Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 9

The Toxins of Power Blog is beginning a new series: Hypothesis: Microbes Generate Toxins of Power.

The first post sets forth initial views of the recent scientific research concerning human-microbe symbiosis.

The series promises to expound upon a hypothesis as to the origins of "the power that corrupts and the absolute power that corrupts absolutely", prevalent in western government theory.

The rebel scientist in me will avoid the impact that the new and developing human-microbe symbiosis science will have on textbook companies's stocks, as well as the widespread textbook shredding and recycling sure to take place (read that post to see what I mean).

But the rebel scientist in me can't pass on the fact that the wee people were spot on, while the medical, scientific world was wrong for about a century concerning the theory of "germs" (the establishment medical profession refused to "believe in germs").

Not only that, members of those elite professionals who took any steps toward that direction (the direction the "ignorant wee folk" believed in) were literally committed to an insane asylum:

Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and Semmelweis could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory. In 1865, Semmelweis was committed to an asylum, where he died of septicemia, at age 47.

(Ignaz Semmelweis, emphasis added). Have you noticed that it has been fashionable of late to cite the flat earth syndrome as well as The Earth as the center of the Universe syndrome, as proof of how wrong science, religion, and bartenders have been at various times in the past?

This fashionable ploy operates as if those syndromes were something that was done a long time ago, but now in the present we have it all neatly, properly packaged.

The climate change deniers, who do not know that the debate is long over, humor me when they cite Flat Earth and Earth as the Center of the Universe history to support their assertions.

Well, our current science is not all neatly packaged, because we are in the first phases of a revolution in the understanding of human development.

Be sure to check out the Toxins of Power Blog post mentioned above to get a feel for the new discoveries in microbiology as well as the impact it will have on our understanding of human development.

Other interesting related readings: Wee people and Germ theory.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.