Chemically reactive intermediates and pulmonary xenobiotic toxicity.

After reading this lengthy review, the reader may consider it foolhardy to attempt to summarize the data contained herein. If so, the author and the reader are in complete accord. I set out to integrate, wherever possible, pathological changes in tissues and cells as determined by light, scanning, and TEM with chemical, biochemical, molecular, biological, and genetic techniques. I am not so naive as to equate correlation with causation, but in experimental biology, one is often compelled to rely on a number correlations to suggest causation. These data may also act as a stepping-off point helping the investigator design experiments to support/confirm or refute/disprove the hypothesis under investigation. Science is rarely black and white but rather gray, and the young investigator must be wary of scientists who argue their points too vociferously, too loudly, or too selectively. The truth in science is often a Gordian knot.