The bumpy road to evidence: why many research findings are lost in translation.

When, more than 2500 years ago, Thales of Milet (624–547 BC) claimed that nature was ruled by laws and not by gods, he changed theworld. Suchaconcept allowed for thediscoveryandmathematical proof of impersonal causation of what, until then, had been a mystery ruled by unpredictable gods. Indeed, ever since then the understanding of nature—today we would call it the natural sciences—has become a major activity of mankind. With this strategy, we have come a long way. Initially, it allowed us to use the position of stars and planetary motion for navigationand the discovery of new continents; next, it set the basis for the development of engines and technologies; and finally, it led to the discovery of the human body. Eventually, this allowed for the rise of modern medicine, among many other achievements. As a consequence, theology and philosophy, the dominant disciplines of ancient times, were increasingly challenged and, to a great extent, replaced by scientifically based knowledge about the world, about nature, mankind, and disease. Such knowledge produced pratically useful consequences, such as pumps, steam, and later, petroldriven engines, trains, cars, aeroplanes, and rockets, allowing us to fly to New York or to the moon. In life sciences, it brought about hygiene, anaesthesia, and in turn, aseptic surgery, antibiotics, vaccination, rescucitation, cardiac surgery, and interventional cardiology; an impressive and unanticipated achievement indeed.