Snide comments from the Doc

Sweet young gyn patient being perscribed oral contraceptives: "Will I get fat?"
Darling older Ob-gyn: "You might get fat, but it won't be from the pills.
[Backpedaling...] I mean, er, that's not one of the side effects. These pills won't make you gain weight."

Lucky

Today was long: gym, then gyn preceptor, then finishing research and writing on pulmonary hypertension, then reading for my climate change class, then meeting with a classmate to plan out our in-class discussion to take place this Thursday.

But then, out the window, this scene. And later, dinner with friends. Life is full of obligations, deadlines, things to hand in; but when you can take in this much beauty at the end of the day, and appreciate good food with your friends, you're pretty damn lucky.

Baby Love

Lately many of my friends have been coming down with Baby Fever. It's just the age all of us are entering, I guess, and maybe the fact that some of our friends and siblings are starting to have their own babies. (A history of exposure to babies, it seems, is the greatest risk factor for the Fever.)

I've mostly been spared from the mindless desire for, as my program director would say, a germ bag. Not that I don't love spending time with my little niece, or appreciate her extreme cuteness or think that she's a genius. It's just that spending time with her doesn't make me want to run home and have my own (or wherever that would be done...).

So today I was a little taken aback when I was hit hard with Baby Love. The offending little one was a two-week-old preemie and maybe the smallest human being I've ever seen. He was so tiny as to be a little alien-like, hands trembling as he raised his skinny arms. But he was "fiesty" -- even his NICU nurses had called him that -- sucking vigorously from his bottle and later tilting his shoulders as if trying to roll over and crawl away.

His young parents were so excited and nervous that they couldn't stop talking; I'm pretty sure I don't want to ever be in a pediatrician's shoes. But their baby had such an earnestness, in an extremely tiny little form, that it made me want to take care of him.

I don't know if it'll develop into a full-blown bout of baby fever, but I'm pretty sure it was love.

You know your pediatric clinic is underfunded when...

... the sports stars in the posters on your walls are from two decades ago.

I walked in today past a Mugsy Bogues height chart. Then in an examining room saw Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco (yes, A's era), and Tim Hardaway. Which was great for me, because these guys are from the time when I paid attention to sports, but I'd guess a little confusing for today's pediatric patients.

Coffee: is there anything it can't do?

I just caught the author of this book on a Science Friday podcast, and am dying to read it; it sounds like a paradise of intellectual nerd-dom. The book tells the story not only of Joseph Priestley's discovery of oxygen, but also of his role as enlightenment leader (which was controversial enough to get him expelled from England) and his relationships with the American founding fathers.

As a side note, the author offered this:

"It's not an accident that the age of reason accompanies the rise of caffeinated beverages." Apparently, before coffee came to Europe from Africa (it originated in Ethiopia!), the drink of choice for those who could afford it was alcohol. Once coffee became popular, there was no stopping enlightenment leaders, who, wired on caffeine, went on to lay down the foundations for modern science and government.

You can listen to the author here -- or just go to the coffee shop and fuel your own personal enlightenment.

Inked by science

I really want to get a tattoo, so today I started doing web searches for ideas and tips on what might work well. (I do know what I want to get, but not yet sure where or what the design will look like.) I found this website of scientific tattoos, which is good for at least 3 hours of time wasting. They all fall somewhere on a range of super-dorky to... well, super dorky but also really awesome.

I particularly like the one above, a picture of the phylogenetic family tree of HIV. On the back of a researcher looking into the origins of the virus. It reminds me of my work with rotavirus phylogenies, and a particularly zealous phylogeneticist. There were a lot of days when I'd come in, check my email, and find that this guy had poured hundreds of virus strains into a similar family tree -- because he thought it would be interesting. When he started color-coding, I considered blowing up the tree pictures and wallpapering my room with rotavirus. I never considered painting my skin with them, though.

Un-gagged!

This just made my day.