Rational-empirical strategies

A rational strategy in identifying structural parameters appropriate for QSRR analysis should start from the accepted theories of chromatographic separations. These structural parameters obtained. should quantify the abilities of analytes to take part in the postulated intermolecular interactions which determine chromatographic. separations. Empirical or semi-empirical structural parameters of analytes based on the solvatochromic comparison method and on the linear solvation energy relationships (LSER) belong to that categoiy of structural descriptors. 19,40). 

Whereas molecular design is a strategy applicable to the chemical level of epitope-paratope interactions, it cannot be used for optimizing the many cellular interactions required for achieving an immune response that leads to infectivity neutralization of a pathogen. As a result, the future development of vaccines will continue to rely more on the empirical testing of the protection afforded by candidate vaccine preparations than on the rational design of biomolecules defined in a reductionist manner by their chemical structure. 

When Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark into the West, he patterned their mission on the methods of Enlightenment science to observe, collect, document, and classify. Such strategies were already in place for the epic voyages made by explorers like Cook and Van-(5) couver. Like their contemporaries, Lewis and Clark were more than representatives of European rationalism. They also represented a rising American empire, one built on aggressive territorial expansion and commercial gain. 

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