physics hubris

From: Dawsonzhu@aol.com
Date: Thu Apr 05 2001 - 20:21:16 EDT

  • Next message: Moorad Alexanian: "Re: preposterous"

    << But it is true that the people who did big
     things in biology were physicists, viz., Schrodinger, Delbruck, etc. >>

    Moorad,

    Watson was a biochemist and Crick was an engineer. Mendel was
    the first geneticist.

    My training was also in physics, but lets be realistic.
    The only reason that a physicist can contribute substrantially to structural
    biology is because many hours have been spent in the laboratory by
    the biologists groping away at an incomprehensible system. By the time
    the biologists and biochemists have narrowed down the list of possibilties,
    found ways to isolate different parts of the system, and package it neatly
    for the physicist to do his/her "experiment", a lot of tedious foot work has
    already been done. Our work rest on the struggle of our fellow scientists.

    Physicists can and do contribute substantially to biology, but we would do
    well to recognize that we are the servants, not the masters of this field.

    by Grace alone do we proceed,
    Wayne



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Apr 05 2001 - 20:21:39 EDT