on the other hand, proving that it's very very unlikely that you have a disease is a pretty narrow and not very useful point if you do in fact have the disease. Most likely you'll get the cure du jour for anything more common, quicker to get rid of you.

Autopsies are much less common than they used to be. They helped check for mistakes.

I still think there's a big difference between science, and applied science. Inventors often make big advances in applied science out of old scientific news. What will fly as an invention is often aboutmarketing, culture, and accident, as much as the underlying science. People get all excited about "science" like the internet, but more humdrum things are the real heart of it--who would buy anything online if a shipper couldn't get it to you fast? The heart of the Sears Roebuck catalogue was a pallet you drag behind your horses to rut the road so rain ran off, invented by a farmer. It enabled rural post delivery.