The Laws of Medicine

Siddhartha Mukherjee

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2015
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781471141867
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

The Laws of Medicine follows Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, Dr Mukherjee as he investigates some of the most perplexing and illuminating cases of his career - the cases that ultimately led him to identify the three key principles that govern medicine. As a young medical student, Mukherjee discovered The Youngest Science, a book that changed the way he understood the medical profession and forced him to ask himself an urgent, fundamental question:

Is medicine a 'science'?

Science must have laws - statements of truth based on repeated experiments that describe some universal attribute of nature. Dr Mukherjee has spent his career pondering whether the 'youngest science' has laws like the other sciences, culminating in this treatise The Laws of Medicine.

Law 1: Rumours are more important than tests.

Law 2: The piece of data that does not fit your model is the most crucial piece of data that you own.

Law 3: For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias.

Brimming with fascinating historical details and modern medical wonders, this book is a glimpse into the struggles and Eureka! moments rarely seen by those outside the profession.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Epigraph page
• Half-title page
• Contents
• AUTHOR’S NOTE
• LAW ONE A strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test.
• LAW TWO “Normals” teach us rules; “outliers” teach us laws.
• LAW THREE For every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias.
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• WATCH SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE’S TED TALK
• RELATED TALKS ON TED.COM
• MORE FROM TED BOOKS
• ABOUT TED BOOKS
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