Theoretical Probes

Abstract

A traditional drawback of biological experimentation is a general empirical attitude, where countless observations are at best discussed within the framework of qualitative models loaded with circular logic, unjustified opinions, and circumstantial evidence. Confidence in the data or in their interpretation, as well as direction for future work, are usually sought through an endless literature search, which is aimed at generating a partial or general consensus among investigators who use similar probes and similar animal models (without any concern for biases or systematic errors). No attempt is made either to analytically explain an experimental observation from basic physical principles, or to develop within quantitative models numerical predictions for all relevant observables, which can then be tested experimentally. Indeed, it is such a feedback between theory and experimentation that has made possible the technological and scientific revolutions of our time, from the splitting of the atom, to human exploration of the solar system, to computer automation.