Weeks 33-38: Microbiology & Pharmacology

In a whirlwind of six weeks we discovered the most pertinent medical microbes from bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites that can drop you dead in hours or bloat you up for years full of worms (as pictured, Ascaris lumbricoides removed from the small intestine)

I've always been a fan of "dark biology" and read The Hot Zone when I was only 12 years old and fell enchanted by Ebola and its deadly 90% mortality rate and by its secret stateside escape in Washington within my lifetime! The sensationalism of The X-Files that introduced me to Hanta virus and it just got more interesting from there. One of my favorite books is still The Demon in the Freezer which puts into perspective the danger of not only dark biology in medicine, but also in the context of biowarfare.

To top it all off, I will admit that Outbreak is also one of my favorite movies. All this hollywood sensationalism sure didn't sway me from electrical engineering though, but let's see if it makes a redux in my career choices in the near future.

Microbiology to me was a realization that this sensationalism was not so sensational at all and as we progressively learned the greater part of the infectious disease medical spectrum I became deeply enthralled by the intricacies of each organism and how they subtly invade the body and counter attack our defense mechanisms, and even our drugs that we throw at it. Now granted that I did a stint in a microbiology lab during undergraduate years, I don't think I truly appreciated the nature of just how cool these microbes are!

I mean take for example our friend bacillus cereus, who doesn't do much than give you an upset stomach but is frequently associated with reheated fried rice? I mean how cool is that to be asking a patient about obscure details such as what they ordered for take out the night before? This is borderline crazy - but crazy in a really cool way that might cater to my attention and fascination to detail.

Needless to say there's a lot to remember and a lot to relearn, but I really enjoyed microbiology and thought that it was fascinating, and for now it seems to be bubbling up my list.