Philosophy

Three principles decide what this site is and how it is built.

Science for all

Science should not be reserved for people who already have the training. Anyone with the curiosity and will to learn should be able to follow it. This is especially true for health and nutrition science, which greatly impacts us all. This project aims to achieve this in the following ways:

  • Ordinary language: Where possible the first layer is in plain language, with the expert detail one expand away.
  • Clickable help: Terms and details are a hover or a click away — a term, an enzyme, a metabolite, a food. Unfamiliar terminology should not send the reader off to a separate help window.
  • Educational topics: Phase 2 will bring comprehensive topics covering everything from what a fatty acid is to the mechanisms that matter.
  • Interactive pathways: As opposed to static diagrams, interactive pathways allow the user to click on elements and learn, mitigating the amount of prior knowledge required.

Counter-evidence

Cognitive bias should be mitigated to the degree possible:

  • No cherry-picking: Where the literature is split and counter-evidence exists, it is included in the references. You can read more in Evidence & AI.
  • Criticism is welcome: Every citation can be challenged by a signed-in reader on the page where it is used. Being told we are wrong is the fastest way to stop being wrong. Additionally, users can suggest publications to add.
  • Positions get reassessed: Nutrition and health sciences progress over time, and so must the references and content of this project.

Open source, to improve and to spread

Useful scientific information should be shared to help others, and improved with collaborations.

  • Open Source Components: The tools built here — the pathway canvas, the 2D structure renderer, the 3D models — are being prepared for open-source release so other people can use them, correct them and build better ones.
  • Data sharing: Information that affects what people eat should not sit behind a login or a licence fee. The plan is for the fatty-acid catalogue, the composition profiles, the metabolites and the references to become a documented, versioned download with an API. Read more in Open Source & Open Data.
 Evidence & AI