The quality of medical science.
Is the quality of science aimed at understanding and treating disease inferior to more basic investigations of basic biology, or does the different quality of medical science reflect a distinct nature? This duality in the meaning of quality is central to any critique of the quality of medical science. The nature of medical science, which deals with the dysfunction of integrated genetic, epigenetic, environmental, or stochastic phenomenon, is distinct from that of basic science which seeks to describe discrete biological processes. In physical sciences it is generally accepted that there are practical boundaries between disciplines such as quantum physics, thermodynamics, and chemistry even though, in theory, such investigations are related. In meteorology, the development of chaos theory establishes that there are even theoretical limits to the ability to predict large scale processes from their essential, constituent processes. So too, the quality of medical science may be distinct from that of basic biology.
Ledley
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Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.
D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards; D012586:Science / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*