Simple, Upstream, and Decisive: A Heuristic for Medical Progress

[apsec112]

https://www.sarah-constantin.org/blog/2018/1/14/simple-upstream-and-decisive-a-heuristic-for-medical-progress

[untilHellbanned]

Molecular biologist professor at a med school here. This is what people are already doing. This reads as someone who doesn't know the field very well.

[aeorgnoieang → untilHellbanned]

> This is what people are already doing.

Is that what everyone is doing? In molecular biology? In medicine more broadly?

From the last paragraph:

> If some approaches to cancer research are much more likely to work than others, but the scientific community systematically favors the unsuccessful approaches, then the difficulty of curing cancer isn’t just a lack of low-hanging fruit, it’s a strategic problem.

[untilHellbanned → aeorgnoieang]

> the scientific community systematically favors the unsuccessful approaches

The scientific community doesn't systematically favor unsuccessful approaches. Again, if the author was in the field they would know that's not true.

[cpburns2009]

I complained yesterday that a lack of contrast in text makes it hard to read. This blog has to be the worst offender I've seen. It not only uses grey text on white, but it also uses opacity to render the top navigation nigh invisible.