“In this case, we have a chemical model approximating an animal model, and the animal model was previously used to approximate what happens in a human. It’s models all the way down”
is right on! I think we see this kind of thing commonly in systems where direct observations are difficult. It’s hard to see exactly what the fluid flow looks like inside an intestine in a living creature, so in that case researchers made a mathematical model of a physical device that itself is a model of a pig which is a model of a human. It truly is a system of nested models. I think a part of “the trenches” of science is studying/characterizing models themselves and building new ones. That’s not always glamorous or high impact work but it can be rewarding as well.
Great post! This part:
“In this case, we have a chemical model approximating an animal model, and the animal model was previously used to approximate what happens in a human. It’s models all the way down”
is right on! I think we see this kind of thing commonly in systems where direct observations are difficult. It’s hard to see exactly what the fluid flow looks like inside an intestine in a living creature, so in that case researchers made a mathematical model of a physical device that itself is a model of a pig which is a model of a human. It truly is a system of nested models. I think a part of “the trenches” of science is studying/characterizing models themselves and building new ones. That’s not always glamorous or high impact work but it can be rewarding as well.