Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
ANNUAL REVIEWS
Quick links to online content
Further
Copyright 1975. All rights reserved
VARIETY-THE SPICE OF
+1121
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
SCIENCE AS WELL AS OF LIFE The Disadvantages of Specialization Professor Alan C. Burton Department of Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Even the dogs may eat the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table; and in these days, when the rich in knowledge eat such specialized food at such separate tables, only the dogs hape a chance of a balanced diet. Sir Geoffrey Vickers'
I have been one of the fortunate dogs and I am sorry for the young physiologists of today, most of whom must sit at the separate tables, whether these are rich in knowledge or not. They must learn "more and more about less and less." By the accident of being born into Edwardian middle class England, the vicissi tudes of the economic state of my parents (my father was a dental surgeon, whose practice fluctuated with changes in suburban London), and the profound social changes of two World Wars, I have experienced the greatest variety of life styles; I have known family affluence (when I was eight my parents and six children had as many as five servants and lived in a 20-room house), as well as the insecurity of poverty and how a family must work together for survival, the New World as well as the Old, the prosperous twenties, and the Great Depression. I was educated under the extremes of education, from the stupidity of ultraclassical "private schools" (in the English sense) to modern grammar schools. My continuing education has been at London University and the Universities of Toronto, Rochester, New York, Pennsylvania, and my present University of Western Ontario. This variety has taught me that there is something to be learned from all kinds of people, that all types of education have some merits, and that there are many different ways of tackling problems in science. I think this great variety contributed to my development. Perhaps it influenced
my decision to pursue such a variety of disciplines in scholarship and research. My first research was an attempt to match the absorption bands of the major planets (Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune) in the laboratory; my latest has been an adventure in 'Preface to The Art of Judgment. Chapman & Hall, 1965.
2
BURTON
theoretical biology in the control of cellular division. In between I have written papers in physics on atomic nuclear structure, the superconductivity of metals at liquid helium temperatures, the heating of electrolytes in high-frequency fields, and odd subjects like the floating of mercury droplets on water. My introduction to the field of biological research was more or less accidental, in that I was trying to discover why workmen making "shortwave" (then down to 5 m) machines devel oped fever. Shortwaves were then used as a tool for producing artificial fever, so I went to conferences on this to tell physiologists and physicans why the tissues
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
became hotter.
A detailed list of the variety of my research problems in the more than 40 years that followed would be boring. They went from the study of animal heat exchanges, the mechanisms of temperature regulation, the control of peripheral blood flow, and the development of hemodynamic principles to the biophysics of the equilibrium of the wall of blood vessels and of the red blood cell, and to the biophysics of cellular membranes. The Second World War gave me the opportunity to learn of the fascination of applied physiology, of devis ing ways of obtaining objective and valid subjective data in the field, from design of life jackets and the flashing lights on them, to the best colors of life rafts for air-sea rescue. I enjoyed a chance to develop a "science of protective clothing" (which did not really exist before the war). I suppose there was a theme linking all this diversity; the desire to "put things in order" and my love of simple physical and mathematical analysis (what is this but the "short hand of logic") to create "model systems" of living behavior, which is often so much
more ingenious and much more successful than the devices of engineers. Ever since a colleague introduced me to it, I have treasured the description written by Francis Bacon of the mind of the scientist. It is engraved on the wall of our Health Sciences building. The Scientific Mind A Mind, Nimble and Versatile enough to catch the Resemblances of things, which is the chief point, and at the same time Steady enough to Fix and Discern their
Subtle Differences; endowed by Nature with the Desire to Seek, Patience to Doubt, Fondness to Meditate, Slowness to Assert, Readiness to Reconsider, Carefulness to Set in Order, and neither Affecting what is New nor Admiring what is Old, and Hating every kind of Imposture. Francis Bacon"
It has been my aspiration to live up to Bacon's description, which explains, perhaps, how anyone could so spread his efforts on such a variety of topics in science (resemblances of things). In the first published history of the Royal Society (the first 62 years of it) Thomas SpratS praised variety in science and academic goals in a delightfully quaint way "Francis Bacon. 1955. Selected writings on the interpretation of Nature, p. 151. New York: Random House. 'Sprat's book is not so much a history of the Society as an apology explaining the need for existence of the Society. (Sprat, T. London: Roy. Soc. 3rd. ed.)
1722.
The History of the Royal Society of London, p.
245.
VARIETY-THE SPICE OF SCIENCE
3
(this quotation hangs in the hall outside the office of our Biophysics Department). It makes a plea for variety in experiments and in scholarly activity. I paid an art student to illuminate the words printed here in capitals in the manner of the medieval monks. "It is stranger that we are not able to inculcate into the minds of many men, the necessity of that DISTINCTION of my Lord BACON'S, that there ought to be EXPERIMENTS of LIGHT, as well as of FRUIT. It is their usual word, WHAT SOLID GOOD WILL COME FROM THENCE? They are indeed to be commended for being so severe EXAC
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
TORS of GOODNESS. And it were to be wish'd, that they would not only exercise this vigour, about EXPERIMENTS, but on their own LIVES, and ACTIONS: that they would still question with themselves, in all that they do; WHAT SOLID GOOD WILL COME FROM THENCE? But they are to know, that in so large, and so various an ART as this of EXPERIMENTS, there are many degrees of usefulness: some may serve for real, and plain BENEFIT, without much DELIGHT: some for TEACHING without apparent PROFIT: some for LIGHT now, and for USE hereafter; some only for ORNAMENT, and CURIOSITY. If they will persist in contemning all EXPERIMENTS, except those which bring with them immediate GAIN, and a present HARVEST: they may as well cavil at the Providence of God, that He has not made all the seasons of the year, to be times of MOWING, REAPING, and VINTAGE."
I am well aware of my susceptibility to the charge that I have been a "Jack-of-all trades, master of none." In my defense I would borrow from Edna St. Vincent Millay (forgive the alteration). But Oh! my Friends, and Ah! my Foes It's been a lot of Fun.
I suppose that I have been unusually fortunate that it was possible for me to work on all these problems, and yet find the generous support that enabled me to do so.
I wonder if today any young scientists will be given such opportunities to be so general, rather than specialized, in their interest and researches. Most of them are doomed to stay in some restricted field of study. It is my contention that this is a great pity, that creativity in science (as in physiology) is likely to be discouraged, and that today's excessive specialization is likely to lead to impoverishment of ideas.
THE TREND TO ULTRASPECIALIZATION Perhaps ultraspecialization, for example in physiological research, is an inevitable consequence in modern laboratories of the increasing complexity of technical meth ods and of analysis by computer. As someone has wisely said, if one uses relatively simple appatatus to answer a question, the answer is likely to be a very complicated one. To obtain a simple set of answers, very complicated methods usually have to be employed. With the very impressive technical methods at our disposal, we drift into spending a great deal of time and money on accumulating mountains of data, even where any underlying idea worth pursuing may have been lacking. I spent many years serving on committees of grant-giving bodies and on Study Sections of the National Institutes of Health of the US. Applicants almost always requested
4
BURTON
12-channel recorders to report, simultaneously, 12 different physiological variables. I usually recommended that we give them instead a recorder with only, say, four channels, not because it cost less, but because the research would be likely to reach worthwhile new concepts much better with fewer channels. True, the 12-channeler might publish a more impressive article (to some readers). Probably the piles of data would be relegated to "data-storage" journal facilities, just as the data would be relegated to unused files in his own laboratory. But will any useful new idea emerge that would not better be supported by designing crucial experiments based on a
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
preconceived idea, and settling the point by using only one or two channels? My views were not popular. I have never forgotten a general lecture I heard many years ago on cancer research by the great Peyton Rous (of "Rous sarcoma" fame). He pointed out that while research required painstaking collation of reliable data, that was not enough to justify the effort to collect it. He illustrated this with the tale of a graduate student who was told by his supervising professor to decide for himself the problem in research that he (the graduate student) wished. A fter many months, and after taking up a great deal of the professor's time, the student had not made a decision. Finally the professor said, "All right, I will assign you a research problem. Cut off the tails of a thousand rats and analyze each of them for cholesterol." There is very little value in the most extensive and well-documented research, unless there is some idea behind it. With technical specialization this is apt to be forgotten.
A VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE The temptation for the technical specialist is to continue to accumulate data with the apparatus and techniques he has developed long after they have served their purpose in opening new fields and prompting new basic questions. New ideas in research come from asking ourselves simple, often quite naive questions. The more "expert" we become in a narrow field of knowledge, the less likely we are to be willing to ask such questions, not only in other fields, but particularly in our specialized field. The diffidence of the "professional" is natural, since asking a "stupid question" might suggest that, with all his detailed knowledge, he lacks a grasp of fundamental principles. A few years ago I was asked to address the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the United Kingdom at their annual meeting in Toronto, on the role of biophysics in medicine. I chose the title " A Virtue of Ignorance," with the subheading "A Biophysicist Asks Simple Questions About Medicine and Medi cal Research," and gave several examples. One of these was that every medical student is taught the location of the auscultory areas on the chest where the stetho scope should be placed to best hear the various heart sounds originating in the four valves of the heart (aortic. pulmonary. mitral. and tricuspid) at the time of their closure in the cardiac cycle. Yet. if a transparency showing the anatomical position of these four valves is superimposed over the textbook picture of the position of these auscultory areas. it appears that they are nowhere near the points closest to the origin of the sounds. if it is assumed that these travel in straight lines through the
VARIETY-THE SPICE OF SCIENCE
5
tissues. My point is that if Dr. J. Faber. who was a graduate student with us at the time, and I had been "experts" in cardiology, it is very unlikely that we would have asked the question, "How do the heart sounds travel from their point of origin to the stethoscope of the physician?" The "experts" were sure they knew the answer. Dr. Faber provided the unexpected answer very conclusively by his research. After the heart sounds reach the stethoscope head they are travelling as sounds, but in most of the circuitous pathway from the heart valves these are not sounds at all! Instead they are transverse vibrations, travelling, with much less velocity than
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
would sounds, over the surfaces of blood vessels or ventricular walls, to emerge where these walls are in contact with the thorax. From the auscultory areas the
vibrations travel over the chest like ripples on a pond. Surely this fundamental knowledge should be the basis of understanding how the best places to hear specific heart sounds or murmurs (e.g. the murmur of patent ductus) in diseased states are . often in unexpected locations. Variety in training and interest in physiology and biophysics can pay dividends in leading one to ask such simple questions.
SPECIALIZATION IN PHYSIOLOGY I suppose it is because the majority of departments of physiology on this continent are in faculties of medicine, and draw their financial support from such faculties, that there has been undue emphasis on mammalian physiology in teaching and research. Physiologists should never forget that the normal behavior of cells and organisms, and its mechanisms, in the whole field of living things, is their province. While the application to the advance of medical science might justify a special interest in mammals. so much of the understanding we need may come from study of lower forms.
What does he know of mammals, who only mammals knows?
It is not difficult to find departments of physiology in which nearly every member
of the faculty is expected to join in a concerted research on some rather narrow branch of physiology, even though the teaching of the curriculum to medical stu dents requires that many of them have to teach other topics in physiology. Not only is this likely to lead to poor teaching (in my opinion enthusiasm for the topic is about the most important ingredient in good teaching), but also to an eventual decline in the quality and originality of research in such departments, even in their own specialty.
"CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE?" THE RISE OF ULTRASPECIALIZED RESEARCH INSTITUTES Neglect of the virtues of variety is seen in its most extreme form in the proliferation
in recent years of specialized research institutes, devoted to intensive pursuit of narrow goals. Even within a narrow field (e.g. cancer research) one finds restric tion in the various institutes to pursuit of research exclusively based on one particu lar concept (e.g. virology, or disturbed biochemistry, or genetics). Some years ago in an attempt to place one of the PhD's of our department in a cancer institute, I
6
BURTON
tried to persuade the director, a friend of mine, that he should have someone in his institute that knew other ways than molecular biochemistry to attack the problem of cancer. I well remember his response: "Alan, I may be wrong, but I decided to put all my eggs in one basket." I did not think at the time of the apt reply, which would be to quote what I hope may become known as "Burton's Law." This is: ''However many hens sit on however many eggs for however long, nothing creative will result unless the eggs are fertilized. " Fertilization only occurs when there is interac
tion between different kinds of fowL
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
We all resort to "defense mechanisms," as the psychologists put it. C. P. Snow, in his famous Two Cultures, pointed out one difference in attitudes between scien tists and their colleagues in the humanities. Most scientists are a little ashamed that they do not know more history, philosophy, or sociology. In contrast, some human ists are actually proud that they know little about science. Ultraspecialization and compartmentalization of science, including physiology, has generated subcultures, and the same defense mechanisms are seen in some. of the ultraspecialists. For example, I heard a public lecture from a very eminent molecular biologist (very eminent indeed; perhaps one should call him a biophysicist). At the end of the lecture he was asked what seemed to most of us a very relevant question. He replied with apparent pride: " I am interested only in proteins." I regret that this was not greeted with derisive laughtt
ANNUAL REVIEWS
Quick links to online content
Further
Copyright 1975. All rights reserved
VARIETY-THE SPICE OF
+1121
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
SCIENCE AS WELL AS OF LIFE The Disadvantages of Specialization Professor Alan C. Burton Department of Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Even the dogs may eat the crumbs which fall from the rich man's table; and in these days, when the rich in knowledge eat such specialized food at such separate tables, only the dogs hape a chance of a balanced diet. Sir Geoffrey Vickers'
I have been one of the fortunate dogs and I am sorry for the young physiologists of today, most of whom must sit at the separate tables, whether these are rich in knowledge or not. They must learn "more and more about less and less." By the accident of being born into Edwardian middle class England, the vicissi tudes of the economic state of my parents (my father was a dental surgeon, whose practice fluctuated with changes in suburban London), and the profound social changes of two World Wars, I have experienced the greatest variety of life styles; I have known family affluence (when I was eight my parents and six children had as many as five servants and lived in a 20-room house), as well as the insecurity of poverty and how a family must work together for survival, the New World as well as the Old, the prosperous twenties, and the Great Depression. I was educated under the extremes of education, from the stupidity of ultraclassical "private schools" (in the English sense) to modern grammar schools. My continuing education has been at London University and the Universities of Toronto, Rochester, New York, Pennsylvania, and my present University of Western Ontario. This variety has taught me that there is something to be learned from all kinds of people, that all types of education have some merits, and that there are many different ways of tackling problems in science. I think this great variety contributed to my development. Perhaps it influenced
my decision to pursue such a variety of disciplines in scholarship and research. My first research was an attempt to match the absorption bands of the major planets (Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune) in the laboratory; my latest has been an adventure in 'Preface to The Art of Judgment. Chapman & Hall, 1965.
2
BURTON
theoretical biology in the control of cellular division. In between I have written papers in physics on atomic nuclear structure, the superconductivity of metals at liquid helium temperatures, the heating of electrolytes in high-frequency fields, and odd subjects like the floating of mercury droplets on water. My introduction to the field of biological research was more or less accidental, in that I was trying to discover why workmen making "shortwave" (then down to 5 m) machines devel oped fever. Shortwaves were then used as a tool for producing artificial fever, so I went to conferences on this to tell physiologists and physicans why the tissues
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
became hotter.
A detailed list of the variety of my research problems in the more than 40 years that followed would be boring. They went from the study of animal heat exchanges, the mechanisms of temperature regulation, the control of peripheral blood flow, and the development of hemodynamic principles to the biophysics of the equilibrium of the wall of blood vessels and of the red blood cell, and to the biophysics of cellular membranes. The Second World War gave me the opportunity to learn of the fascination of applied physiology, of devis ing ways of obtaining objective and valid subjective data in the field, from design of life jackets and the flashing lights on them, to the best colors of life rafts for air-sea rescue. I enjoyed a chance to develop a "science of protective clothing" (which did not really exist before the war). I suppose there was a theme linking all this diversity; the desire to "put things in order" and my love of simple physical and mathematical analysis (what is this but the "short hand of logic") to create "model systems" of living behavior, which is often so much
more ingenious and much more successful than the devices of engineers. Ever since a colleague introduced me to it, I have treasured the description written by Francis Bacon of the mind of the scientist. It is engraved on the wall of our Health Sciences building. The Scientific Mind A Mind, Nimble and Versatile enough to catch the Resemblances of things, which is the chief point, and at the same time Steady enough to Fix and Discern their
Subtle Differences; endowed by Nature with the Desire to Seek, Patience to Doubt, Fondness to Meditate, Slowness to Assert, Readiness to Reconsider, Carefulness to Set in Order, and neither Affecting what is New nor Admiring what is Old, and Hating every kind of Imposture. Francis Bacon"
It has been my aspiration to live up to Bacon's description, which explains, perhaps, how anyone could so spread his efforts on such a variety of topics in science (resemblances of things). In the first published history of the Royal Society (the first 62 years of it) Thomas SpratS praised variety in science and academic goals in a delightfully quaint way "Francis Bacon. 1955. Selected writings on the interpretation of Nature, p. 151. New York: Random House. 'Sprat's book is not so much a history of the Society as an apology explaining the need for existence of the Society. (Sprat, T. London: Roy. Soc. 3rd. ed.)
1722.
The History of the Royal Society of London, p.
245.
VARIETY-THE SPICE OF SCIENCE
3
(this quotation hangs in the hall outside the office of our Biophysics Department). It makes a plea for variety in experiments and in scholarly activity. I paid an art student to illuminate the words printed here in capitals in the manner of the medieval monks. "It is stranger that we are not able to inculcate into the minds of many men, the necessity of that DISTINCTION of my Lord BACON'S, that there ought to be EXPERIMENTS of LIGHT, as well as of FRUIT. It is their usual word, WHAT SOLID GOOD WILL COME FROM THENCE? They are indeed to be commended for being so severe EXAC
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
TORS of GOODNESS. And it were to be wish'd, that they would not only exercise this vigour, about EXPERIMENTS, but on their own LIVES, and ACTIONS: that they would still question with themselves, in all that they do; WHAT SOLID GOOD WILL COME FROM THENCE? But they are to know, that in so large, and so various an ART as this of EXPERIMENTS, there are many degrees of usefulness: some may serve for real, and plain BENEFIT, without much DELIGHT: some for TEACHING without apparent PROFIT: some for LIGHT now, and for USE hereafter; some only for ORNAMENT, and CURIOSITY. If they will persist in contemning all EXPERIMENTS, except those which bring with them immediate GAIN, and a present HARVEST: they may as well cavil at the Providence of God, that He has not made all the seasons of the year, to be times of MOWING, REAPING, and VINTAGE."
I am well aware of my susceptibility to the charge that I have been a "Jack-of-all trades, master of none." In my defense I would borrow from Edna St. Vincent Millay (forgive the alteration). But Oh! my Friends, and Ah! my Foes It's been a lot of Fun.
I suppose that I have been unusually fortunate that it was possible for me to work on all these problems, and yet find the generous support that enabled me to do so.
I wonder if today any young scientists will be given such opportunities to be so general, rather than specialized, in their interest and researches. Most of them are doomed to stay in some restricted field of study. It is my contention that this is a great pity, that creativity in science (as in physiology) is likely to be discouraged, and that today's excessive specialization is likely to lead to impoverishment of ideas.
THE TREND TO ULTRASPECIALIZATION Perhaps ultraspecialization, for example in physiological research, is an inevitable consequence in modern laboratories of the increasing complexity of technical meth ods and of analysis by computer. As someone has wisely said, if one uses relatively simple appatatus to answer a question, the answer is likely to be a very complicated one. To obtain a simple set of answers, very complicated methods usually have to be employed. With the very impressive technical methods at our disposal, we drift into spending a great deal of time and money on accumulating mountains of data, even where any underlying idea worth pursuing may have been lacking. I spent many years serving on committees of grant-giving bodies and on Study Sections of the National Institutes of Health of the US. Applicants almost always requested
4
BURTON
12-channel recorders to report, simultaneously, 12 different physiological variables. I usually recommended that we give them instead a recorder with only, say, four channels, not because it cost less, but because the research would be likely to reach worthwhile new concepts much better with fewer channels. True, the 12-channeler might publish a more impressive article (to some readers). Probably the piles of data would be relegated to "data-storage" journal facilities, just as the data would be relegated to unused files in his own laboratory. But will any useful new idea emerge that would not better be supported by designing crucial experiments based on a
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
preconceived idea, and settling the point by using only one or two channels? My views were not popular. I have never forgotten a general lecture I heard many years ago on cancer research by the great Peyton Rous (of "Rous sarcoma" fame). He pointed out that while research required painstaking collation of reliable data, that was not enough to justify the effort to collect it. He illustrated this with the tale of a graduate student who was told by his supervising professor to decide for himself the problem in research that he (the graduate student) wished. A fter many months, and after taking up a great deal of the professor's time, the student had not made a decision. Finally the professor said, "All right, I will assign you a research problem. Cut off the tails of a thousand rats and analyze each of them for cholesterol." There is very little value in the most extensive and well-documented research, unless there is some idea behind it. With technical specialization this is apt to be forgotten.
A VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE The temptation for the technical specialist is to continue to accumulate data with the apparatus and techniques he has developed long after they have served their purpose in opening new fields and prompting new basic questions. New ideas in research come from asking ourselves simple, often quite naive questions. The more "expert" we become in a narrow field of knowledge, the less likely we are to be willing to ask such questions, not only in other fields, but particularly in our specialized field. The diffidence of the "professional" is natural, since asking a "stupid question" might suggest that, with all his detailed knowledge, he lacks a grasp of fundamental principles. A few years ago I was asked to address the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the United Kingdom at their annual meeting in Toronto, on the role of biophysics in medicine. I chose the title " A Virtue of Ignorance," with the subheading "A Biophysicist Asks Simple Questions About Medicine and Medi cal Research," and gave several examples. One of these was that every medical student is taught the location of the auscultory areas on the chest where the stetho scope should be placed to best hear the various heart sounds originating in the four valves of the heart (aortic. pulmonary. mitral. and tricuspid) at the time of their closure in the cardiac cycle. Yet. if a transparency showing the anatomical position of these four valves is superimposed over the textbook picture of the position of these auscultory areas. it appears that they are nowhere near the points closest to the origin of the sounds. if it is assumed that these travel in straight lines through the
VARIETY-THE SPICE OF SCIENCE
5
tissues. My point is that if Dr. J. Faber. who was a graduate student with us at the time, and I had been "experts" in cardiology, it is very unlikely that we would have asked the question, "How do the heart sounds travel from their point of origin to the stethoscope of the physician?" The "experts" were sure they knew the answer. Dr. Faber provided the unexpected answer very conclusively by his research. After the heart sounds reach the stethoscope head they are travelling as sounds, but in most of the circuitous pathway from the heart valves these are not sounds at all! Instead they are transverse vibrations, travelling, with much less velocity than
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
would sounds, over the surfaces of blood vessels or ventricular walls, to emerge where these walls are in contact with the thorax. From the auscultory areas the
vibrations travel over the chest like ripples on a pond. Surely this fundamental knowledge should be the basis of understanding how the best places to hear specific heart sounds or murmurs (e.g. the murmur of patent ductus) in diseased states are . often in unexpected locations. Variety in training and interest in physiology and biophysics can pay dividends in leading one to ask such simple questions.
SPECIALIZATION IN PHYSIOLOGY I suppose it is because the majority of departments of physiology on this continent are in faculties of medicine, and draw their financial support from such faculties, that there has been undue emphasis on mammalian physiology in teaching and research. Physiologists should never forget that the normal behavior of cells and organisms, and its mechanisms, in the whole field of living things, is their province. While the application to the advance of medical science might justify a special interest in mammals. so much of the understanding we need may come from study of lower forms.
What does he know of mammals, who only mammals knows?
It is not difficult to find departments of physiology in which nearly every member
of the faculty is expected to join in a concerted research on some rather narrow branch of physiology, even though the teaching of the curriculum to medical stu dents requires that many of them have to teach other topics in physiology. Not only is this likely to lead to poor teaching (in my opinion enthusiasm for the topic is about the most important ingredient in good teaching), but also to an eventual decline in the quality and originality of research in such departments, even in their own specialty.
"CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE?" THE RISE OF ULTRASPECIALIZED RESEARCH INSTITUTES Neglect of the virtues of variety is seen in its most extreme form in the proliferation
in recent years of specialized research institutes, devoted to intensive pursuit of narrow goals. Even within a narrow field (e.g. cancer research) one finds restric tion in the various institutes to pursuit of research exclusively based on one particu lar concept (e.g. virology, or disturbed biochemistry, or genetics). Some years ago in an attempt to place one of the PhD's of our department in a cancer institute, I
6
BURTON
tried to persuade the director, a friend of mine, that he should have someone in his institute that knew other ways than molecular biochemistry to attack the problem of cancer. I well remember his response: "Alan, I may be wrong, but I decided to put all my eggs in one basket." I did not think at the time of the apt reply, which would be to quote what I hope may become known as "Burton's Law." This is: ''However many hens sit on however many eggs for however long, nothing creative will result unless the eggs are fertilized. " Fertilization only occurs when there is interac
tion between different kinds of fowL
Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1975.37:1-13. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by Dokuz Eylul University on 11/06/14. For personal use only.
We all resort to "defense mechanisms," as the psychologists put it. C. P. Snow, in his famous Two Cultures, pointed out one difference in attitudes between scien tists and their colleagues in the humanities. Most scientists are a little ashamed that they do not know more history, philosophy, or sociology. In contrast, some human ists are actually proud that they know little about science. Ultraspecialization and compartmentalization of science, including physiology, has generated subcultures, and the same defense mechanisms are seen in some. of the ultraspecialists. For example, I heard a public lecture from a very eminent molecular biologist (very eminent indeed; perhaps one should call him a biophysicist). At the end of the lecture he was asked what seemed to most of us a very relevant question. He replied with apparent pride: " I am interested only in proteins." I regret that this was not greeted with derisive laughtt
