Yowza!

It's ALL cool!!

Anatomic may not be anatomic....

This pretty "anatomic" diagram of the human heart looks almost nothing like a real heart, as my BIOS195 (and soon BIOS255) students can attest.
The dominant chamber of the heart in size, mass, and function is the left ventricle, which in reality dwarfs the other three chambers. In fact, if one visualizes the heart in its actual dimensions its physiology is easier to understand and remember.
I hope my students carry this lesson with them, as cardiovascular physiology is one thing that every clinician must know COLD (actually, hot--37 degrees C).

If only we were joiners....

Americans are simply not joiners in any real sense of the word. While we have innumerable associations and clubs, we generally identify ourselves not by any affiliation but by our individual characteristics. Our international relationships are highly idiosyncratic and, frankly, selfish. This has caused and continues to cause us significant difficulty.
Nowhere is this rather misguided attitude more unhelpful than in the realm of science. Science is a truly international endeavor, whether we want it to be or not. We persist in often going it alone, even when it is to our demonstrable detriment.
The most glaring example of this shortsightedness is in our refusal to use the metric system.
The metric system is not only used by the other 95% of the world's population (even the Brits use it for science), it is easier to use than our antiquated "system" and is simply much more logical.(What a concept!) Countless headaches and real damage have been caused by this mulish attitude, including the spectacular failure of a Mars probe (to the tune of several billion dollars) based on the failure of an American team to convert measurements to metric. Were we sensible conversion would have been unnecessary.
Science and medicine use the metric system, and it seems a waste of valuable time, not to mention a constant source of irritation and potentially real damage to life, to have to teach students how to convert. But it has to be done. Maybe some day we will realize that Communism is dead. In the meantime, we stumble along thinking we are being heroically independent when we are just being obstinately jingoistic.

A new paradigm....

The caduceus is the ancient symbol of healing (the original had a single snake and single wing on the staff);
the image above incorporating DNA seems apt for today.
While the knowledge of the "code of life" has not opened the door to immortality,
we are beginning to understand the real complexity of the interaction between the organism and its environment through research into epigenetics--what controls the genome, what turns its various bits on and off. That is, I believe, the future of medicine.
It finally resolves at the molecular level the age-old argument about nature v. nurture:
nurture turns on the nature which affects how the nurture turns the nature off which affects....
The organism in its environment produces the individual, unique in all the world.
Fearfully and wonderfully made, indeed.

Beginning

I feel fortunate that in my life I have had numerous beginnings. They are always exciting, a bit anxiety-provoking, NEW!
As I start my second semester as a teacher of adults I am thankful for the lessons learned. I always want to be better today than I was yesterday. I welcome my new students and ask that you approach this beginning as a time when we can commence learning from one another.
And, really, there are no endings, just movings-onward and upward.

BIOLOGY = the systematic study of life

What could be more

rewarding,
interesting,
challenging,
and fun?

End of semester thanks....

I am ending my first semester as a "prof"! Who'da thunk it?
I want to express my thanks to:
my fine students, who have taught me and been patient with me--you are the best;
Dean Bair for being a great leader and boss, and for being so supportive and positive;
Dean Portmann for teaching me the practical stuff;
President Goodwin, for smiling all the time;
my new colleagues for accepting me as one of the group;
Debbie and Monica for dealing with me so kindly and being so helpful;
to my family for their love and tolerance;
and to the Father of Lights for His beneficence!

Good science is not about opinion....

Roger Bacon, who, it should be noted, was a good son of the Church, was the first of the empiricists who inspired the development of what became known as the scientific method.
This "method" involves primarily OBSERVATION and MEASUREMENT.
Yes, data must be gathered systematically and hypotheses formed, but without the ability to OBSERVE and MEASURE there is no science;
the fancy statistics and clever hypotheses are meaningless.
Good science is also about WHAT and HOW, not WHY. It is this latter question that leads people down the rabbit hole of philosophy. If there is no agreement on WHAT is happening, the other questions are immaterial.
Good science is not about , "Yes, but...." Questions need to be specific enough so that the answers stand on their own--YES or NO. It is this tendency to overgeneralize--a major weapon of the ignorant--that leads to scientific illiteracy.
And good science is NOT about "majority opinion." The majority is often wrong.
OBSERVE and MEASURE.
Thanks, Rog!

Giant Microbes!!

A few years back, when I started teaching, my youngest son Jonathan turned me on to this website. I have used the products as prizes for 6th graders and now as "souvenirs" for my college students. Cute and cuddly, they still remind us that we are playing against the Red Queen (see Matt Ridley's book of that name for details). Pictured is MRSA, methicillin resistant S. aureus, a "superbug". Cute but DEADLY! Wash those hands!

SCIENTIFIC LITERACY NOTE: Microbial organisms are NOT "bugs"; in fact, insects in general are not "bugs". True bugs are the Hemiptera, a large family of insect, characterized by hard "shells" that are actually part of their forewings, a specific pattern of wing overlap, and a distinctive leg anatomy. Stink bugs are true bugs!

This has been a great semester....

...at least for me. I have learned so much and had so much fun being immersed in LIFE all day, every day. It is endlessly fascinating. I encourage everyone to abandon their ipods and Facebook accounts and READ!
The data shows an active mind is at less risk for running down, so keep yours humming!
Science, and especially biology, is a great place to start. Check out The Compleat Science Teacher for some tips.
Enjoy!

Poverty and poor health....

Needless to say, the blue and yellow areas (grey = no data) are those where poverty is lower than 30% of the population. Health isn't great in all those areas, but these people have more opportunities to be healthy and in general have a longer life expectancy than those living in the other areas.
Notice particularly Africa and South America, rich in resources but with very high personal poverty rates. Life expectancy in some of the "earth tone" areas is GOING DOWN, heading toward 40 and below. And where are most of the resources CONSUMED? You guessed it. Many of the poorer nations actually export medical and science personnel to the U.S.
As health care and science professionals we have a duty to use our knowledge for those who are in need. Let's stop draining the world of its medical and scientific talent and start sharing ours with it.

It is...

...an astrolabe.
This instrument was used in astronomy and navigation in ancient and medieval times, which meant it was used in astrology. How did astrology relate to medicine?
A horoscope "predicted" illness and also helped physicians and surgeons of the time to properly schedule procedures--bloodletting, amputations, administration of medicines, and other mayhem-- based on the portents in the planets, moon, and stars. No matter the portents, there was no anesthesia, and most of the treatments were ineffective if not downright dangerous or toxic, which made the timing of a procedure pretty much irrelevant unless the chart advised not getting it at all.

BOOGERS??!!

One of the wonderful things about anatomy is the myriad of "systems" used to classify and teach it. One can pick and choose based on personal biases--it doesn't change the substance, just the form.
My Saturday A&P class is discussing the respiratory and urinary systems; lo, and behold, add in the colon and VOILA! you have THE ELIMINATIVE SYSTEM! Who knew? I'll bet anyone anything that a Brit came up with this name and classification.
The respiratory system is "eliminative" in that it excretes carbon dioxide, volatile toxins (such as alcohol) and produces more earthy waste like phlegm, sputum, snot, and boogers.* Most people know what comes out of the urinary system and the colon. :-)
* One of my favorite students at Brooks was the young man who, when asked on an exam for the scientific name for "booger", had the courage of his convictions and gave the correct answer: BOOGER. That boy ended up winning the Principal's Award in 8th grade. Too cool!

Beautiful, beautiful neuroendocrine system!

Fearfully and wonderfully made!

Epidemiology saves lives...whether we want it to or not!

Dr. John Snow founded the clinical science of epidemiology in mid-Victorian times when he demonstrated the role of water--specifically the contaminated water from the Broad Street pump--in a vicious cholera epidemic. Further, he demonstrated that governments can be HELPFUL in protecting their citizens by persuading the City of London to remove the pump handle and close down the well. He did this latter in the face of widespread opposition by the deniers, most of whom where scientifically illiterate physicians who scoffed at his data. Since that time, examples abound in which epidemiology has forced resistant entities to face facts and take action: the banning of CFCs, the widespread use of polio vaccine, cleaning up the water in many developing countries, and others. Today we face the deniers who, despite the evidence, persist in believing the Earth is flat and and that man has no role in the epidemic of climate change we are witnessing. We can only hope governments will continue to act to obviate the coming disaster despite near-violent opposition form those who put money over quality of life and personal opinion over data.

"Adolesce, adolesce...." from A CHORUS LINE

If you understand puberty,
you understand the endocrine system.
If you understand pubescents,
you are one of a kind.

Columbus brought gifts....

One of the things that Europeans brought to the Western Hemisphere, in addition to pillage and slavery and cultural destruction generally, was disease. Measles, mumps, influenza, gonorrhea, and other illnesses new to the indigenous peoples wiped out almost 80% of them, leaving the remnant totally unable to fight off the human invaders. It is strongly suspected that, in return, the Incas, Aztecs, and Native North Americas sent a gift back to Europe in return--syphilis. This "gift", in addition to the others the disease-ridden and hygienically challenged westerners carried, then was spread by the Europeans to the Polynesians and helped the white man conquer them by wiping out almost 90% of their people.
Syphilis is once again on the rise; the Great Imitator is spread through careless sexual contact and thrives on ignorance and denial. In the end humanity has crafted many gifts for itself that just keep on giving....

Another father....

Nicolaus Copernicus was the "father of astronomy" (though he was a celibate), which means he was more than a dabbler in astrology as well. He was a also canon of the church, a minor nobleman, and a physician (yay!). Modest and dedicated, he spent his entire adult life writing a book that would not be published until literally the moment of his death. But that book, which supported and advanced the heliocentric theory of what was then the universe (our solar system) with scientific rigor, started a movement that has since some to be known, somewhat erroneously, as "the first scientific revolution". But by basing his theory on all the work that had gone before and enhanced by his own exhaustive observations, he made a lasting contribution by defining in real terms what we now know as "the scientific method". To my mind, this was his real genius, beyond his original thinking about the cosmos. The image at right is crafted from his skull and modern forensic techniques. Like most great men, he had a "nose with character"!

Heart on fire!

The heart is a wondrous organ, but its symbolism is transcendent.
May your heart and your "heart" be glad this weekend!

There was THE woman, this is THE hormone!

Of all our hormones (messenger molecules), cortisol is the most powerful, even more so than testosterone and estrogen. It is our strength and can be our nemesis, has healing power but can be deadly. It is the basic and ultimate STEROID, characterized as are all steroids by that unique set of rings that are built upon cholesterol, another molecule that we need but that can be harmful in excess or the wrong combination.

The features essential to the endocrine system's power are its exquisite balance and the mechanisms that monitor and control that balance, primarily embedded within the nervous system.
It is another example of our being fearfully and wonderfully made.
Be good to your cortisol factory today--avoid stress, eat right, get some sleep. You won't regret it!

More deadly than any army....

This innocent-looking little organism is the pneumococcus, formally known as Streptococcus pneumoniae.

It has probably killed more humans over the eons than any other instrument of death, and is still a vicious predator. It is particularly fond of infants and the elderly. As might be surmised from its name, it is a common cause of pneumonia, but it is also the #1 cause of meningitis and a major cause of a host of other potentially fatal illnesses in all parts of the world. Fortunately it remains sensitive to common antibiotics including penicillin (usually) and there is a vaccine--which is HIGHLY underutilized--for the elderly. It is spread from person to person via the respiratory system, so cover your cough and WASH THOSE HANDS!

Once again evolution does its job....

Fight or flight? No contest!
This man should be thankful for his autonomic nervous and endocrine systems.
I am for mine (I like the "rest and digest" part a bit better....). You should be for yours!

Beautiful but deadly

Neisseria meningitidis, a cause of bacterial meningitis, or infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, is one of the bacteria that can cross the "blood-brain barrier", which is actually a functional concept rather than a specific organ or membrane. It is transmitted primarily through the upper respiratory system, specifically the sphenoid sinus. That sinus sits under the cribiform plate, the most vulnerable section of the skull surrounding the olfactory bulbs and cells. The bacterium spreads rapidly in crowded conditions through droplets and is seen often as a cause of meningitis in dorms and barracks as well as in the developing world. There is a vaccine, which is highly effective (I took it myself before going to Africa the first time) and should be considered for all teenagers. The alternative? N. meningitis infection can become overwhelming and carries a case fatality rate (CFR) of over 40% if it does; menigititis alone with this organism has a CFR of 20%. Hand-washing has a significant impact on spread as well.

Beautiful on the inside!

The human body can be beautiful on the outside but its true beauty lies within. Muscles and bones have it all over anything man-made for strength and flexibility. As my sixth graders noted, without our musculoskeletal system we would all be "blobs on the floor".
Enjoy your muscles and bones this weekend!