Chill'ns Hospital

My final project for my Genetics class is a multiple (like 12-15 I think) page paper on a genetic disease. We are each supposed to meet with a physician in one of the area hospitals and see a couple of their patients with them, then write our report on the disease and the genetic background.

I'm working with a neuro-oncologist. Brain tumors.

So I show up at the Children's Hospital Boston and am immediately lost. I walk over to the information desk, and ask for the neurology department.

"Yeah.. dat's in Hunnuwuh 3."

"Excuse me?"

"Hunnuwuh 3."

I had absolutely no idea what a "hunnuwuh" was.

"One more time?"

"Jus' folle' de signs towards de hat!"

Embarrassed, I looked around, and saw a sign with arrows pointing toward different buildings. One of them was labeled with a hat and was named Hunnewell. I took off after the hat, and found an elevator to the third floor.

When I got out, I saw a large sign that said "Urology" and had a bad feeling. Sheepishly I asked if Neurology was around somewhere. The registration staff informed me that Neurology was in Fegan 11. So I followed the fish to Fegan. Of course, at Fegan 11, they informed me that my advising advisor saw patients there, but was now in his office across the street.

I finally found my advisor in the unmarked building across the street and we had a good talk. We eventually settled on a topic that I think will be really fun. But that's fodder for another blog.

After the talk, I made a quick pit stop at the bathrooms and was pleased to see that the Children's hospital had installed water-conserving bathrooms.. a concept that has been around in Europe for a long time.



Two thoughts crossed my mind when I saw this diagram:

1) This would be a hard problem to implement from a mechanical point of view. In order to investigate, I wikipedia'd it, and ended up at the wikipedia landing pad of William Elvis Sloan who was the original inventor of the Flushometer back in 1906. The Sloan company still makes variations of the Flushometer today. After visiting their website, I found many variants, including the model I saw at the Children's Hospital. I guess it's called the uppercut. I'm wondering what the product naming committee was thinking.. "The new UPPERCUT product line will leave our competitors flushed!" While on the website, I was also attracted to the Sloan SOLIS® Exposed Solar-Powered Dual-Flush Water Closet Flushometers, which tout a light-harvesting solar cell and automatic selection of high or low flow based on how long the user remains in the sensor range. I think this would be a great Christmas gift. And no one in my family has them yet. Order me 17 of them!

2) Would I flush up or down for diarrhea?

Sleeping

So, I never really had problems sleeping in class in high school. I think it started while I was at BYU. I'm looking for a scapegoat. Because it hasn't gotten any better here at MIT.

I was in my medical informatics class, and this guy was droning on about something for the longest time. Unfortunately, I can't remember what he was droning on about, because, well...



Yeah. I was trying my hardest to stay awake, and was even trying to jiggle my legs, and take notes in order to pay attention, or to appear like I was coherent. But it didn't work.

I was abruptly brought into a state of elevated alertness by an unexpected series of events which I can't exactly piece together. I am pleased to report that none of these events included my face slamming down on my desk and getting a bloody nose.

So I'm trying to figure out a cause for my increased academic sleepiness.

High school was free (besides fees for orchestra tours, volleyball club, club T-shirts, and school lunch), BYU was cheap, and MIT is expensive. I propose that academic sleepiness is directly correlated with cost of education.

PGHS was 7 minutes from my parents' residence. BYU was 15 minutes. MIT is 4 hours (with the plane). Sleepiness is correlated with the distance from my parents house.

My mom and dad didn't want me to date anyone seriously in high school. Although my parents wanted me to get married, they didn't want me to get married to just any girl right off my mission at BYU. Now at MIT, they would be happy if I married any girl at all capable of producing viable grandchildren.

High school was a three year deal (9th grade was in Jr. High). BYU was 4. MIT is a projected 6 1/2 year experience.

That's all I can see. So, in considering places to continue post-graduate education, I should avoid the 19-year-long program in China with a $150,000/semester out-of-country tuition, and where all students are pressured into entering polygamist relationships.

Science

This blog is about science.

Science is a big part of my life. But it's not just because I'm a nerd.

Science is a big part of everybody's lives. Whether they think so or not. We call the people who think science isn't a part of their lives "politicians". These politicians try to propagate their disbelief in science by decreasing government spending on research and increasing senate salaries.

However, science is important, even in the lives of politicians.

In order to help people discover science in their lives, I have constructed an analysis of the scientific method with applications to everyday life.

Any good science starts out with a good hypothesis. This can be in the form of a question like they teach you in elementary school. It can also be in sentence form. Real science happens when hypotheses are in sentence form, and begin with the words "Wouldn't it be cool if...".

For example,

Wouldn't it be cool if we could fly? (=>Airplanes)

Wouldn't it be cool if we could change the DNA of sick people and make them healthy? (=>Gene therapy)

Wouldn't it be cool if we could create a tomato sauce that wouldn't stain your white shirt? (=>???)

And then you do experiments until you disprove your hypothesis.

Like today, I thought "Wouldn't it be cool if I could run two wash cycles (a white and color wash at $1.50 each on the washer downstairs) and then stuff all the clothes into the dryer (1 dry cycle at $1.50) and have the clothes come out dry, thereby saving $1.50 per cycle of clothes?

And then I tried it out. Unfortunately, this was one of those hypotheses of the class Hypotheses that lead to disappointment. In my case, the disappointment was a bunch of damp clothes with possible coloring in some of my whites.



But even the great Edison had experience with Hypotheses that lead to disappointment which I think may have been why he lost hearing in one ear. And in his pictures, his clothes appear to be a little off-white.

And the last part of science is to let everyone know about it.

And that's why I'm going to let you in on a little secret:

"Wouldn't it be cool if women were impressed at the stamina and moral discipline it takes to become a Rock Band Expert?" is a Hypothesis that leads to disappointment.