that have been damaged or lost.
 We can use stem cells to study how cells become specialized for specific functions in the
body, and what happens when this process goes wrong in disease.
 If we understand stem cell development, we may be able to replicate this process to
create new cells, tissues and organs.
 We can grow tissue and organ structures from stem cells, which can then be studied to
find out how they function and how they are affected by different drugs.
Therapy – to replace lost or damaged cells that our bodies can’t replace naturally.
Stem cell therapy
 Cells, tissues, and organs can sometimes be permanently damaged or lost by disease,
injury and genetic conditions.
 Stem cells may be one way of generating new cells that can then be transplanted into the
body to replace those that are damaged or lost.
 Adult stem cells are currently used to treat some conditions, for example:
 Blood stem cells are used to provide a source of healthy blood cells for people with some
blood conditions, such as thalassemia, and cancer patients who have lost their own blood
stem cells during treatment.
 Skin stem cells can be used to generate new skin for people with severe burns.
 Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an example of a disease where stem cells
could be used as a new form of treatment in the future:
 Some people with age-related macular degeneration lose their sight because cells in
the retina of the eye called retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells stop working.
 Scientists are using induced pluripotent stem cells to produce new RPE cells in the lab
that can then be put into a patient’s eye to replace the damaged cells.
 Stem cells could be used to generate new organs for use in transplants:
 Currently, damaged organs can be replaced by obtaining healthy organs from a donor,
however donated organs may be 'rejected' by the body as the immune system sees it as
something that is foreign.
 Induced pluripotent stem cells generated from the patient themselves could be used to
grow new organs that would have a lower risk of being rejected.
Advantages
Stem cells already have many applications for treating disease. Their potential to treat even more
diseases in the future means that scientists are working hard to learn about how stem cells
function and how they can treat some of the more serious diseases affecting the world.
Stem Cells and Human Development
Stem cells have enormous potential in health and medical research but to fully harness this
potential, scientists are studying how stem cells transform, or differentiate, into the diverse range
of specialized cells that make humans what they are today. Because diseases such as cancer or
conditions such as birth defects are thought to occur because of problems in the differentiation
process, an understanding of the development that happens in normal cells will help scientists
treat the developmental errors that can occur.
Stem Cells and Cell-Based Therapies
Another potential application of stem cell is to form cells and tissues for medical therapies.
Currently, it is donated organs and tissues that are substituted for damaged or dysfunctional ones.
Sadly, the number of people awaiting a transplant is much higher than the number of available
organs. Transplant waiting lists are enormous and many people die awaiting transplants. Stem
cells offer a viable source of replacement cells to treat diseases and can potentially reduce the
morbidity and mortality for those awaiting transplants. Some of the areas that stem cells can
benefit include:
 Parkinson's disease
 Type I diabetes
 Arthritis
 Burn victims
 Cardiovascular diseases
Potential to Reverse Diseases
By directing stem cells to differentiate into specialized cell types, there is the exciting possibility
to provide a renewable source of replacement cells for those suffering from diseases.
The potential to reverse diseases is also not a foreign one.
Heart Attack - For example, a patient who has suffered from a heart attack and sustained heart
damage could have the damaged tissue replaced by healthy new muscle cells.
Parkinson's Disease - The destruction of brain cells in conditions such as Parkinson's disease can
hopefully be reversed with the replacement of new, healthy, and functioning brain cells.
Genetic Defects - Even more promising is the potential to address genetic defects that are present
from birth by restoring function and health with the introduction of normal healthy cells that do
not have these defects.
Burn Victims
Burn victims tend to endure an enormous amount of pain from their wounds as well as
frustration from the challenges of healing. Instead of donor tissues being donated, stem cells
could be used to produce new and healthy tissues. This is essentially similar to therapies already
being used, such as bone marrow transplants, where stem cells create different specialized blood
cells.
Scientists aim to locate and remove specific stem cells from a tissue and then trigger them to
differentiate outside of the body before transplanting them back into the patient to replace
damaged tissues. In burn victims, a very small piece of the skin can be progressively grown,
allowing doctors to cover a burn that is often much larger than the original size of the skin piece.
Stem Cells and Drug Testing
Stem cells have an important benefit for the pharmaceutical field. New drugs can be tested on
stem cells to assess their safety before testing drugs on animal and human models. For example,
a cancer cell line could be created to test an anti-tumor drug. If the conditions can be perfectly
replicated, testing drugs could provide very accurate results.
The current benefits of stem cell usage are already well documented, and it is expected that
continued research will pave the way for new treatments. For those suffering from serious
diseases, stem cells offer hope for effective treatment or perhaps even a reversal of the disease.
Time will confirm the full success of stem cell therapies and continued research should teach us
more about using stem cells to treat debilitating medical conditions.
Disadvantages
There are several issues determining the long-term outcome of stem cell–based therapies,
including improvements in the survival, engraftment, proliferation, and regeneration of
transplanted cells. The genomic and epigenetic integrity of cell lines that have been
manipulated in vitro prior to transplantation play a pivotal role in the survival and clinical benefit
of stem cell therapy. Although stem cells possess extensive replicative capacity, immune
rejection of donor cells by the host immune system post-transplantation is a primary concern
(Negro et al, 2012). Recent studies have shown that the majority of donor cell death occurs in the
first hours to days after transplantation, which limits the efficacy and therapeutic potential of
stem cell–based therapies (Robey et al, 2008).
 Limitations on ASC ability to differentiate are still uncertain; currently thought to be
multi or unipotent.
 Cannot be grown for long periods of time in culture
 Usually a very small number in each tissue making them difficult to find and purify
 Currently there is no technology available to generate large quantities of stem cells in
culture
 Process to generate ESC lines is inefficient
 Unsure whether they would be rejected if used in transplants.
 Therapies using ESC avenues are largely new and much more research and testing is
needed
 If used directly from the ESC undifferentiated culture prep for tissue transplants, they can
cause tumors (teratomas) or cancer development
 Methods for ensured reproducibility and maintenance, as differentiated tissues are
not certain.
 Viruses are currently used to introduce embryonic genes and has been shown to cause
cancers in mouse studies  

Reaction
Stem cell technology is unique in that it possesses both diagnostic and therapeutic potential. iPS
cells and their derivatives have provided excellent in vitro models of disease processes.
Moreover, patient-specific iPS cell models will serve as an invaluable tool for drug discovery
and toxicology studies. The therapeutic potential of these cells to regenerate functional tissue and
replace damaged tissue has vast potential. Additionally, stem cell–based therapies may enhance
the body's own ability to repair itself. As previously mentioned, MSCs exert potent paracrine
effects that are thought to be beneficial. For these reasons, the potential of stem cells to cure
disease is virtually limitless. Nonetheless, major obstacles to safely implement these therapies
remain and must be systematically addressed. Most immediate among these is the identification
of stem cell populations that can be maintained and expanded in culture to provide the large
numbers needed to be therapeutically useful. Additionally, the potential for cancerous
transformation and immuno-logic rejection is largely unexplored. These issues highlight the
potential danger of implementing stem cell therapies before they have been adequately studied in
vitro and in vivo in animal models. More intensive characterization is required to avoid the
possible lethal complications of this type of therapy. Although the current therapeutic potential
of stem cell technology is in its infancy, basic research discoveries in the standardization of stem
cell derivation, culture, and differentiation techniques, together with improved transplantation,
engraftment, and survival strategies, will aid in the development of safer and more effective stem
cell–based therapies in the future.