This lecture is to prompt you to think about some of the issues in understanding how diseases might emerge.

There is much publicity, and even wild speculation about the benefits that will be derived from the “cracking” of the genetic code. However, the history of medicine is the history of claims of future benefit (see Porter’s article in the web-link).

This lecture looks at some issues, tries to prompt you to think and hopefully, it may open up a creative view that might just lead to identifying a new way forward for some aspect of health care.