There are two quotes worth noting, one from the work on DNA
itself and the second from the folks who brought us Quantum Mechanics.
First, there is a quote from the book by Jusdon on DNA. In
Judson there is a quote (p 93):
“It is also a good rule not to put too much confidence in
the observational results that are put forward until they are confirmed by
theory.” Sir Arthur Eddington wrote in 1934: his paradoxical inversion of the
inductive system as preached from Bacon to Russell has become an epigraph for
the latter day recension of the scientific method as practices.
The second is a quote from a discussion on Quantum Mechanics
by Gribbin. From Gribbin (pp 139-140) we have:
At one point Einstein had commented: “It is quite wrong to
try founding a theory on observable magnitudes alone. It is the theory which
decides what we can observe.”
In both cases there is the imperative to ultimately put all
data in the context of a world view, a model of reality that links inputs and
outputs, and which can become both the language of the very concepts and the
sounding board upon which measurements are made.
All too often we see researchers just dumping a ton of new
genes and arguing that they are causative. On the other hand we have detailed
pathway models demonstrating cause and effect. Yet the discoverers of the new
gene seem never to place them in a context. They are at best correlative, and
most likely nor causative.
References:
Judson, H., The Eighth Day of Creation, Touchstone (New
York) 1979.
Gribbin, J., Erwin Schrodinger and the Quantum Revolution,
Wiley (New York) 2013.
Posts
