Science vs Medical research

January 21, 2011

Medical researchers have the job of testing things that can't be determined by a

study with just one case. The effects in the body are complex and hard to

isolate. " you can't go by one case " is the motto amongst those facing such

challenges.

Science, on the other had, has moved forward when someone could NOT dismiss just

one troubling case! Everyone agreed with the authorities at the time that

objects fell at speeds proportionate to their weight..a 10 lb weight fell 10

times faster than a 1 lb weight,according to accepted belief. Gallileo dropped

two such weights and they hit the ground..at the same time. This was one

troublesome case. He was in big trouble for it, too.

Newton's Laws of motion seemed to apply everywhere. Well almost. Planetary

motion was not fully explained .. seems there was a tiny difference in the

predicted motion versus the actual motion. Written off as experimental error,

finally more accurate instruments showed that experimental error could not

explain it away..it was real. Relativity was the result, it came from this " one

odd case " .

When we see virus disappear in lab tests at safe electrical current levels, we

are looking at that one case that defies everything. Suspicion of tampering,

etc descends to try to explain it, since experimental error will not nearly

cover the dramatic results we are seeing both in the formal lab studies (see our

files) and the people here doing this every day.

Imagine if science were to say, well, we got the orbit right less the " fudge

factor " . Or a banker say, " the books balanced, except for a dollar " (how do we

know it's a dollar, or is it really a billion dollars, or if the orbit is off by

a thousand miles or an inch, if we do not understand what is causing unexplained

variation?)

We can't go by one case, but that does not mean we should ignore it, either.

That is the thing I fault them with.

bG

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