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Occam’s razor doesn’t matter for shit when it comes to biology. The vast majority of GIs would agree with the grandparent post, but it even goes deeper than th

by wswope 2y ago

Occam’s razor doesn’t matter for shit when it comes to biology. The vast majority of GIs would agree with the grandparent post, but it even goes deeper than that. Pathogenicity of common bacteria is heavily mediated through HGT and interspecies microbial signaling - meaning that there’s plenty we don’t know about even the most studied organisms when they’re in a dynamic environment with other neighbors. In other words, we know there are multiple layers of activity taking place that we’ve barely scratched the surface on research-wise, so we have good reason to believe that simpler explanations are almost certainly reductive and wrong.

PaulHoule 2y ago
When results started coming out about the microbiome and health and there weren't any practical results (a poop pill that changes things) I thought it was one of those fads like gluten free or high-functioning autism. The results have kept coming and it's hard not to believe the gut-health connection now but it's still frustrating that it doesn't translate to any therapy.
- wswope 2y ago
  Yeah, I’ve definitely followed that same path as the field has progressed - but I’ve come to view gut health as something akin to soil health. Compost does great things for plants, but you can’t sprinkle mycorrhizal fungi or banana peels on top of barren earth and call it a day. Similarly, you can’t throw probiotic bacteria or kimchi into a GI tract and call it a day. Instead, in both cases, you have to holistically balance and change inputs over time to see results, taking into account the unique, pre-established state of the system. That makes for difficult research when so much of labwork is about controlling and isolating variables, and IMO, is the biggest factor in why we’re not seeing those pre-packaged applications yet.
  - PaulHoule 2y ago
    Soil health is a great example! I've been working on a monologue about reductivism vs reductionism and it reminds me of Doug Hofstader setting up a dialectic between reductionism and holism with the problem that you can't say holism has the same presence that reductionism has. But soil health really is a place where holism reigns, thanks for reminding me!

by wswope 2y ago

PaulHoule 2y ago

When results started coming out about the microbiome and health and there weren't any practical results (a poop pill that changes things) I thought it was one of those fads like gluten free or high-functioning autism. The results have kept coming and it's hard not to believe the gut-health connection now but it's still frustrating that it doesn't translate to any therapy.

wswope 2y ago
Yeah, I’ve definitely followed that same path as the field has progressed - but I’ve come to view gut health as something akin to soil health. Compost does great things for plants, but you can’t sprinkle mycorrhizal fungi or banana peels on top of barren earth and call it a day. Similarly, you can’t throw probiotic bacteria or kimchi into a GI tract and call it a day. Instead, in both cases, you have to holistically balance and change inputs over time to see results, taking into account the unique, pre-established state of the system. That makes for difficult research when so much of labwork is about controlling and isolating variables, and IMO, is the biggest factor in why we’re not seeing those pre-packaged applications yet.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  Soil health is a great example! I've been working on a monologue about reductivism vs reductionism and it reminds me of Doug Hofstader setting up a dialectic between reductionism and holism with the problem that you can't say holism has the same presence that reductionism has. But soil health really is a place where holism reigns, thanks for reminding me!