Re-humanizing Medical Treatment

By: Naomi Sharman

Observation, the long-standing basis of science, seems to be taking a backseat in today's medical community -- a change that is harming patients.

I was misdiagnosed in one of the best
hospitals in the country

I came home from a Christian proselyting mission to the East Coast when I could no longer walk well and had a collection of other severe symptoms.

I thought I was dying.

Before I came home, I was hospitalized in a Johns Hopkins satellite hospital. I was tested for multiple sclerosis, a brain tumor, and Lyme disease. After ruling out multiple sclerosis with the final MRI, the doctor started talking to me as if I were a kindergartner: "Can you come in for bi-weekly visits with a psychiatrist?" I could tell from her tone of voice that she wondered if a nut-job would know the meaning of bi-weekly.

Hot Spots in Immunology

• Vaccination
  Due to a falsified study published by an unscrupulous doctor, vaccination has become the public scapegoat for Autism. A huge amount of research has been done to verify this connection. Each new study has found the original claim of vaccines causing Autism to be false, but the public belief still exists. Many parents have gone to great lengths to prevent the vaccination of their children. The nation has recently been suffering from outbreaks of Measles, a virus that can be easily be kept out of the population when the majority of citizens are vaccinated. The reported cases and death toll of this outbreak are climbing fast. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/13/health/measles-update-cdc-800-cases/index.html

• Balancing Potency and Side Effects in Cancer

Enlightenment Restrictions on Female Scientists

Currently, I am working on a bachelors degree in Microbiology, planning to continue on to achieve a master's degree in a Physician's Assistant program. Because of this, I was interested in societal trends regarding women in science during the Enlightenment Era.

In the Renaissance, learned women went against the social grain. Educating women was really only seen in the upper class. Some fathers taught their daughters their trade, but even then it wasn't really very academic. Educated women were seen as neglecting their homemaking roles.

In the Enlightenment, however, these societal trends actually became enforced through restrictions. Women were not allowed to access certain instruments like microscopes. A microbiologist cannot get very far without her microscope. Even midwives had restrictions on the tools they could use.

As the study of science became more structured, there began to be right and wrong ways to do it. Somewhere along the line, being male became part of the "right" way.

As a woman pursuing a career in science in a world very concerned with social equality between men and women, it would be really easy to point to these restrictions as the birth of an oppression women continue to be hurt by. That, however, is not the point I would like to make.

I would like to be thrilled at how far we have come. I have access to a microscope. In fact, I have a favorite microscope that I race others in my class for. And I win. I draw pictures with bacteria on differential media plates:

My professor is a fantastic woman with a PhD. My teaching assistants in both of my science classes this semester are highly capable and confident female peers. I don't think women should at all be ashamed of their position or opportunities in science. In fact, with the men having such a head start, we should be very proud of how far we have come. The only restrictions we have now are the ones we put on ourselves.

Image Credit: Courtney Hilton

The Father of Microbiology

Bacillus megaterium

This rod-shaped bacteria is Bacillus megaterium. This bacteria produces penicillin amides which is used to make commercial penicillin. I performed this gram stain last week, but scientist have been observing microbial life for much longer than that.

The first drawings of bacteria were done by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1676. Leeuwenhoek was what we would call today an optometrist. He made the lenses for peoples' glasses. As he experimented with ways to increase magnification, he developed the earliest form of a microscope, which looked rather like a glorified magnifying glass.

When he discovered the power of this microscope, he began looking at everything he could. Eventually, he had the idea to scrape plaque off people's teeth and examine it under the lens. That is when he saw microscopic little creatures and drew these images.

His drawings are detailed and accurate enough that scientists today can say with significant confidence which bacteria he observed. His discovery of microbial life earned him the title of "Father of Microbiology".

I think Leeuwenhoek's story is highly characteristic of the Enlightenment Era. With this sense of individualism from the Renaissance and the thrill of discovery from the voyages, amateurs everywhere were making monumental discoveries like this.

Image Credit: Courtney Hilton