Curation is Uniquely Distinguished by the Historical Exploratory Ties that Bind
Author and Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
The description and definition of curation has been introduced in a Forward to Series A: e-Books on Cardiovascular Diseases, Volume Two, by Dr. Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, the Founder of Leaders in Pharmaceutical Business Intelligence’s Scientific Journal http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com, acting as Curator, Co-Curator, and e-Publishing Article Architecture Designer and, chiefly, Editor-in-Chief of a Five e-Series in BioMed,
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/
Forward to Volume Two
Volume Two: Cardiovascular Original Research: Cases in Methodology Design for Content Co-Curation
Curation is explained by it being contrasted with the Art of Scientific Creation, both are expored below by examples.
Part 1: The Scientific Creation
I shall try to identify the important features and criteria that contribute to scientific curation of medical, biological, and pharmaceutical research, including structural and functional content from the sciences of anatomy, physiology, physics and chemistry.
The principles that I seek to realized is a foundation in the body of knowledge that precedes the discovery or innovation. Is the discovery essential, but unnoticed because of unlinkings to prior established concepts. This is extremely difficult to cull out, but it has had a recurrent history. It might be easiest to refer to examples in physics, such as, the unique Nobel Prize discovery of pseudo-crystals that has had an impact on materials science. But actually, in the history of mathematics, astronomy, and physics, and later in anatomy and physiology, we have an “audit trail” in writings from the Hellenistic period, interrupted by the dark ages and the Bubonic Plague, and a reawakening in the period preceding and through the enlightenment and reformation. This carried significant risks for great thinkers in a society that changes slowly, and with repeated interruptions throughout all periods by wars. One might say that this has no relevance to curation, but repeatedly, libraries and museums preserved discovery that could be re-examined later. Thus, we can’t discard the brilliance of Hipparchos, whose influence on Ptolemy is known, and who discovered the centrality of the Sun to our universe, even though the extent to which he accepted societal belief in astrology is at best limited. The work of Copernicus later was under great duress, but gave precedence to Galileo and Newton. The Hellenistic period also gave us Euclid and Archimedes, which was critical for the development of mathematics and measurement, and El Gibr’ gave us algebra. In his time, Archimedes found no-one who he could share his ideas with other than Conon, who died too early, but he was later read by Omar Kayyam, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo and Newton. The Greek diagrams used by Archimedes of Syracuse were a major contribution to cognition and inference. The Archimedes Palimpses, which were given to us as by the priest-scribe, Ioannes Myronas in 1229, is historically a major contribution revealing Archimedes work in the Method. There is the center of gravity of a triangle, and the treatise on Balancing Planes, from which he deduces that if you place two objects on a balance on which the distances are movable from the fulcrum, the distance of the lighter object is five times the distance of the heavier object. The rule is that weights balance when they are reciprocal to their distance. Then there is Fermat’s Last Theorem, unsolved problem for centuries since the seventeenth century.The theorem state that while the square of a whole number can can be broken down into two other squares of whole numbers the same cannot be done for cubes or any higher power. The theorem took seven years to write, with a ynother year to edit.The principle was incorporated into the Pythagorean Theorem, and in 1955 two japanese mathematicians made a far reaching conjecture that paved the way to the solution by Andrew Wiles at Princeton in 1995.
Notably, the great mathematician, Gauss, who published Disquisition on Mathematics in 1801, on number theory at age 24, refused to engage in the solution, but his work in complex analysis, based on earlier work by Euler involving imaginary numbers was crucial to the 20th century understanding.Perhaps another apt example is Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the prediction of gravitational radiation bringing a new attention to the tiny ripples in space-time that has opened our eyes to modern cosmology. Finally, we find that a small piece of our universe is viewed as a chunk of Hilbert space, developing as a nest of interacting probability waves. The waves of Hilbert space are actually the waves Schroedinger derived before we had the tools to observe their behavior.The mathematics of entanglement identifies the high-probability areas of a joint-Hilbert space developed from the interaction having consistent histories. This has led to the description of Schroedinger’s principle, the things that we consider to be real are stable persistent patterns. This gives rise to debate about many worlds.
We leave the seemingly esoteric world of problems in mathematics and theoretic physics and return to the world of biochemistry, molecular biology, genomics, proteomics and allied medical sciences.
The scientific underpinnings of biology and medicine transitioned from a largely observational and descriptive phase in the 19th century with the scientifc leadership of Rudolph Virchow, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, John Hunter, Edward Jennings, Walter Reed, Karl Landsteiner, and Thomas Hunt Morgan. Pasteur, Koch, Landsteiner and Morgan were outstanding experimentalists. The latter two were to receive Nobel Prizes that began in 2001. The idea of a more fundamental basis for biological sciences was concerned with studying the chemical structures and processes of biological phenomena that involve the basic units of life, and it developed out of the related fields of biochemistry, genetics, and biophysics. The primary focus became the study of proteins and nucleic acids—i.e., the macromolecules that are essential to life processes. A great impetus was provided by enabling the three-dimensional structure of these macromolecules through such techniques as X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. In seeking to understand the molecular basis of genetic processes; molecular biologists map the location of genes on specific chromosomes, associate these genes with particular characters of an organism, and use recombinant DNA technology to isolate, sequence, and modify specific genes.
The above is tied to a dominance of Western scientific discovery, as seen in the recipients of the Nobel Prize, but it is only a two dimensional view. Here another type of graphical display would be more informative, and it has been developed. I might consider a separation by type for physics, chemistry and medicine, leaving out the others, and then, in combination. I would bet that there are interactions.
For instance – 2001 – Roentgen, Physics; Pierre and Marie Curie, Physics; E.O. Lawrence, Chemistry, Berkeley Radiation Lab; Max Planck, following on Boltzmann and on Josiah Willard Gibbs (pre-Nobel) work. Then you have radiology and radioisotope chemistry and photosynthesis, Martin Kamen. Of course, modern physiology and metabolism traces back to the work on oxygen, carcon dioxide, and heat, adiabatic systems, and leads to the calorimeter, the Warburg apparatus, which credits Pasteur’s work 60 years earlier. The fruit fly genetics was an impetus for cracking the genetic code, but the impetus for that was both from Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin, and then the mathematical work of Pearson and of Fischer. The work on the chemical bond by Linus Pauling really opened up a foundation for understanding organic and inorganic reactions based on atomic orbital theory that was essential for pursuit of the double helix. This was so important that it unlocked the structure of polymeric proteins through the disulfide bond, and also metalloprotein complexes (heme, …). Wouldn’t it be incredible to map the Nobel work to seminal work done in the 100 years before the Prize with different colored arrows to show stromg and weaker associations? This is in a strong sense, a method of CURATION (as opposed to creation), that is very important for a fundamental grasp of the growth of and ties in the development of the knowledgebase.
Wouldn’t it be incredible to map the Nobel work to seminal work done in the 100 years before the Prize with different colored arrows to show stromg and weaker associations? This is in a strong sense, a method of CURATION (as opposed to creation), that is very important for a fundamental grasp of the growth of and ties in the development of the knowledge-base.
Such a discussion in depth is the curation that is intended for http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/biomed-e-books/series-e-titles-in the strategic-plan-for-2014-1015/2014-milestones-in-physiology-discoveries-in-medicine
Part 2: Scientifc Results – The Art of Curation
Dr. Lev-Ari continued her work, beyond Volume Two, above, on Curation as a Methodology for Critique of the Scientific Frontier and the most effective method for synthesis of scientific milestones in the following selective list of articles:
e-Recognition via Friction-free Collaboration over the Internet: “Open Access to Curation of Scientific Research by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
Digital Publishing Promotes Science and Popularizes it by Access to Scientific Discourse by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
The Heart: Vasculature Protection – A Concept-based Pharmacological Therapy including THYMOSIN
Paradigm Shift in Human Genomics – Predictive Biomarkers and Personalized Medicine – Part 1
REFERENCES
1. George Sarton. A History of Science: Hellenistic Science and Culture in the last three centuries B.C. 1959. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA, USA.
2. Reviel Netz & William Noel. The Archimedes Codex: How a medieval prayer book is revealing the true genius of antiquity’s greatest scientist. 2007. Da Capo Press.
Perseus Books Group, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
3. Amir D Aczel. Fermat’s last theorem: Unlocking the secret of an ancient methematical problem. Four Walls Eight Windows. 1996. New York, NY, USA.
4. Colin Bruce. Schroedinger’s Rabbits: the many worlds of quantum. 2004. Joseph Henry Press. Washington, DC, USA.
5. Marcia Bartusiak. Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony: listening to the sounds of spac^2 E-time. The Berkley Publishing Group, New York, NY, USA.
Other related articles in published in this Open Access Online Scientific Journal include the following:
The amazing history of the Nobel Prize, told in maps and charts
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/12/31/the-amazing-history-of-the-nobel-prize-told-in-maps-and-charts/
Quantum Biology And Computational Medicine
Curator: Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/03/quantum-biology-and-computational-medicine/
Metabolite Identification Combining Genetic and Metabolic Information: Genetic association links unknown metabolites to functionally related genes
Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/22/metabolite-identification-combining-genetic-and-metabolic-information-genetic-association-links-unknown-metabolites-to-functionally-related-genes/
Breast Cancer, drug resistance, and biopharmaceutical targets
Reporter: Larry H Bernstein, MD
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/09/18/breast-cancer-drug-resistance-and-biopharmaceutical-targets/
The Initiation and Growth of Molecular Biology and Genomics – Part I
Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/02/08/the-initiation-and-growth-of-molecular-biology-and-genomics/
Nitric Oxide and Sepsis, Hemodynamic Collapse, and the Search for Therapeutic Options
Curator, Reporter, EAW: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/20/nitric-oxide-and-sepsis-hemodynamic-collapse-and-the-search-for-therapeutic-options/
Sepsis, Multi-organ Dysfunction Syndrome, and Septic Shock: A Conundrum of Signaling Pathways Cascading Out of Control
Curator and Author: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FCAP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2012/10/13/sepsis-multi-organ-dysfunction-syndrome-and-septic-shock-a-conundrum-of-signaling-pathways-cascading-out-of-control/
How Methionine Imbalance with Sulfur-Insufficiency Leads to Hyperhomocysteinemia
Curator: Larry H Bernstein, MD, FACP
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/04/04/sulfur-deficiency-leads_to_hyperhomocysteinemia/
Vegan Diet is Sulfur Deficient and Heart Unhealthy
Larry H. Bernstein, MD, FCAP, Curator
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/11/17/vegan-diet-is-sulfur-deficient-and-heart-unhealthy/
Portrait of a great scientist and mentor: Nathan Oram Kaplan
Author: Larry H. Bernstein, MD
http://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2013/01/26/portrait-of-a-great-scientist-and-mentor-nathan-oram-kaplan/