April 2009 Archives

« February 2009 | Home| June 2009 »

well being

It's a bit hard to believe that the first year of medical school is beginning to draw to a close, but it definitely is. I am currently in the midst of studying for a series of final exams for the neurology system, which will cover neuroanatomy, psychiatry, gross anatomy, pharmacology, and a whole hodgepodge of pathways and tracts within our bodies. It's an intriguing subject for sure, but also one of the most difficult.

Medical school ultimately trains doctors who will take care of patients, but the training is without a doubt intense...so intense that many medical students put their own health and well-being aside to focus on classes and become the best and most successful doctor that one can be. It's especially apparent around an exam, when students stay up until dawn memorizing just one more neuro pathway, or one more drug name and its mechanism of action. It seems like a small price to pay when that knowledge may come back to help you save a life a few years down the line.

It's also painfully ironic when I've studied blood pressure medications while munching on calorie-dense vending machine food or reading about how lack of sleep can affect our lifestyles while burning the midnight oil.

With that in mind, I hope to be able to invest more time into diet and exercise. I do believe that living the lifestyle that one preaches to patients is important. I'll get around to that, once I memorize this list of sympatholytic drugs.

Alex Lau
posted April 26, 2009 9:25 PM

Does Reusable = Green? What do you think?

There is a lot of marketing going on that spins products that are reusable as being green by virtue of the reusability. I'm wondering, how anyone feels about whether products where simply being reusable (or recyclable or natural) qualifies the product to pass the "that makes it green" test.

In case you need an example or three:

These are just the beginning. I'm wondering, what is your perspective on this murky area? None of these products are necessarily any different today than 10 or 20 years ago, yet all can or are being marketed as green or eco-friendly. Is that OK with you?

If any of these marketing positions overstep your line, who plays the role of the green-police to call the marketers on it?

It's a survey, so post your opinion in a comment at my blog, Tom Larsen, or send me an email. I'll read them all.

Tom Larsen
posted April 11, 2009 10:06 PM

A Funky Gymnosperm

Highlighting my favorite gymnosperm today. Nope, it's not a redwood!
Can you guess what it might be?

It's...

Welwitschia mirabilis
Native to the Namibian desert, here's a funky plant that only produces two leaves its entire life - they just grow very, very long. This specimen is growing in the arid house at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden.

You can see in this first photo that it's starting to produce little red buds which will develop into cone-like structures.

This second photo helps you to see the general size of this young specimen.

Here's how large they become when they're hundreds of years old. In this image, Dr. Chelsea Specht is posing with a specimen at the Paris Herbarium.


There are some funky, fun plants out there that bear naked seeds. Welwitschia just happens to be my favorite.


Photos by Tom Sullivan and Tina Johnson.

Christina
posted April 7, 2009 8:57 AM

Bryophytes!

I'm a teaching assistant for a beginning Botany lab course at Miami University Ohio. Today was our lecture on bryophytes - I snapped some photos of the great specimens that my friend and fellow TA Steve Rybczynski collected. The students had a great time observing them with dissecting scopes.

One sample viewed from above

Capsule and calyptra of a mature sporophyte

Christina
posted April 7, 2009 8:39 AM