Hey!! Sadly, the Genius Project is slowly coming to an end. It's been a lot of fun and I have thoroughly enjoyed learning so much about a topic of my choice! But, before we end, I have my vlog. My vlog discusses a lot about why I love medicine and my growth from before the project to now. So, without further ado, enjoy! I'll see you next week with a proper blog post...
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Hello! Helllllloooooooo! Fair warning: I decided to skip around a bit giving that the genius project ends in only a few weeks, but nonetheless, enjoy! This week I've been working in the nervous system unit-- and it's a big one. It think the part that amazes me the most is how small a neuron is, and despite that, how much is in it. They vary in size from around 0.004 mm to 0.1 mm and move at around 200mph in the brain! Neurons, and the brain in general, are responsible for everything we are. The way we talk, breathe, drink, everything. I think that's why I have such respect for neurosurgeons: they work in a part of the body so fragile that one wrong movement could blind someone for life. That being said, it's one of the strongest things in our bodies. The nervous system serves as the body's electrical system, firing neurons every second of every day. The nervous system is composed of two different areas: the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. The central nervous system is essentially the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. The peripheral nervous system is composed of the sensory nerves, clusters of neurons called ganglia, and nerves that connect to the central nervous system. It's much like how the pulmonary system serves the system system in the heart. Both are equally important in terms of how the body functions, but one works on a more wider scale than the other. Based on their roles and how they operate, neurons can be divided into three separate groups: sensory neurons, motor neurons, interneurons, and pyramidal neurons. Sensory neurons gather information from the body and bring it to the CNS to be processed and then "dealt" with. This happens in a fraction of a second. For example, if you were to touch a hot stove, the sensory neurons would send that information to the CNS. Motor neurons work in the aftermath of the sensory neurons. They work with actions, hence "motor". MN get information from other neurons (like sensory) as well as organs to tell your body to remove your hand from the hot stove. Interneurons are different than sensory and motor in that they don't work for the whole body. Interneurons are found only in the CNS and have a main duty to transmit information from one neuron to another (sensory → motor). Then there's the pyramidal neurons. Pyramidal neurons are found in areas of the brain like the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. They work in aspects of the brain dealing with neuroplasticity and cognition. Even though neurons can be distinguished between three types, they have an equal amount of similarities. 1. Receive information (in the form of signals) 2. Process information and determine where or if it needs to go somewhere. 3. Communicate the signals to "target" cells (neurons/glands/muscles). Neurons, like every living thing, have an anatomy. Like other cells, their body is called a soma. The soma is in charge of numerous things such as holding the nucleus as well as forming protein for the neuron. Stemming from the cell body are small branch-like processes like dendrites and the longer one being the axon. The brain is one of the most complex things scientists have yet to understand. As of right now, the National Institute of Health spends around $4.5 billion on brain research yearly. In 2013, former (extreme sadness) President Obama announced the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) [what genius made the acronym for a brain project spell out 'brain'...I aspire to have that talent] project in order to better understand the brain and hopefully find cures for tons of brain-centered diseases. Though the announcement of the project was hardly the 'next big thing', it definitely took a step in the right direction. Yesterday (Thursday), I heard back from one of the experts I had chosen. While my other expert has yet to respond, the one that I received had thorough enough answers that made up for two! Rishi Desai is an attending in the pediatric infectious disease department at Stanford. At the age of 12 he took the SATs, and then at 16, he took the MCATs (quite the overachiever, might I add. possibly the definition of extra). Dr. Desai was extremely kind and helpful in giving advice for both an aspiring doctor and student. Up until last year he worked as the Head of Health and Medicine for Khan Academy, now moving to Osmosis as the Chief Medical Officer.
While I do hope to hear back from my other expert (Pediatric Oncologist @ CHOP), Dr. Desai gave a variety of answers that helped to get a new insight into being a doctor, and on the aspect of teaching rather than straight medicine. Now, I've been talking about straight medicine for about 234723942324 paragraphs, so here are some fun facts still related to medicine, but more, 'funner'. Number Une: When awake, the human brain has the capability to produce enough energy to light a lightbulb. Number Deux: The smell of chocolate increases the frequency of brain waves, triggering relaxation. Number Trois: You know how in a TV show there's always that character that gets drunk but then just can't remember what they did (or didn't do)? Whale, alcohol doesn't make you forget anything. When you get so drunk that you blackout, the brain just loses its ability to make memories for that amount of time. No biggy. Number Quatre: By 2023, an $1,000 laptop will be just as fast as the human brain. (That's really fast). Number Cinq: Albert Einstein, super genius, had a gigantic corpus callosum (the part that connects the electrical signals from the "left" to the "right") that is likely the reason why he had such incredible spatial and mathematical abilities. Number Six: The myth that we use 10% of our brain and we have yet to unlock the other 90% has been disproven. MRIs and other brain scans have clearly shown that even when we sleep, our brain is constantly firing neurons. Number Sept: 95% of decisions take place in the subconscious. Well, that's all I have to say right now. Join me later this week to see my vlog! There I will be sharing my inspiration and some cool pictures I took.
So, until next time, stay cool and don't forget to wonder! - Rhea M. ☾ Fun fact time (!!): you know the 'Dumb Ways to Die' game? The blue guy who dances a lot? I had a major mental breakthrough when I realized that he is shaped like a kidney, and the two stitch marks on his sides are in the same places where his kidneys would go if he had them! In the grand scheme of the body, the urinary system seems like a mundane topic. But! Never judge a book by its cover. The urinary system is an extremely important part of how everyone functions. On the outside, the urinary system is two kidneys with small, thin tubes connecting down to the bladder. On the inside though, obviously, it's a bit more technical (b/c nothing is ever that easy). First, there are the kidneys. The kidneys are a pair of bean shaped organs in the abdomen. It is the only organ that you can live with only one of. The kidneys' main function is to filter waste, ions, and chemicals from blood to form urine. The blood enters the kidney through the renal veins. Ever heard of renal failure? Renal failure is basically the kidneys' inability to complete the filtration process. This can prove to be life threatening if not attended to immediately as, essentially, all of the 'bad' in the body is staying there. Connected to each kidney is an ureter. The ureters are a pair of tubes that carry the filtered urine from the kidneys to the bladder to leave the body. The ureters are anywhere from 10 to 12 inches long, depending on the person. At the bladder, the tubes are met by ureterovesical valves that make sure urine does not flow backwards into the kidneys (that would be real bad). After the ureterovesical valves, the urine enters the bladder. The bladder is a hollow organ whose main, and only, purpose is to store urine. The bladder has the ability to stretch because of its elastic-like structure. This allows it to store around 600 to 800 milliliters of urine at a time. When its empty, the bladder is the shape of a pear, but when its full, it can be as big as a balloon. While the bladder can stretch, it does have a limit. You know the saying 'my bladder's about to burst'? It's completely true! In rare cases, the bladder can burst, pouring the urine into the abdomen itself, which is extremely painful and harmful. It requires immediate attention before a risk of sepsis sets in. In cases where the bladder is unusable, a new one can be reconstructed out of the person's intestine. The most obvious answer for a broken organ would be transplant, but bladders cannot be transplanted since the tissue that attaches to the bladder is unique to the person and also due to risk of infection. Recently, scientists and doctors have been able to 3D print a bladder instead of creating it from the patient's intestine. This hold obvious advantages such as being able to allow a patient to keep a part of their intestine, but also allows the bladder to grow with the person. Since the materials used to create the bladder are bio-materials, they can grow with the patient, allowing it to naturally modify as needed. 3D printing is the future or medicine. Doctors would be able to offer patients much needed organs without the need for a wait-list. Every 30 seconds, a patient dies from a tissue-related disease such as Parkinson's. With the use of 3D printing, doctors will be able to print tissue and other connective elements in order to essentially cure a patient's disease. 3D printing in the medical world is still completely new, which means just anybody isn't going to get it just yet. From first glance, it seems like the problem-fixer everybody needs, but it will be years before the medical community can accept it as the norm. As of right now, 3D printing raises a copious amount of ethical concerns that make people want to shut it down immediately. But, hopefully, they can be resolved for the greater good. Next week I will be working on the nervous system, which is a personal favorite of mine. From the first video that I've watched, it talks about the synapses, neurons, and glia (@ brain project).
So, until next time, stay cool and don't forget to wonder! - Rhea M. ☾ PS. extra fun fact: The kidneys clean more than 1 million gallons of water in a person's lifetime. That's enough to fill a small, extra small kinda pond-like lake! I've never been one for nature. I like the outdoors, usually in beach form, but I hate bugs and humidity and moist (ew, I know) areas. Nonetheless, school has enlightened me on the topic of those outdoors. In that, there's photosynthesis and phosphorous and the importance of carbon dioxide; however, I never understood quite the impact that humans have on this process. (@ bee movie) Humans, as a species, produce carbon dioxide as a result of used oxygen through cellular respiration. On the other hand, plants produce oxygen and sugar as a result of photosynthesis. The sun gives off light energy which is used by both plants and humans in order to gain said energy. The oxygen is then taken in by humans through simple inhaling and exhaling. This process continues through every second of every day. Plants provide what humans need while humans provide what plants need. It's a never ending cycle of productivity and reliance. It's the cycle that makes up the world we live in. If you were to step back and think about it, it's craziness. As I've completed this chapter and started the next, it's becoming more and more clear how connected everything in the body is. The respiratory system, like the cardiac, is an important part of the way the body functions. For one, there's the basic idea of inhaling and exhaling. During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts which pushes the air into your lungs, increasing the volume of them. Now, exhalation is the exact opposition in which the lungs empty of air and the diaphragm returns to original size. The oxygen that goes into the lungs is used to make deoxygenated blood turn into oxygenated blood ready to move throughout the body (@ cardiac system, everything is coming full circle). Once blood cells use this oxygen, it turns into carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is released during exhalation. Basically, oxygen goes in, gets used, and turns into carbon dioxide, which goes out. The lungs have many little pieces that while may seem unnecessary, add to a better quality of life. For example, the trachea, esophagus, and epiglottis are all a part of a nifty little thing called swallowing. Now when we eat, the epiglottis closes up allowing the food to go down the esophagus instead of the trachea. This small piece of muscle is such a key part of life as it keeps us from choking to death everyday, but goes unnoticed in the grand scheme of things. Everything that happens within the lungs is a part of the lower and upper respiratory tracts. The lower is consisted of the lungs themselves, the bronchi, bronchioles, and the trachea. The upper tract is comprised of the nose, mouth, sinuses, pharynx, and larynx. Each individual piece is key is how the lungs work efficiently and properly. (I won't go into all that because it does get a teeny-tiny bit boring. Nonetheless, for more information visit a few of the links below). The toughest part about the chapter was grappling with the idea of what each piece of the respiratory system means on a greater view. It definitely took a few watches of the same video in part with some side research to get it completely down. Anyway, I feel confident that I know enough about the respiratory system for one chapter. I started off the genius project with a solid interest in the world of medicine, and that's only grown. I now know of so many different random facts which comes with an impulsive need to share (pretty sure my parents are really done). Like, per my last blog post, did you know that it's actually not possible for a tree to grow in your lungs? I was under the impression that it could because of the world of television but also, reassuringly enough, some news articles from ABC, FOX, and Discover Magazine. But, after searching for a while, I came across a journal entry from CREST Journals (Current Research in Engineering, Science and Technology) that as far as they were concerned, the news articles were a hoax since it has not been proven otherwise that plants can live without the energy from the sun. Well, guess Trump was right, we do live in a world with #FAKENEWS. (That was a complete joke, many trusted sources such as NYTimes, LA Times, and yes, even CNN rarely share any "fake news". They spend hours fact checking and re-fact checking before their articles come even close to publication. Trump really just needs to calm down and start acting like more of a president if he wants to gather the support of the entire United States. Any who, I won't continue seeing as that if I start talking about Trump, I may end up writing a five paragraph essay complete with MLA citations at the end.) A few weeks ago I began to think about my expert. My mom has a few friends who happen to be surgeons, but the difficulty of time with their busy schedules became evident all too quick. Since most of them live internationally, there was the problem with our each individual schedules as well as the time zone difference. I then turned to finding professors or surgeons within the US. For one, there is a now retired neurosurgeon in Utah that is now a horse trainer. I went through some of his websites and even went as far as getting an email for his publicist, but opted not to due to the fact that this doctor was extremely hard to find on Google. When I was younger, I participated in a clinical trial involving bone hardness which has made me become close to a select group of doctors at CHOP which gave me the idea of possibly asking them. At the end of all my thinking, I ended up going with one of my mom's friends and a doctor from CHOP. I figured it was worth all the knowledge having to deal with time zones that I and we have no control over. Having two is better than one, am I right? After I confirmed all that, I started to compile a list of questions. Feel free to comment any recommendations!
The next unit will follow the urinary tract system, which, as I can imagine, will get a tad bit uncomfortable. But, fear not, I will not be going into too much a great detail with a fear of experiencing second-hand embarrassment. However, I do know that we are all mature young adults here (most of us) and should not fear with sharing information that happens in every mammal.
So, until next time, stay cool and don't forget to wonder! - Rhea M. ☾ |
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