Pulitzer Prize-winning author and one of the world's premiere cancer researchers Siddhartha Mukherjee investigates in his new book the most perplexing and illuminating cases of his career, which ultimately led him to identify three principles that govern modern medicine.
"The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science", part of TED Books and published by Simon & Schuster, is brimmed with historical details and modern medical wonders and provides a glimpse into the struggles and Eureka! moments that people outside of the medical profession rarely see. The book has stories of real people and cases, diagnoses and trials.
Mukherjee's first law is: "A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weal test." His second law says, "Normals teach us rules, outliers teach us laws," while his third law states: "For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias."
He says that understanding the little-known principles that govern medicine can empower us all.
"The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science" is about information, imperfection, uncertainty, and the future of medicine, says the author.
"The 'laws of medicine', as I describe them in the book, are really laws of uncertainty, imprecision, and incompleteness. They apply equally to all disciplines of knowledge where these forces come into play. They are the laws of imperfection," he says.
According to Mukherjee, his medical education had taught him plenty of facts, but little about the spaces that live between facts.
