Hello BMSA bloggers! The BMSA blog is back and we are ready for the new school year! This week our new team has pick out some articles that we think may peak your interest! If something catches your eye, you can check out the full articles through the links in the title. We are happy to be back and hope you are too!
Contributor Simi Juriasingani
Just as parents and teachers are using technology to help children learn new things, doctors are using technology, namely Virtual Reality (VR), to improve pediatric healthcare. From mitigating anxiety and pain to facilitating rehabilitation, VR is helping doctors connect with their younger patients and improve their experience. This article highlights some of the most recent advances in VR technology and how VR is being used clinically to complement and facilitate diverse medical procedures. The possibilities are endless with VR, so it will be interesting to see how this new technology changes treatment protocols, for children and adults, over the next decade.
Contributor Claire Millard
Sperm donation can be a controversial topic, especially when the contracts and the actions by the clinic are not aligned. Dr. Bryce Cleary, a doctor in Oregon, recently filed a lawsuit against the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) after he was contacted by two of his biological daughters who had found him through Ancestry.com. Dr. Cleary had agreed that his sperm could be used for five children and all to women outside of the state. Despite this the clinic had used his sperm for many more, not following the conditions that were agreed upon. One of his biological daughters from the clinic joined him in the suit, stating that the OHSU didn’t realize the true repercussions of the fact that they were creating humans, shaping this up to become an issue of moral, legal, ethical, and personal rights.
Contributor: Ramtin
We are approaching midterm season - a time when stress is on the rise and sleep begins taking its painful, yet familiar, decline. Students almost wear the lack of sleep like a badge of honour. Too common is the friend that boasts four hours of sleep because they were “too busy” studying. Ironically, even as more research on the benefits and importance of sleep emerges, society is trending towards a culture of steeper sleep deprivation. A recent article in GQ magazine examines Western culture’s troubling sleeping patterns and how a £100 billion industry lurks as companies try to “repackage rest as the ultimate wellness cure”. As more evidence of the multifaceted health benefits of proper slumber arises, tech giants and startups look to take advantage by offering services to enhance the sleeping experience. This is definitely a fascinating read to explore some of the innovative ways sleep is being marketed. And who knows, maybe you will find some tools to keep you feeling refreshed through your next set of exams!
Contributor: Si-Cheng
The utterance of the word “myth” might evoke images of heroes on the battlefield, monstrous beings to be slain, and tragic fates that ultimately teach valuable lessons. These stories may seem quite surreal, but by no account must we consider fiction to be a necessity; the world of science has its own protagonists, its own villains, and its own bitter endings and sweet successes. But how much can we really learn from these stories of science? After all, the modern day has gifted us with extraordinary resources and new technologies, the likes of which Einstein, Newton, and Darwin may have never imagined. However, as we evolve in this sense, we degrade in another — our mentality, our purpose for pursuing research, wanes. We only focus on what is achieved, not how it is achieved. Perhaps the older generations, through tales of their experiences, can reignite our idea of what it truly means to be a scientist.