Science and Witchcraft

Recently I had a "discussion" with a friend about the "controversial" topic of the "Theory" of Evolution. It started from an innocuous topic of scientific nature, of which I cannot remember, then led to vaccination, and as the arguments heat up, it became quite clear that she didn't understand Science in general. She is educated, well read and trained as a teacher, but does not believe in certain areas of science. This worries me that even highly educated people can have skewed believes to the point of ignoring proven scientific theories, and cherry-picking facts to suit their argument. That's confirmational bias, look it up.

I'm sure most people have noticed the incredible prevalence and saturation of mis-information and pseudo-science in the blogosphere and social media. Prevalence being a scientific word, look it up. The freedom of information brought us the notion that everyone is entitled to an opinion. Opinions are unfortunately, not fact, despite what you believe. It is hard to navigate around all the information around the Internet or even news, when you have high profile people like the US President who can blatantly state false claims in public forums as truths.

Earth is not flat.

The Theory of Gravity is real.

Vaccination does not cause austism.

The Theory of Evolution is not a light-hearted contemplation on a whim.

Yes, everyone is entitled to an opinion. To me, that opinion mainly aimed towards your preference of colour, or ice cream flavour, or why your neighbour's dog pooped on your lawn; but one cannot make a scientific claim based on their opinion. As a scientist (broadly speaking, with Wikipedia definition: a person who engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge that describes and predicts the natural world), I find it incredibly insulting especially when decades of studying (most scientists I know go through literally decades of Tertiary training) get reduced to an "opinion" that has about the same weight as a "claim" by someone with no science training. Just because you believe in something you found on the Internet, does not make it true, and you'd be delusional to think that it is. 

Don't believe in everything you read

Scientists are trained not to make assumptions, be inquisitive about all facts, and to deduce conclusions carefully. That's why we never make claims with 100% guarantee, or absolute answers. However, the biggest advantage that sets us Homo Sapiens apart from the rest of the primates is abstract thinking. By observing what the others have done before, I can understand the reasoning, and deduce the same results without having to do it myself. So when we read a well designed study, we learn to criticise and appraise it and decide if its outcomes are relevant or valid. That, takes years of training. Everyone can read a "fact", but not everyone can decipher if a claim is factual.

The argument I had with my friend led me to a horrid realisation that people, seemingly highly education people, can and will believe in anything. Belief is a funny thing. We like to think that we are logical animals, with reasoning capacity. Not always true. Opinions led us to believe that Paleo diet will solve all your health problems, you will slim down to a single-digit body fat % and wear a tanned grin always like the celebrity chef. Reality is that not only is there no basis to the claim, but people are physically and irreversibly harmed by these food fads.

Have an opinion, but don't treat it as a fact.

Living in the Past

"It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.” 
― George Harrison

It bothers me when people say the present is more important than the past, that we shouldn't live in the past. We shouldn't dwell in the past, fair enough; there's no point looking back,  I get that,. As soon as one starts to mesmerism the 'good old days', there's a depressing implication that the best days were over. "Used to" are two of the saddest words in English, it doesn't enforce any bragging rights, merely says you've stopped trying, given up.

Even so, I disagree. Without the past, there is no present, nor future. One cannot even exist in the present without a past. The definition of 'new', I'd argue is something one hasn't experienced before, in the past. We may not be able to know if there's a future; but living only in the present, and there'd definitely be no future in that!

To Be Exact

Heading into the second week of internship, there was only one conclusion that I have drawn from the two hectic shifts in ED, that is, I need to be exact.

It sounds like one of those wise advice coming from the older and wiser generation that we all invariably let pass from one ear and out the other, or inside of a crumbled Chinese fortune cookie, but I've found that the way I've been learning in the past few years have not been enough. My mum warned me before starting med school once that "the practice od medicine is not like your exams", she said, "you can't learn for exams as you've been doing so far in your student career, you need to pay attention to minute details. Passing may be fine for exams, but with a real patient, it needs to be 100% every time." I understood what she meant, but I didn't really understand until now.

I am very rusty with my history and examination having been on holiday since November last year, and not properly worked up a patient for the longest time. I realize that there's truth in what the clinical tutors keeping telling us, 90% of diagnosis can be made on history alone, exams and investigations are only there to confirm your differentials. I am finding myself going back to the basics and learning to take a proper history again. Let's hope I will be able to catch up soon.

There's no doubt about the steep learning curve. I walked around ED with a constant dazed look on my face, and countless deer in the headlight moments with consultants. The worst of all, mind blanks when it comes to making referrals to registrars. I told a surg reg that my male patient is having PV bleeding, and after being ridiculed for the obvious stupidity, I could not for the life of me recall the term PR for a good minute, and eventually broke the silent with "he's bleeding from the back side..." Were there any spades around , I'd have dug a big hole and buried my head in it.

Anyway, tomorrow will be a new day, I hope it will all come back to me before they realize how big a fool I am.