Inside the Mind of a Mad Scientist

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1. Intro

Being wrong is hard. I’m not going to say that I’m a good scientist, but being wrong is hard. It’s not easy to be wrong about something you know nothing about, but it is difficult to be right about something you know nothing about and you are certain is right.

2. In the early 1980’s, Barry Marshall believed that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria.

Barry Marshall was an Australian physician and microbiology researcher and he believed that stomach ulcers were not merely the byproduct of a hectic life or an overly spicy dinner. Instead, he believed ulcers were caused by bacteria. More specifically, Marshall believed that ulcers were caused by bacteria.

Marshall’s theory was based on his research into the link between stomach acid and bacteria in the digestive tract. He assumed that, in order to digest food properly, stomach acid would have to be present in sufficient quantity that it could break down and digest food particles (exactly what happens when we eat).

Along with his college classmate, John Roberts , Marshall developed a series of experiments to prove his theory. To do this, he began by simply replacing our normal stomach acid with a substance called “pH-lowering” agent. The effects of pH-lowering agents on human physiology were very similar to those of the foods they are designed to replace – including fat absorption and taste sensations . The pH-lowering agent was replaced in Marshall’s studies with tartaric acid from grapes , which was found to cause gastric ulceration in rats . Thus, Marshall’s research proved his hypothesis: If we remove acids from our bodies in sufficient quantities (and for long enough), then we will experience gastric ulcers .

Marshall also investigated how bacteria were able to attach themselves to our bodies and cause gastric disorders. He demonstrated that these microbes could survive for hours without absorbing any food; instead they would simply absorb gas from the air around them – which is why people who breathe through their mouths experience gas bubbles when they cough or sneeze . In other words, Marshall theorized that sufferers of stomach ulcers had tomatoes stuck inside their bodies due to their inability to remove toxic substances from their intestines – which actually confirmed what Robert Ehrlich had already discovered years earlier: tomatoes are acidic when eaten raw! In fact, when ingested as part of cooking tomatoes become milder still – especially if they are steamed rather than boiled (which is why you can eat tomatoes after cooking them!).

Marshall went on to develop many other theories about the links between certain foods and various ailments related to digestion or gastrointestinal health. One famous one included a study in 1987 where Marshalls fed mice healthy diet containing different types of tomato sauce (the “isotonic” variety) for five weeks; after this time period there were no differences between the two types of tomato sauce over their

3. The scientific community did not believe him.

Marshall had been working on his theory for a long time. In fact, he had published a paper in 1892 on the virus of ulcers and he even had a good idea of how it worked. But despite having an amazing understanding of the disease, Marshall’s research was not accepted by the scientific community. In fact, Dr. Marshall’s theory of ulcers became so unpopular that it was even ridiculed in the pages of major publications such as The Lancet and the New York Times. So when Marshall died in 1906, he left behind what appeared to be a complete and utter failure: a single anomalous bacterium with no known relationship to any other bacteria or organism.

But Barry Marshall wasn’t buying it. He believed that stomach ulcers were not merely the byproduct of a hectic life or an overly spicy dinner. Instead, he believed ulcers were caused by bacteria. More specifically, Marshall believed ulcers were caused by bacteria

As you can see from my previous blog posts , I come across many interesting things about productivity every so often (and this blog is no different). One such thing is that one can’t really be productive without mastering the fundamentals which are ones about how to get started doing something new . And whether it is starting up an iOS app or starting up a new website, most people don’t know where to start from when they hit that magic place of zero ideas — only knowing they want to do something new and trying to figure out what exactly it is they want to do is extremely challenging because there isn’t much available information out there on how to start out (or even what exactly this could possibly be). To give you an example: I don’t know if you have ever tried creating your own website but I bet most people have thought about it at some point! Most people would probably have done something like this: Tweet me an email asking for advice if you haven’t done so already Awesome! So why not start off by creating your own website? It’s simple and very straight forward: You can build your own website using WordPress If you are just getting started (which we all are), then here are some quick steps: Step 1 – Create your WordPress account Step 2 – Visit this page at WordPress How does building your own website work? Well basically, once logged into your WordPress account you will see all of that text displayed in this image below (you may

4. He was ridiculed and ostracized by his peers and colleagues

James Clear was a writer and developer who in the early 2000’s wrote How to Write Better JavaScript. His book was a best-seller and his blog received a great deal of attention. In this post, he tells the story of how he came up with the idea for his book and why it was the one thing that got him out of debt.

If you have taken any introductory programming classes at all, you’ve probably seen code like this:

var z = 5; // z is now 5 var y = 6; // y is now 6 var x = 7 // x is now 7 var z = 8; // z is now 8

In some languages, this code would compile and show up on your screen in almost no time. It’s amazing! Here’s what happens:

You write a function called foo that takes two variables: an int and a number. You then call foo(1), which returns 1 as an int—so you know that foo returns an int. Now you write another function called bar that takes an int and an integer (the result of calling foo). You then call bar(1) which calls foo(1) again, twice—and so bar returns 2 as an integer. Your code has never once changed because it’s all the same function calls:

foo(1), foo(2), etc…

In fact, there are only two differences between your two functions:

• The first argument to foo is called x instead of y . This means that when you call foo in your first line, it always returns 1 as an int (because 1 comes before y , not after it). It’s important to note that neither Expression nor Typeof are used in most languages today; they are merely syntactic sugar for applying operators like + or == . That said, these operators do have varying meanings according to different languages—so we’ll examine those differences in more detail later on. • The second argument to bar is called n instead of m . This means that when you call bar in your second line, it always returns 2 as an integer (because 2 comes before m , not after it). But here’s the kicker: if n comes first, this means that when you call bar , there will be no difference between returning 2 or 4 because both return 2 as integers. If n comes last, however (as it does in most languages today), there will be a significant difference between returning 2

5. In 1983, Marshall drank water contaminated with H. pylori bacteria in order

Marshall was an Australian microbiologist and physician. He believes that stomach ulcers are not merely the byproduct of a hectic life or an overly spicy dinner, but rather that they are caused by bacteria. More specifically, Marshall believed ulcers were caused by H. pylori bacteria (the type of bacteria in the stomach).

Marshall is best known for his hypothesis that stomach acid can cause ulcers. How did he make this theory? Throughout his career, Marshall isolated and tested numerous different strains of H. pylori for their ability to cause ulcers. His findings showed that each strain caused a specific type of ulcer: the H. pylori C strain caused gastritis; the E coli C strain caused peptic ulcer; the E coli K strain caused duodenal ulcer; and the A/H1N1 strain of H. pylori could cause any type of ulcer (Marshall et al., 1981). This makes it clear that Marshall was not simply conflating one type of bacterium with another, but instead his research actually proved one distinct mechanism (infection) for all types of stomach problems (Marshall et al., 1981). And it’s this mechanism—infection—that has led to Marshall’s hypothesis being regarded as accepted fact today (as it is widely used today in treating gastric diseases). Since 1960s, Marshall has made a career out of researching stomach conditions and claims to have detected over 2 million cases of gastric disease (most recently in 2012 as well as multiple times before that).