A bio professor of mine described the field as being like “the ancient Greeks trying to reverse engineer extraterrestrial technology.”
Biology does not work the way humans design things. It’s not one part one function. It’s all parts some functions to varying and often dynamic degrees, a web of interrelationships that is itself in constant flux. It makes us look like cave men disassembling a UFO.
Pharmaceuticals is basically “we throw this molecule in and it seems to do that.” Sometimes we can divine some cause and effect understanding but it’s always surface level and incomplete. How SSRIs supposedly work for depression comes to mind as an example of such an oversimplification.
Biology does not work the way humans design things. It’s not one part one function. It’s all parts some functions to varying and often dynamic degrees, a web of interrelationships that is itself in constant flux. It makes us look like cave men disassembling a UFO.
Pharmaceuticals is basically “we throw this molecule in and it seems to do that.” Sometimes we can divine some cause and effect understanding but it’s always surface level and incomplete. How SSRIs supposedly work for depression comes to mind as an example of such an oversimplification.