Modern Medicine

Modern Medicine. Sometimes I question whether it's worth it. Obviously I believe it's beneficial considering my current career path, but I think it's an interesting thought when you think about the quality of life some people have as a result of it. Ya know? Don't get me wrong, it's great and more people benefit than suffer, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. That's all I'm saying. Regardless, more often, thankfully, I just sit back in awe of the great lengths medicine has come. Two awe inspiring moments follow. Please, enjoy.


1. Robotic Prostate Surgery -- Click the title. It's a short movie, and so wild. A surgeon removes a prostate without putting gloves on his hands. Worried about your job going overseas? Now, so are urologists. A surgeon in Boston could perform this surgery hundreds of miles away. Could it be a breakthrough in providing medical care in areas where there is limited access to medical care? Maybe? 

2. Confocal microscopy -- Someday my office will be decorated with confocal microscopy images, aren't they gorgeous? See the descriptions beside the picture if you've ever taken any physiology course to make the pictures come alive...so cool! I realize not all of you will share my enthusiasm, but, it's so great to see things you talk about everyday really do exist! I don't know, maybe it'd be like a stock broker actually seeing money? 

Wanna see more? Click Here!
This is the Organ of Corti aka your ear. The green cells are hair cells and the nuclei of the hair cells are stained blue. The red spirally mess at the lower left are neurons which are synapsing on the inner hair cells and the spiky projections coming out of the green hairs cells are stereocilia. When sound waves enter the ear they compress the stereocilia, causing them to bend, which in turn depolarizes the hair cells and sends a message to your brain saying, "I heard something!" 

Your hippocampus. Orange =glia. Blue = nuclei. Green = neurofilaments.

 It keeps track of emotional responses and stuff like that. :)

Ok, this is cool. Cell replication in action. Literally, undergoing anaphase, the chromosomes which have replicated in one cell are now being divided to make two cells with the same set of chromosomes.
Green = the mitotic spindle. Red = chromosomes.
(Mallory, if you're reading this, I mentioned anaphase and cell replication just for you, cool, huh?)