Viraj's Weblog

Here is a great talk by a computer graphics professor.

Absolutely appalling new math teaching "methods".

So I'm sitting here studying for exams and thinking to myself: How does it benefit me to know that a pearl fish lives inside the anus of a sea cucumber?

So I just had a 2nd Anatomy exam and am fairly sure I got an A on it. I studied so many diagrams that were not even on the test. The only thing they put was a pelvis and baby skull, and we had to know all of the parts. There were 2 questions that got me a bit. One was similar to:

What are bones made of?
A. water, proteins, and calcium salts
B. hydroxyapatite
C. All of the above

It had to be either B or C, because I know that proteins, calcium salts, and hydroxyapatite are all part of bones. But the water part got to me. When I see such questions I think they are trick questions, and there are many compounds with water that are not liquid. Alas I picked B which I think is correct.

Usually when I take tests I also look for clues in one question that may help another. For example here was one:

From what are the skull bones formed?

A. endochondral tissue
B. dermal tissue
C. cartilage

Now I didn't have a good idea what endochondral tissue was, but then I thought about the etymology. endo of course means within. Chondro I knew had something to do with cartilage, because there are cells like chondrocytes, chondroblasts, and chondroclasts that all have to do with cartilage formation. So endochondral means within cartilage, and so neither A or C could be the answer. It had to be B. This then helped me with another question similar to:

Dermal tissue forms from neural crest cells. What are other aspects of dermal tissue?

A. also known as endochondral
B. used for bone replacement
C. preceded by a template of cartilage
D. not preceded by a template of cartilage
E. all of the above

Of course E is ruled out because C and D contradict each other (this professor likes to do that alot which is helpful). From previous questions I knew that endochondral is equivalent to cartilage, so it could not be A or C. So the only choices left were B and D. From the previous question I determined skull bones are formed from dermal tissue, so that hinted this was not used for bone replacement. I also knew a bit about fracture healing, and it involves cartilage. So the answer had to be D. Also 'neural crest' hints towards the skull question above.

So throughout the test, I am sort of learning things for other questions, and going back and forth. I know at this point that dermal tissue forms without cartilage and is the basis for the skull. Then I come across this question:

Which of the following bones form from dermal tissue?

A. clavicle
B. femur
C. humerus
D. all of the above

I can infer from previous questions that the limb bones definitely do not form from dermal tissue, because I know that a fracture of a limb involves cartilage formation. The only possible choice was the clavicle, which makes sense. The clavicle is a very weak bone and the whole pectoral girdle is very movable, so I imagined it forming within soft tissues.

Other than that the rest of the 54 questions were pretty painless.

Well things are somewhat improving here, but it's dangerous to drive. Many major intersections have no traffic lights. Going through these intersections is not fun. With so many trees blown down it looks like a wasteland outside. Power is still out to many areas, and the lines to gas stations are huge. I am only driving minimally, and have about a half tank of gas left. Cabin fever is setting in. I saw 'The Shining' last night, but I am not at the Jack Torrance stage yet. What an amazing movie btw, it's such a masterpiece of filmmaking. It played on A&E and what kinda sucked is it ran from 8 to 11:30pm with commercials!

Speaking of commercials, I am really appalled at the number of prescription medicine commercials on television. It is really getting out of hand. I think I saw at least one for every commercial break on A&E between 8 and 11:30pm. I also see a new tactic in these ads. In the past there were always disclaimers saying you may vomit, get an erection for 8 hours, die, etc. Now they are almost gone, and instead they show some text in the commercial such as 'See our ad in Health magazine.' I am not sure, but it seems to me they are exploiting a loophole to not mention any side effects during the commercial.

Here is an interesting critique by a doctor on the med business. Sorry I think you need a subscription to Discover to read this. A quote:

These ads drive a wedge between doctor and patient. For a while, I was both a family practitioner and a researcher, and I knew as much about the real data behind Vioxx and Celebrex as anybody. I knew they were neither safer nor more effective than the much less expensive alternatives and would tell my patients so. Nonetheless, many still demanded these drugs, which shows the tremendous power of marketing.

If you don't believe your doctor, I feel sorry for you. It's a shame that someone can think themselves more knowledgeable on medicine after watching a 30-second commercial. Is 30 seconds going to outweigh 8+ years of education that a doctor goes through to become a doctor? What's also very sad from that article:

Drug companies are also sponsoring about 70 percent of the continuing education that doctors are required to participate in to keep their licenses to practice.

Here's a great blog written by a doctor doing his residency. He's always got some interesting stories on there.