The role of technology in creative biologic research.

Abstract

Science progresses through the symbiotic interaction of hypothesis and observation, occasionally spiced by serendipity. Its important truths are validated and verified by reproducible experimentation. In particular, it is important to appreciate that extrapolation beyond the range of measurements may not give true answers even in physics, notwithstanding that physical laws are much simpler than those which govern complex biologic phenomena. Thus, repeated experimental verification of Newton's laws of mechanics, which are equally applicable to planetary motion or to a stone dropped from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, provided no insight into the laws governing the behavior of atomic or subatomic particles or of particles with velocities approaching that of light. New truths become evident when new tools become available—the interferometer, electron diffraction apparatus, radiation detectors, particle accelerators—the list seems endless. On occasion, the tool comes first as a result of a serendipitous discovery. In other cases, the tools are developed in a response to a perceived need. Sometimes the tools are highly abstract, for example, a mathematical development such as nonEuclidean geometry. They can be as inexpensive as a pocket calculator or as costly as a giant accelerator or a space probe that takes man to the moon and, perhaps, some day to outer space. An example of a beautifully simple tool that has found application in many different areas of