Iain Maclean Herbalist

14/12/2025

According to the work of physicist and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn, scientific knowledge tends to develop in discontinuous stages, rather than steadily accumulating.
In Normal science a paradigm emerges: a shared set of theories, methods, assumptions, and standards. Scientists focus on “puzzle-solving” within this framework, not questioning fundamentals.
Most day-to-day science happens here.

Anomalies in the current paradigm. Persistent observations appear that don’t fit the paradigm. At first, they’re ignored, explained away, or treated as experimental error. Over time, anomalies accumulate.

Crisis starts to occur. Anomalies become too serious to dismiss. Confidence in the existing paradigm weakens. Alternative ideas begin to be taken seriously.

Scientific revolution. A new paradigm emerges that explains the anomalies better. This is not a smooth update but a conceptual break. Old and new paradigms are often incommensurable (they don’t share the same assumptions or even meanings of key terms).

Paradigm shift → New normal science. The new paradigm becomes dominant. Textbooks are rewritten. Normal science resumes under the new framework. The cycle can begin again.

We are in a Kuhn cycle now in biology, evolutionary biology and the old 19th century germ theory. It’s not going to be an easy change and as Kuhn said not all will accept the change, a lot will be intransigent, and incredulous as we have seen over certainly the last few years, even decades.

If you are interested is this topic might I suggest Thomas Kuhn’s book from 1962, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

13/12/2025

ChatGPT helps you get answers, find inspiration, and be more productive.

13/12/2025

Echinacea, the North American herb that’s extremely useful at any time of year for a range of symptoms, check with your herbalist to see if it’s right for you

08/12/2025

Around the time of the Wright brothers and their accepts at flying, a university professor in physics said publicly that flying was impossible, we know this was wrong. Another physicist associated with the famous X Club said publicly that medicine could not become scientific unless it adopted the germ theory of disease. Science can at times become scientism, a belief system promoted by ego driven behaviour. Science should always be questioned, dogma should play no part.

03/12/2025

“If an element of “design” enters into organic evolution the factors controlling this principle remain to be discovered.”
Ivan Wallin

The twentieth-century revolution in cosmology threw science into a slow-moving crisis that is still unfolding.

03/12/2025

The Enzyme Theory of Antibody Formation by Paul Erhlich

“I believe there is hardly an element of truth in a single one of the dozen or more basic hypotheses incorporated in this theory” and noted “the almost universal failure of therapeutic methods based on these concepts.”

Professor W.H. Manwarring, Stanford

Ludwick Fleck was also a vehement critic of Erhlich’s side chain theory, and yet here we are in 2025

02/12/2025

What is the Endocannabinoid system (ECS) in humans?

Cannabinoids both endogenous and exogenous interact with receptors already present in the human body. The receptors are CB1 (brain and nervous system)and CB2 (immune system and peripheral tissues).

Body made or endogenous cannabinoids include Anandamide and 2-AG (2-arachidonolglycerol). Plant cannabinoids mimic or modulate these natural signaling molecules. CB1 receptors are concentrated in the hippocampus (memory), basal ganglia (movement), cortex (thinking), cerebellum (co-ordination), amygdala (emotion and fear).

The cannabis genus and its main species, indica and sativa have a rich mix of natural compounds, mainly cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids which are produced in the plant’s resin glands called trichomes.

The cannabinoids include
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the main psychoactive compound, binds strongly to CB1 receptors in the brain, responsible for euphoria, altered perception, appetite stimulation
CBD (cannabidiol) non-psychoactive, modulates CB1/CB2 receptors indirectly, can reduce inflammation, anxiety and counteract some THC effects,
Also contains CBN, CBG, CBC

Terpenes are the aromatic molecules that contribute to scent, taste and effects. These include myrcene, limonene, pinene, linalool and caryophyllene.

Flavonoids such as cannaflavins can be anti-inflammatory and MAST cell stabilisers.

Human use of cannabis goes back thousands of years. Its popularity has never waned and now we see in many countries around the world the decriminalisation and legalisation as a medicine in many different forms. Talk to allopathic medical practitioner is to see if it could be helpful for you. At this stage in Australia professional herbalists are unable to prescribe any cannabis product. H**p products are not the same as medicinal cannabis.

28/11/2025

I can’t see the rationalists ever accepting any empiric thought, it’s just not in their vocabulary or minds, and empiric thinkers like myself can’t see the general public moving in appreciable numbers to the empiric side, it takes thinking and most are not interested. Go back and read Brave New World by Huxley to get an understanding.

Restoring trust in medicine requires a return to principles: seeing without filtering evidence through institutional preferences.

26/11/2025

Far too little time and attention is devoted to the study of the individual, and the sick man is often forgotten in the study of his disease. For the proper understanding of disease and its treatment there must be a thorough knowledge of the patient’s personality and of his environment, using the latter word in the widest sense of the term.
British Medical Journal, 1934

25/11/2025

Nettle, what is it good for, spring allergies, full of flavonoids to calm the MAST cells that release histamine that cause those unpleasant symptoms of spring time. Nature has the answers if only we look and appreciate what it has supplied.

22/11/2025

Symbiogenesis

“We are forced to the conclusion that new genes must be acquired in organic evolution. It is logical to assume that there have been ever-increasing additions to organisms during organic evolution. These additions must have come from the “outside” and represent true accretions which are responsible for the origin of species.”
Ivan Wallin