At least in medicine but also in many other fields, formal proof of a scientific hypothesis is difficult if not impossible. Reading again Greaves’ cancer book, I discover even more insights there. Talking about the hormonal stress leading to breast cancer he makes the point that<\/p>\n
there is no ’cause’ in the straightforward, singular, or usually perceived meaning of the word; no tubercle bacillus equivalent. Neither is a mutant gene the<\/em> common cause. Chronic hormonal stimulation driving persistent epithelial stem cell division seems to be a major factor (cycles driving cycles) and this reflects in large measure our social divorce from evolutionary adaptations for reproduction … Superimpose some degree of inherited predisposition and chance itself on this prescription and a very plausible causal network imbued with evolutionary principles becomes evident.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is a very different view to the current sequencing headlines like “Lung cancer and melanoma laid bare<\/a>“.<\/p>\n\n
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\n CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 10.06.2026<\/span>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least in medicine but also in many other fields, formal proof of a scientific hypothesis is difficult if not impossible. Reading again Greaves’ cancer book, I discover even more insights there. Talking about the hormonal stress leading to breast cancer he makes the point that there is no ’cause’ in the straightforward, singular, or … Continue reading Formal proof is difficult if not impossible<\/span>