Saturday, August 10, 2013

How Science Works

Via skepticism, a continuous challenging of existing paradigms, orthodoxies, doctrines, etc., and never once settling.

13 comments:

dmarks said...

Will, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, the Vatican of the 16th Century, Al Gore, and the Institute for Creation Research would take major issues with what you just said.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And they'd shut me up if they could, I'm certain.

BB-Idaho said...

If science is that shaky, it is surprising the A-bomb worked!

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

It worked and we're always coming to better understandings as to why and how to do it better.......Probably a more illustrative example would be heart disease. For decades we thought that the number one culprit (in addition to family history) was cholesterol and now we know that that was more or less wrong (it is inflammation). We (the public) have to be significantly more open on this stuff.

BB-Idaho said...

Humans manufacture 75% of their cholesterol and it performs some
vital cellular biology. Then there is the good and the bad variety.
It is confusing and even some physicians sway with the changing
perceptions. I agree it would be fair to consider medicine not a fully developed science, but there
are some amazing discoveries ongoing..life cycles of viruses
for example as well as better understanding of brain chemistries. Hopefully, medical
science is beyond the 'phlogiston' stage.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And from what I can gather, these Statin Meds are probably (for the vast majority) a hell of a lot worse for us than eggs over easy.

BB-Idaho said...

Eggs got beat up by the medical folks for years, but now they are back in favor. I eat breakfast out 3-5 times a week and love eggs; scrambled, over, omelet.
High protein/vitamins, low calories. (but Dr. still has me on low dose statins). There are studies that show folks with high cholesterol
actually live longer. IMO, medical
science is clouded a bit by the fact that humans vary a lot in their physiology (and from mice,
where much of the research is conducted)

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

I'm a vegetarian but if I wasn't, I'd probably eat 'em from time to time, too.

dmarks said...

BB said: "Humans manufacture 75% of their cholesterol"

And yet, humans manufacture 100% of their automobiles. There is something quite interesting in this 25% difference.

BB-Idaho said...

The average human liver synthesizes
75 % of their cholesterol. Among other things it is the sole precursor to
the steroidal hormones. The other 25% is cholesterol consumed in food intake. While we note that
humans DO manufacture 100% of their automobiles, I didn't manufacture mine. If I did, it sure wouldn't run!

dmarks said...

Humans manufacture 100% of automobiles, but not 100% of humans manufacture automobiles.

Products like the Ford Escort and Chevy Vega prove that of those humans who have manufactured automobiles, they weren't 100% there during the process.

BB-Idaho said...

dmarks, I will have to wait for you to better explain the occurance, biochemistry and physiological effect regarding cholesterol.

dmarks said...

It is going to be a long wait, BB. 100% of infinity.