The prince and the professor: Science is worth the effort

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7470.859-a

BMJ 2004;329:859 (9 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7470.859-a

Letter

The prince and the professor

Science is worth the effort

EDITOR—I write in response to Baum's personal view.¹ Asa doctor struggling to learn the art of molecular biology (throughwhich doctors and scientists seek to understand illnesses anddevelop new treatments), I can attest to the huge complexityof the subject. Science is difficult. Science requires greateffort on the part of those who wish to understand it.

Because it is so difficult, I fully understand the human temptationto seek understanding of the world's mysteries in a more intuitive,simpler way. Alas, such over-simplifications only reveal mirages.Medical science, like all technologies, relies on the cold analysisof hard data: would we have mobile phones and spaceships ifphysicists had ignored the facts in front of them?

Professor Baum

In contrast with professional scientists, most of us, the princeand his defenders included, do not have the ability, training,skills, or years of effort fully to understand the complexitiesof science. Contradiction of scientific research, without thefoundation of extensive scientific education is prejudiced folly.

Arrogant are those, whoever they are, who discount the lengthyapplication of powerful scientific brains, because they areunable to understand the complexities of the subject. Factsare facts, however hard to grasp.

Luke Devey, MRC/RCSEd clinical research training fellow

Tissue Injury and Repair Group, MRC Centre for Inflammation Research, Medical School 6th Floor, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG devey{at}doctors.org.uk

Competing interests: None declared.