Category: Antibodies

People don’t realize that molecules themselves are somewhat hypothetical, and that their interactions are more so, and that the biological reactions are even more so. -Kary Mullis Rodney Porter and Gerald Edelman share the credit for “discovering” the chemical structure of the unseen and entirely theoretical antibodies said to provide some form of immunity from… Continue reading The Chemical Structure of Antibodies?

Over a year-and-a-half ago, I did a deep dive into the history of antibodies by following multiple timelines which highlighted the important dates, studies, and discoveries throughout the century which led to the current prevalent antibody theory. Most of the research I did back then has already been added to this site while a few… Continue reading Was the First Atomic Resolution Structure of an Antibody Fragment Published in 1973?

Immunology does not suffer from a lack of experimental data, but still some of the most elementary questions are undecided, and it is not yet possible to choose between instructive and elective theories.” Joshua Ledergerg, Genes and Antibodies https://doi.org/10.1126/science.129.3364.1649 Every scientific theory relies on the scientific method. A scientist may make an observation and devise a… Continue reading The Clonal Selection Antibody Theory (1957)

Such a scientist does not allow himself to be blocked by inconvenient facts or by the confusing life of the laboratory. Such a scientist can attain the sublime through science by abstracting from concrete details, thereby reaching out to universal connections, and by putting his personal imprint on the world” -Niels Jerne http://brunolemaitre.ch/narcissism-science/testp-page/ Jerne never… Continue reading The Natural Selection Theory of Antibody Formation (1955)

From 1900 to 1949, there were two main competing theories attempting to explain antibody production and formation as they had never been purified nor isolated directly from the fluids and proven to exist. Antibodies were still unseen fictional creations assumed to be within the blood acting as defenders against invading pathogens, thus researchers needed to… Continue reading The Indirect Template Theory of Antibody Production (1949)

There is a real problem in the sciences that goes far beyond the methods and experiments. It is a deeper issue that has more to do with the very ideology used by the researchers themselves which permeates throughout much of the scientific literature. It is this idea that finding indirect evidence of assumed particles or… Continue reading Antibodies, Plasma, and the Power of Correlation

I found that Landsteiner and I had a much different approach to science: Landsteiner would ask, ‘What do these experimental observations force us to believe about the nature of the world?’ and I would ask, ‘What is the most simple, general and intellectually satisfying picture of the world that encompasses these observations and is not… Continue reading Direct Template and the Theoretical Structure of Antibodies (1930-1940)

It is very apparent to anyone looking into the origins of antibodies that the idea of what these entities are in terms of how they look and how they function came well before any attempts to actually purify, isolate, and characterize the assumed particles. Antibodies were (and still are) nothing more than unseen theoretical constructs… Continue reading The Antibody Equation (1929)

For of course it would be absurd to imagine that the mechanical diagrams have any representation in the world of fact. They are figments of the imagination, and may serve some useful purpose as picture books serve in teaching a child the alphabet. But as the time comes when the child puts aside the blocks… Continue reading Paul Ehrlich’s Side-Chain Antibody Theory (1900) Part 2: The Complement System

In 1900, Paul Ehrlich, considered the “Father of Chemotherapy,” took a shot at creating a theoretical explanation for how immunity occurs inside the human body. According to Ehrlich’s Nobel Prize biography, while working with Behring’s anti-diphtheria serum, Ehrlich was said to have standardized this serum in units related to a fixed and invariable standard. Previously,… Continue reading Paul Ehrlich’s Side-Chain Antibody Theory (1900) Part 1