Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. More information

Ratcliffe 2022 Clin Med (Lond)

From Bioblast
Publications in the MiPMap
Ratcliffe PJ (2022) Harveian Oration 2020: Elucidation of molecular oxygen sensing mechanisms in human cells: implications for medicine. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.ed.22.1.harv

» Clin Med (Lond) 22:23-33. PMID: 34921056 Open Access

Ratcliffe PJ (2022) Clin Med (Lond)

Abstract: Apart from giving an overview of the findings themselves and their role in physiological oxygen homeostasis, I'd like to highlight the twists and turns of the experimental work, in particular the way that knowledge builds on knowledge in unexpected ways. Abraham Flexner, the US educationist, wrote a famous essay in the early twentieth century on the ‘usefulness of useless knowledge’.1 I'd like to paraphrase Flexner by emphasising the ‘importance of incomplete knowledge’. Our politicians are impatient for the utility of knowledge, perhaps not unreasonably, and our editors, perhaps less reasonably, are so often concerned with its completeness. Of course, most in tonight's audience will know that neither qualification of knowledge is valid. But nevertheless, I wish to emphasise the concerns I have, in case, in the face of societal or government impatience, or even that of our own peers, we lose our way.

Bioblast editor: Gnaiger E


Labels:






MitoFit2022Hypoxia