Scientific knowledge function

The differences among the three terms are not just of theoretical interest. They touch nearly every aspect of our daily lives because they are central to the functions of the agencies that protect the public health and the environment. Specifically, to be credible, these agencies must base their actions on "accepted scientific knowledge. Consequently, they collect enormous amounts of experimental data. These data, however, are of little use until they are first converted to scientific information and then placed in the context of other relevant scientific information and thereby become knowledge. 

Some 40 years later we basically stand in awe when reading those matter-of-facdy spoken but definitely at that time prophetic words from Dr. Mirsky. Already in 1950 Stedman had discussed the role of histones in differentiation [2] and in 1964 Allfrey reported on the acetylation of histones [3]. The words of Mirsky are the concluding remarks of a Ciba Foundation symposium on histones and their role in transfer of genetic information. There it was discussed that chromatin represents a. .. metabolically active region of the nucleus (p. 48). Many fine bands had been resolved in electrophoretic analysis of the histones but of course many details of the processes involved totally eluded the scientific knowledge of these days. But already then, a functional correlation between histone acetylation and the RNA-synthetic capacity of the chromatin was suggested. 

The function of the chemical industry is to turn scientific knowledge into useful products. Like all other human activity, discharging this function requires that companies and people in the industry deal successfully with a wide range of risks. Most of these risks are common to nearly all production activities some are unique to the chemical industry. The successful chemical plant or laboratory safety program must address both the common risks and those which are unique to it, such as ones which arise out of the reactivity, toxicity, or other hazards inherent in many of the industry s processes and products. 

The enzymatic branch of protein functional investigations is significant, not only for the basic scientific knowledge it imparts which helps clarify biological processes, but also because, by elucidating how catalytic functions depend on specific protein structures, more useful and more powerful enzymatic processes might be developed for food production... 

The body of scientific knowledge behind food fabrication started to accumulate less than 50 years ago. It has been in the last 20 years that the study of foods as materials has become a field in its own. It has been fostered by advances in related areas, most notably polymer science, mesoscopic physics, microscopy, and other advanced physical techniques. Progress in separations science has led to economically feasible processes that make available refined and functional food ingredients that replace or complement traditional raw materials. New technologies, most notably the use of membranes and microdevices, promise to bring the scale of fabrication closer to that of micro structural elements in dispersed phases (droplets, bubbles). 

The traditional scientific approach to pharmaceutical safety assessment was based largely on the concept of xenobiotic-mediated direct injury to the whole animal, organ, tissue, or cell manifested by death altered function or modified growth rates. As scientific knowledge advanced, it became apparent that a variety of mechanisms were involved including direct injury to cellular macromolecules (e.g., DNA, RNA, proteins) or organelles (e.g., mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum), adaptive responses (e.g., induction or inhibition of cyto-... 

Contrary to current folklore, it is not the progress of basic science that chiefly is to blame for many of the large scale functional difficulties we face today, it is rather the absence of some specific fundamental scientific knowledge. 

Those exam pi os sorvo to illustrate oloarly the advantage s gained by tho application of scientific knowledge in the production of ono of our chief materials but tho function of the chemists in a steel works or any works is not oonfinod to devising pro-... 

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