Prions: Introducing a Complex Scientific Controversy to a Biology Classroom
نویسنده
چکیده
It has been almost 50 years since Thomas Kuhn, in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, posited that science does not progress by the steady accumulation of knowledge, but rather by a system of competition among paradigms. They vie for supremacy through greater parsimony, explanatory power, and popularity among the community of scientists (Kuhn, 1962). The current controversy concerning the identity of prions (PrPs) (proteins devoid of the nucleic acid) as the infectious agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) elucidates all the issues involved in just such a debate.
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