SURGICAL ROBOTS:

The topic for my research paper is surgical robotics.  At first, I really wasn't really interested in this topic.  I wanted to research chemotherapy.  I wanted to learn all aspects of chemotherapy because I'm going to specialize it in, hopefully.  But, the more research I did on surgical robots, the more interested I became.  The first documented use of a robot-assisted surgical procedure was in 1985, when the PUMA 650 robotic surgical arm was used to take a neurosurgical biopsy.  Robots are good for surgery because they can filter the surgeon's hand tremor and scale the movements of the instruments.  This allows unprecedented control and precision of surgical instruments in minimally invasive procedures and microsurgery.  The biggest problem with robotic surgery is patient safety in an event of robotic malfunction.  The operating room staff must be able to detach and remove robotic arms in case of an emergency.  However, robotic surgery is driven by patient demand.  Well-informed patients research available treatments for their condition and seek the latest medical technology which can potentially provide them with the surgical outcome and clinical benefits.

COMPETING FOR SUMMER INTERNSHIPS, USING A TWITTER CONTEST:

Given that it has it's certain problems, technology has provided a faster and more "green" way to contact potential employers or potential internship program leaders.  On twitter, applicants were asked to use to make their cases of why they wanted one of the six paid internships in four areas: account management, creative, media and technology.  In honor of the favorite number of a Campbell Mithun founder, Ray Mithun, the competition is known as the Lucky 13.  To reflect that, the applicants were asked to submit 13 comments on Twitter in 13 days.  Cambell Mithun employees sorted through three hundred applications and found thirty-two finalists.  These finalists were interviewed either in person or through skype.  Six people were chosen from the thirty-two finalists.

BOSTON HOSPITAL TEAM PERFORMS FIRST FULL FACE TRANSPLANT IN U.S:

Technology has proven to be quite amazing.  It allows us to do what would have never been possible many years ago.  Technology has allowed us to advance in all aspects of life, including Math, Science, Communication, Transportation, and Medicine.  Doctors at a Boston hospital last week performed the first full face transplant in the United States, attaching a donor face to a 25-year-old Fort Worth man whose face was severely burned when his head touched a high-voltage line three years ago.  The U.S Department of Defense funded this operation as part of military's efforts to expand research in innovative medical procedures.  A team of more than 30 surgeons, nurses, anesthesi­olo­gists and residents worked for about 15 hours to transplant the forehead, nose, lips, facial skin, and underlying muscles.  The lead plastic surgeon, said the team was not able to restore Wiens’s vision. But Wiens, who has a young daughter, should be able regain up to 90 percent of normal sensation on the right side of his forehead, right cheek, most of his upper lip and his entire lower lip.  Doctors say the goal of the operation was to improve Wiens’s ability to breathe, eat and talk and restore his face’s social expression.

SATURDAY:

With a research paper due and two exams this week, I couldn't decide whether I should go home or not.  If I didn't go home, then I would have to wait until the 8th of April, four weeks from the last time I was home.  I decided to go with my better judgement and stayed on campus until the 8th.  However, my mom came to visit today, something she likes to do and wishes she can do more often.  My sister goes to MSU as well and we spent all of today going to lunch and shopping.  Now, I hate shopping but it was nice to see my mom and got three pairs of shoes out of the deal. :)  I'm really glad I decided to stay because my paper is one resource away from being finished.  I have all night to finish it and all of tomorrow to study for this week's exam.  I am so excited for the first weekend in April because 1) I get to go home and 2) I will be finished with exams until finals!

ON THE LEFT HAND, THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS:

"Humans are asymmetric animals. Early in our embryonic development, the heart turns to the left. The liver develops on the right. The left and right lungs have distinct structure.  There are certain rare syndromes in which the usual asymmetry of organs is reversed."  Hand dominence is related to brain asymmetry.  For right-handed people, language activity is predominantly on the left side. Many left-handers also have left-side language dominance, but a significant number have language either more evenly distributed in both hemispheres or else predominantly on the right side of the brain.  In general,  left-handers have less asymmetric brains, with more even distribution over the two hemispheres.  Since left-handedness has been the key to the complex anatomy of the brain, they continue to look for links to many other conditions. 

IT'S TRACKING YOUR EVERY MOVE AND YOU MAY NOT EVEN KNOW:

"Cellphone companies do not typically divulge how much information they collect, so Mr. Spitz went to court to find out exactly what his cellphone company, Deutsche Telekom, knew about his whereabouts."  In a six-month period,  Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times.  "At any given instant, a cell company has to know where you are; it is constantly registering with the tower with the strongest signal," said Matthew Blaze.  In the United States, cell phone companies don't have to report exactly what information they collect.  This just shows that technology, though good, has certain downsides.  This is not information that should be recorded and I think the U.S should pass some sort of law against this.

APPROVAL FOR DRUG THAT TREATS MELANOMA:

On Friday, the Food And Drug Administration approved of a new drup that has shown to prolong the lives of patients with skin cancer melanoma.  It is a novel type of cancer drug that works by unleashing the body's own immune system to fight tumors.  In that randomized clinical trial, patients with metastatic melanoma treated with Yervoy lived a median of about 10 months, compared with 6.4 months for patients in a control group.  It has been said that the entire course of treatment costs $120,000, which consists of four infusions given over a three month period.  As a future pediatric oncologist specialist, hopefully, it makes me hopeful to see that people are still finding treatments for cancer.  Hopefully, one day, I can be part of finding the cure for cancer.

WOMEN SEEKING ABORTIONS IN SOUTH DAKOTA TO GET ANTI-ABORTION ADVICE:

A new law was passed that women who are seeking abortions, must attend a consultation at a pregnancy help centers.  The goal of a pregnancy help center is to encourage women to carry their babies to full term.  These help centers advertise free pregnancy tests, information about abortion, and testing for sexually transmitted diseases.  This law requires women to attend these consultations but also set a waiting period.  Women must wait three days after the consultation before they can have the procedure.  It makes exceptions for medical emergencies but not for rape or incest.  The goal of this law is to reduce the number of abortions by providing other alternatives.  However, women at these shelters often provide misinformation and quote scripture to persuade these womens' decisions.  These shelter employees are not licensed or accredited, and coerce these decisions.

PAIN, PERSISTENCE, FAMILY: SICKLE CELL DISEASE:

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease that causes red blood cells to have a sickle shape.  These cells can't properly carry oxygen throughout the body and tend to clump together, blocking blood flow.  This blockage of blood flow damages organs and causes severe pain.  Three people talk about living with sickle cell anemia.  One man talks about how professionals in the medical field don't take this disease seriously.  They believe he's a drug seeker, when his pain gets so bad that he has to go to the emergency room.  An eight year-old talks about how she treats the pain with a heating pad but hates missing so much school.  The last woman talks about how both her and her husband both have the trait for sickle cell disease.  Two of her children have inherited the disease and every time they have another, there is a one-in-four chance of that child getting sickle cell disease.  Hopefully, one day, we can find a cure or a better treatment for this disease.

RESEARCH PROJECT:

So I'm a little bit nervous about this research project.  I have a topic but I want it to be broad.  I wanted to right about chemotherapy.  How it works, the side effects, basically what it is all about.  I saw a movie about a man who had cancer and hired a woman to take care of him during his treatment.  They only showed a little bit so I wanted to do more research about it.  However, we were told to answer a specific question.  Now, I'm out of ideas.  I've moved on to a new topic though.  Surgical Robots, but I'm not sure if this will work either.  I found all my sources and would hate to have to redo the whole paper I've done so far but now the goal of my paper is to persuade the reader that surgical robots could be a good thing.  I plan to do this by explaining the different types of robots as well as the pros and cons of surgical robots.  So I'm hopeful that this will be enough and will work out.

CHERNOBYL STUDY SAYS HEALTH RISKS LINGER:

25 years after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, children and teenagers who drank contaminated milk or ate affected cheese in the days and weeks after the explosion still suffer from an increased risk of thyroid cancer.  Thyroid cancer of this nature is caused by the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid gland.  These risks show no sign of declining.  "Studies done in Japan after World War II suggested that the increased risks of thyroid cancer began to decline 30 years after the atomic explosions but remained above normal even 40 years later."  However, thyroid cancer is mostly a nonlethal cancer and if caught early, chance of good prognosis increases greatly. 

THE WRISTWATCH IS REIMAGINED. WILL YOUNG SHOPPERS CARE?:

HP has developed a new version of their first 1977 watch, called the HP-01.  However, this watch has bluetooth.  The hope is that they can develop a watch that will be an internet-ready device right on your wrist.  One developer said that the screen is too small and would be nearly useless.  Another developer replied, "it would be enough for alerts, able to notify the wearer, for example, when you’ve got 4 more e-mails, 3 Facebook updates and 10 Tweets."  Honestly, I think this idea is not so good.  I believe that no matter how necessary it is, society is too addicted to the internet.  It's okay to use it for social reasons, but the way we rely on Facebook, Twitter, and even E-mail has gotten slightly ridiculous.  I'm guilty as well and it never ceases to amaze me that no matter how busy we are, we always have time to check or update or facebooks or twitters.  Most of the things posted on these websites are completely useless bits of information anyways.  For example, "went to lunch today and sat outside."  Posts such as these irritate me.  Honestly, it's good you had a nice day, but nobody really cares!  We have become way to dependant on social sites, which is the major downside of such new developments in technology.  However, I do admit, it is a good way to keep in touch with family and friends, you leave behind when you go to college.

THE 5 SECOND RULE:

Dr. Roy M. Gulick, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College declares that the 5 second rule should become the zero second rule.  Eating food dropped on the floor increases exposure to risk for ingestion of bacteria and subsequent gastrointestinal disease.  There are bacteria on the floor and will immediately cling to the food once contact is made.  In a study, salmonella on flooring was tested, by dropping bologna on the floor for 60 seconds.  More than 99% of bacteria was transferred immediately.  As few as 10 salmonella bacteria can cause gastroenteritis. GROSS!!!

WORKSHOP:

Last Wednesday, we had to attend a workshop for class.  Although it was somewhat boring, I learned quite a bit.  A lot, though, was stuff I had learned in high school but the research topic was very insightful.  I'm glad they showed us the library E-Resources website because I had no idea it was even there.  I always assumed there was one but never know how to find those types of things.  The E-Resources has already proven quite useful for my research topic.  Plus, since they showed us how to use it, there was no trouble in finding appropriate articles for my topic.

GO EASY ON YOURSELF, A NEW WAVE OF RESEARCH URGES:

Research shows that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step to better health.  "People who score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. Preliminary data suggest that self-compassion can even influence how much we eat and may help some people lose weight."  The biggest reason people are not more self-compassionate is because they're afraid they will become self-indulgent.  This happens because society has taught us that being hard on yourself is the way to be.  "Other exercises include meditation and “compassion breaks."  Honestly, I think compassion breaks are a little corny but if it works and can improve your mood overall, then why not?