Caduceus Newsletter: Fall 2003.07, Week of October 6
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Caduceus Newsletter: Fall 2003.07, Week of October 6 |
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è 1. Harvard University offers a Summer Honors Research Program in biomedical sciences |
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è 1. Harvard University offers a Summer Honors Research Program in biomedical sciences |
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Harvard University offers a Summer Honors Research Program in biomedical sciences -- a ten week summer program which is offered to students underrepresented in the sciences (with expenses paid). You can find more information at www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/diversity/shurpintro.html Summer research and internship programs will be added to http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/SummerResearch2004.htm as I get information. |
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è 2. The Church Health Center is interested in promoting a liaison with CBU to promote their internship program. (From a letter written to me by David Waddell, Educational Liaison) |
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"After graduation, there are often students who are unable to find employment in their chose field. The reasons vary from student to student. Some may lack professional experience. Others may be seeking positions that are limited at the time. Regardless, these students typically either wait for positions to open or take jobs in unrelated fields. The Church Health Center in Memphis, TN has an opportunity that can nurture these students in the interim. Our yearlong internships are specifically designed to help students obtain the valuable experience they need and to guide them toward appropriate placement. The come to Memphis to work and learn, while living (for free) with other interns in a home owned by the Church Health Center. Internships are available in organizational areas of aquatics, child life education, health education, health services research, exercise and movement, wellness, nutrition, integrative health, physical therapy, sports court, and non-profit administration." If you are interested in an internship at the Church Health Center, please contact me at 321-3447, or via e-mail, seisen@cbu.edu . |
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è 3. "Writing About Me: a step-by-step guide to developing a powerful personal statement for your application to schools of medicine, dentistry, chiropractic, optometry, pharmacy, physician assistant, podiatry, and veterinary medicine" is now available from Montezuma Publishing. |
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Barbara Huntington, PHP Director at SDSU and colleague extraordinaire, has collaborated with Linda Masse in writing "Writing About Me: a step-by-step guide to developing a powerful personal statement for your application to schools of medicine, dentistry, chiropractic, optometry, pharmacy, physician assistant, podiatry, and veterinary medicine," which is now available from Montezuma Publishing at 619-594-7552. The full price, via the SDSU bookstore is $10.95, but if a number of you are interested, we may be able to get a discount price. Please let me know if you are interested in purchasing a copy by FORWARDING your reply to seisen@cbu.edu . Dr. Eisen |
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è 4. Science you just can't Ig-nore From the Baltimore Sun, September 29, 2003, By Michael Stroh, Sun Staff |
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Ig Nobel: Awards for the top absurd scientific achievements have drawn intense publicity (sometimes unwanted) for its recipients. It's safe to say that when Peter Barss began investigating the deadly hazards posed by Cocos nucifera, the tropical coconut palm, he wasn't expecting to win a Nobel Prize for his work. And he didn't. But nearly 20 years after The Journal of Trauma published "Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts," Barss did take home an unexpected career-defining accolade for his impactive study: an Ig Nobel Prize. The media have been hounding him ever since. "I've never had so much attention in my life," he marvels by telephone from his office at United Arab Emirates University in Al Ain. Such are the strange powers of the Ig Nobel. Since mathematician Marc Abrahams conceived of an award honoring scientific achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced," the Ig Nobel has become almost as well-known as the prize it is meant to spoof. On Thursday, the 47-year-old Abrahams will again serve as master of ceremonies for the awards, held each October inside Harvard University's incongruously august Sanders Theatre. He also has a new book out on the prizes and the behind-the-scenes stories of its more unusual recipients. Speaking from his Cambridge office last week, Abrahams said he is feeling a tad triskaidekaphobic-this being the 13th Ig Nobel ceremony and all. And if that weren't worrisome enough, the guest of honor is Edward A. Murphy III, the son of the man who coined Murphy's Law. "What can go wrong, probably will," Abrahams says with a hint of hopeful mischief in his voice. A Harvard graduate with a degree in applied mathematics, Abrahams has been called everything from the "Puck of science" to the "guru of academic grunge." Many consider his job the best in science. When he's not busy organizing the awards, he edits the Annals of Improbable Research, a science humor magazine with a small but devoted following (who are sometimes referred to as AIR heads). His friends and acquaintances have included Nobel Laureates such as Linus Pauling and Car Talk guys Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Ten Ig Nobel recipients are chosen each year by Abrahams and the Ig Nobel Board of Governors, a group of scientists and journalists who sift through about 5,000 nominations. It's not an easy task, he says. "There are so many good ones." The winners range from the acid to the absurd. Former French President Jacques Chirac has won for "commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hiroshima with atomic bomb tests in the Pacific." So have a team of British scientists for their report "Courtship behavior of ostriches toward humans under farming conditions in Britain." And we won't even get into the levitating frog study. So eager are some scientists to own the prize that they have been known to craft experiments with Ig Nobel judges in mind. So far the only researchers who have been successful are the Norwegian authors of the 1994 British Medical Journal study titled "Effect of ale, garlic and soured cream on the appetite of leeches." But not everyone has embraced the Ig Nobel. The awards ceremony was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until, Abrahams says, a "dyspeptic" MIT administrator complained in 1994. A year later, Sir Robert May, former chief science adviser to the British government, demanded that Abrahams and his committee stop awarding Ig Nobels to British scientists. The reason for his wrath: Three of his countrymen accepted the 1995 Physics Prize for a study of soggy breakfast cereal. Abrahams ignored Sir Robert, whom one British scientific journal called a "pompous killjoy." The following year, Robert Matthews, a computer scientist at the University of Aston in Birmingham, won and accepted the Ig Nobel for his investigation of why tumbling toast always lands butter-side down. Abrahams says he's careful to ask scientists if they want the prize before they are awarded. Few, he says, turn it down. But some Ig Nobel winners later confess to second thoughts. George Goble is one. The Purdue University engineer won the 1996 Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize for devising a way to ignite a charcoal grill in three seconds. His award-winning solution: liquid oxygen, a substance more commonly associated with Cape Canaveral than Coleman grills. His technique allowed him to break two records: the time it takes to ignite charcoal and the time it takes to incinerate a barbecue grill. But the publicity that came with his Ig Nobel, he says, has been mostly trouble. The local fire department threatened to turn him over to what was then the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. His Purdue University department head ordered him to take down a Web site devoted to the project and to never talk about it again. "I thought it was going to die out," he grumbles. "But every year this time I get pounded with phone calls." But others have found that life as an Ig Nobel Laureate has its advantages. After winning the 1999 Physics Prize for calculating the optimal way to dunk a biscuit, British chemist Leonard Fisher found himself with a major publishing contract. His book, How to Dunk a Doughnut, which has been doing well in Europe, will be published next month in the United States. (The title, he says, refers to follow-up experiments he conducted.) While much of the science honored by the Ig Nobel may seem silly, Abrahams says it often didn't start out that way. In fact, he has refined his definition of the ideal Ig. "First, it makes you laugh," he says, "then it makes you think." He puts Peter Barss' coconut study, winner of the 2001 Ig Nobel Medicine Prize, in that category. Barss, a Canadian who holds a degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says coconuts are no laughing matter - at least in Papua New Guinea. A direct blow, he calculated, strikes with a force of 2,200 pounds. In one hospital he studied, coconuts were responsible for 2.5 percent of admissions. And the tropical fruit is not the only exotic threat South Pacific islanders face. Barss also documented the dangers of wild pigs, pea shooters, needle-nosed fish and native dress, as he reports in "Grass-skirt burns in Papua New Guinea," published by The Lancet in 1983. But for some Ig Nobel Laureates, life after the prize can be a little bit of a letdown - as mechanical engineer David Schmidt of the University of Massachusetts has discovered. "It's a little sad that my more serious research will never get the amount of attention that this fun stuff did," says the man who helped solve the mystery of why shower curtains billow inward. Sad, perhaps. But, as any Ig Nobel Laureate would tell you, it's not surprising. |
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è 5. BAD NEWS FOR HORMONE (i.e. ESTROGEN) PILLS, from Associated Press, quoted in the October 1, 2003 issue of In the News, a daily science digest from Sigma Xi. |
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Chicago - Estrogen-progestin pills do not reduce the risk of ovarian cancer and might even increase it, according to a study that raises more red flags about a once widely accepted treatment for menopause."It's more bad news" for hormones, said American Cancer Society epidemiologist Carmen Rodriguez. The findings came from the federally funded Women's Health Initiative study, part of which was abruptly halted in 2002 because of evidence that estrogen-progestin pills raise the risk of breast cancer, heart attacks and strokes. |
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è 6. Dave Brown, meteorologist for WMC-TV, will be speaking in the Spain Auditorium on Thursday, October 16, 1 to 2 p.m. |
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Dave Brown, meteorologist for WMC-TV, has agreed to give a guest presentation on responsible drinking as part of the CBU observance of National Alcohol Awareness Week. His presentation will be held in Spain Auditorium, Thursday, October 16, from 1 to 2 p.m.
Please attend. |
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è 7. Drummer, bass player & guitarist needed for the upcoming Halloween Day Lunchtime Benefit Concert for Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, Friday, October 31, 12:15 to 1 p.m. |
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A drummer, bass player and a guitarist are needed for the upcoming Halloween Day Lunchtime Benefit Concert for Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, Friday, October 31, 12:15 to 1 p.m. We have people who will be singing, and I can handle the keyboard. (Well, maybe not.) Anyway, if you're interested in helping out the kids at Le Bonheur, please contact Dr. Stan at 321-3447, or via e-mail, seisen@cbu.edu . |
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(Sigh.) What SOME people will do for 15 minutes of fame…
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è 8. The Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training Program, jointly sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, offers a 10-week summer research and professional development program for underrepresented minority students in careers as physician scientists. |
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The Pittsburgh Medical Scientist Training Program, jointly sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, offers a 10-week summer research and professional development program for underrepresented minority students in careers as physician scientists. The program is designed for students in their freshman, sophomore or junior years of college. Description Students receive intensive research laboratory experience and abundant mentorship. Every effort is made to match minority students with biomedical researchers in a variety of areas including, but not limited to: Medical Robotics, Transplantation Immunology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Informatics, and much more. Each student is also paired with a current MSTP student. In addition, students participate in a variety of career development programs, scientific seminars, and specific career enhancement opportunities including preparation for national examinations. By the end of the summer, students are in a position to create a research poster for presentation at the MSTP retreat as well as at a national conference. Social activities are included in the program to help build a network of peers with similar career paths. Funding Students receive a stipend of $3,500 for the ten-week period plus round trip airfare. This stipend provides students with a comfortable budget to live in Pittsburgh. All students must have medical insurance for the duration of the program, and since they will be working with human materials, are encouraged to be vaccinated for hepatitis B. Application The program is for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and is limited to minority groups underrepresented in the biomedical sciences, including African Americans, Alaskan Native, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Puerto Rican Mainlanders. The application includes a personal statement, transcript and 2 letters of recommendation each including a coversheet. Application materials are available online at www.mdphd.pitt.edu . Application deadline: February 1 For more information and application, please contact: Other research programs for Summer 2004 can be reviewed at http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/SummerResearch2004.htm . |
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è 9. On Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, 2003, the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic will open its doors to serve the greater Memphis community. |
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On Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, 2003, the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic will open its doors to serve the greater Memphis community. Founded in 1985 by Stan Brock, formerly of Wild Kingdom, this not-profit, volunteer, airborne relief corps dedicates itself to providing free health, dental, eye, veterinary services, technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas (Memphis is the first urban setting for RAM). Volunteer doctors, nurses, pilots, veterinarians and support workers participate at their own expense. Medical supplies, medicines, facilities and vehicles are donated. Through the generous services of countless relief workers, each year RAM serves more than 7,500 individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford such care. Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, 2003, the RAM Clinic will once again open its doors to serve the greater Memphis community. I invite your students to consider volunteering for a shift during this two day time. The Place SHIFTS FOOD RESPONSIBILITIES To direct people as they enter the clinic for registration; to register patients and dispense forms; to assist in filling out forms; to direct patients to the triage waiting area; to direct patients from the triage waiting area to medical waiting areas; to direct patients to the appropriate exam areas as they become available; to direct patients to chairs/providers as they become available; to staff the volunteer room and to pass out food and water to the patients; to assist the RAM officials in whatever manner is needed; and to provide general assistance. Assignments will be given upon check-in. SECURITY ATTIRE Many of the patients who are served in the Memphis area are of Latino descent, and Spanish is their native language. If YOU know Spanish, your help in this project would be IMMENSELY appreciated. I can assure you their time will be well served and greatly appreciated. For more information, contact: Kacey Hickey, Volunteer Coordinator |
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Dr. Stan Eisen, Director
Preprofessional Health Programs
Biology Department
Christian Brothers University
650 East Parkway South
Memphis, TN 38104
E-mail: seisen@cbu.edu
http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/
Caduceus Newsletter Archives: http://www.cbu.edu/~seisen/Caduceus.html
