Loafing Around Without Feeling Guilty

I found that loafing around without feeling guilty came much easier to me on my family vacation in Canada than our actual field trip week. In a foreign country with no cell service, it's incredibly easy to let go of the feeling of responsibility for a little while and just enjoy yourself.

However, it is much harder to not feel guilty lying around in the sun or going for leisurely bike rides when NOT on vacation, and being around school and work and home certainly does not create a free and easy atmosphere. I found myself trying to make things "count": for example, does it "count" as loafing around to go for a walk? How about to clean the kitchen? Or organize my class notes (not studying!!)? Clearly, I wasn't doing a very good job not feeling guilty!

However, one thing that I did appreciate more while trying to do this assignment were the moments of being far from home without a bike or study materials and having to walk or take public transportation home, twiddling my thumbs and enjoying the scenery. No guilt! What could I do? I think it's an important part of life, letting things happen and going with the flow, waiting around and appreciating whatever comes your way. Taking the long way round, so to speak.

Biology Week 7 - Cell Biology and Cancer

1. Using the word "sophisticated" to describe the western medical approach to cancer would be quite a stretch. It seems that we have neither a clear and effective treatment strategy for cancer, nor a deep understanding of the pathophysiology of this epidemic. Though many causes have been identified (such as sun damage in malignant melanoma) and many people treated, western medicine provides no guarantee in cancer treatment. Again, I believe this reflects the disconnect with our bodies and surroundings that comes from relying solely on Science to provide answers, where perhaps none fit within the medical paradigm of the moment.

2. The approach to cancer treatment in TCM largely and unsurprisingly differs from the western medical approach, as the understanding of the body and pathologies associated are entirely different in the two paradigms. Western science understands cancer on a cellular level, whereas Chinese Medicine views cancer as a combination of patterns with similar manifestations, usually Blood or Qi stasis, or Phlegm.

The Biology of Pregnancy and Birth

Here is the link to my PPT that I presented in class:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-aGOf4YS8NQMU1sZmZYWmJrdlk/edit?usp=sharing

Let me know if anyone has a hard time accessing it! I'm a little technically challenged.

Biology Week 6 - The Nature of Life

1. I think the distinction between living and non-living systems is all about scale. Clearly, there are some things that are non-living - for example, a rock. However, as a part of a larger system, that rock could play an important role. It could be washed into a river and broken down into small pebbles. One of these pebbles could be swallowed by a chicken, which uses that pebble to digest its food. I would include the rock inside the chicken's body as part of a living system, but the rock itself, not. Therefore, I don't think there is such a distinction - I think that if you zoom in or out enough, even the most inanimate, inorganic things are playing key roles in living systems.

2. I definitely think that it is valuable to know and understand that, genetically, there is more in common across "racial" lines than within populations. Therefore, I suppose I would agree that "DNA doesn't determine race". However, I'm not exactly sure what this proves and how it reflects on our society. As someone mentioned in class, even if skin color is not a valid way of grouping genetically similar people, we see, for example, health trends within populations that do correlate to skin color. This does not negate the statement of the article, but I think it is important to hold that, though "race" as a concept may not be scientific, it is incredibly relevant, and cannot be dismissed . It is unfortunate that articles such as this do not enforce our social structures, but rather demonstrate how, even though a group of people may not be the most genetically similar, the systems in which we live affects populations so drastically as to create serious biological trends within them.