Open Communication

Bacon ends “New Atlantis” with the Father of Salomon’s House telling the traveler that they should go and tell other nations about their isolated and unknown civilization, a place that has been kept secret since the beginning of its existence. This ends the story with the Bacconian idea that knowledge should be shared. If the people of Bensalem had created a utopian society that was perfect in everyway then it should be shared with other nations so everyone can live in a perfect world. His ideas about sharing information later reappears with the creation of the Royal Society, a place devoted the exploration of the sciences. Bacon understood that to make advancements in any way, shape or form, the more people that know about it and can contribute to it the better. Nearly all of the most famous and important scientific discoveries were not the result of a single person but of numerous people, each contributing little pieces of the puzzle.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” provides evidence for why scientific exploration is not something that should not be done alone. Aylmer, even though considered a scientific genius, ends up killing his own wife in an experiment gone wrong. Aylmer isolates himself in his laboratory with Aminadab who was “incapable of comprehending a single principle,” but “he executed all the details of his master’s experiments” (Hawthorne 89). With no one to question his concoction to remove the birthmark on his wife’s cheek, or the ethical issues behind it, Aylmer poisoned his wife.
It is clear that sharing information is important to discovery and learning. I believe that working together should be encouraged, especially in a collegiate atmosphere. By working together students can get more out of their work.