The pineal gland may be small, but it looms large in the minds of literary types. Did you know the pineal gland was a source of fascination to philosophers like Descartes, who called it the “seat of the soul“? The pineal gland captured the imagination of authors like Hunter S. Thompson, whose character Dr. Gonzo feared the psychoactive properties of pineal gland extract in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. “Man, I’ll try just about anything, but I’d never in hell touch a pineal gland,” Dr. Gonzo said in the movie version of the book. In his novel Broom of the System, David Foster Wallace’s fictional corporation Stonecipheco worked on putting a pineal additive in baby food. More pop culture pineal stuff here.
Archive for the ‘People With Guts’ Category
Surgery Lesson
Posted: Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
“What a surgeon does to a patient — if it were done without consent — would be a felony.” surgeon and inventor Dr. Catherine Mohr tells TED in a fascinating podcast about the past, present and future of surgery. Learn about the brutalities of old-school surgery, performed without anesthesia and often without even clean hands, and familiarize yourself with surgery’s robotic future. This skull dates back 5,000-10,000 years, waaay before aseptic surgical techniques and certainly way before anesthetics. The crazy thing? Anthropologists have determined that from the healing seen on this trephinated skull that the “patient” actually survived this brutal and crude brain surgery. The surgical future includes amazing things like repairing the heart without cracking the ribcage.
Big Fat Brains
Posted: Friday, February 26th, 2010
Are bigger brains necessarily better brains? Sometimes, yes, but not always. It’s the quality of the grey matter that counts and, of course, how you use it. For instance, Einstein had an average size brain, but had a humungous area of his parietal lobe, the part of the brain responsible for visual imagery and mathematical thinking. Women have smaller brains than men overall because we tend to be physically smaller. But that doesn’t make us dumber, we just use our noodles differently, and, some say, make better use of a smaller space. Also, the additional surface area offered by deeper folds and convolutions on the brains surface can also give the average size brain more thinking power. {via Boing Boing, brain cupcake image courtesy of Me, Myself and Meningioma}
One of the Best
Posted: Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
According to Money magazine, the second best job in America is being a physician’s assistant. Forget the office woes and wrangling with insurance, and just get the benefits of helping people and, let’s face it, pretty good money and lots less schooling. Considering the shortage of nurses and doctors, PAs are also very much in demand. Time to crack those books!
Guts in Haiti
Posted: Monday, February 1st, 2010
Adding to the nightmare unfolding in the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake are reports that human organs are being illegally trafficked along with children. “There is organ trafficking for children and other persons also, because they need all types of organs,” Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour last week. The reports have not yet been confirmed, but it’s obviously an alarming accusation. Doctors Without Borders, an organization that was already working in Haiti before the earthquake, has been working hard to provide medical help for Haitians in need despite delays in getting necessary medical supplies and enduring aftershocks while treating patients. Read more about what they are doing right now in Haiti to help, and donate (as we did) if you feel so inclined.
Pulsating Organs
Posted: Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Yes, that guitarist is indeed wearing a pancreas on his head. This band of guts came together for a performance of Sonata D’Organi at the Organ Plays Project in Bologna, Italy. I think the stomach as drummer was also a pretty good call, he’s gotta have some good rumbling and grumbling. And check out the kidney cellist! {via Street Anatomy’s Anatomical Street Art Pool on Flickr}
Bodily Books
Posted: Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
We’re gonna have to hit the bookstore to check out some of the good reading from the Los Angeles Times‘ list of health-related books. Most interesting to us include Flow: The Cultural History of Menstruation, all about the period; Don’t Swallow Your Gum, a compendium of truths and myths about bodies; The Healing of America, an account of how other countries handle health care and how we might approach improving our own here in the U.S.; and lastly, The Little Book of Pandemics, perfect for the hypochrondriac in your life. {Thanks, Mom!}
Helping Hearts
Posted: Monday, December 7th, 2009
We were inspired by BoingBoing’s suggestions for charitable giving, which included some great medical and health related non-profits we thought might interest you, our fine gutsy readers. While this year hasn’t been easy on anyone, we figured if you’re looking to help others this holiday season, or perhaps give in someone’s name, this list is a pretty good start:
- Partners in Health focuses on health care in impoverished nations.
- Doctors Without Borders provides emergency health services and medical care in war-torn areas. Like Red Cross without the executive salaries and gross mismanagement of money.
- The Salk Institute does the research needed to find cures for some of the world’s most confounding diseases.
- Afghanistan Women’s Clinic is a new charity working towards providing health care for women and kids in remote areas.
- Child’s Play donates toys, with a particular focus on video games, to kids in hospitals. (Stuffed animals are generally frowned upon, as they collect germs).
Happy holidays!
The Wait Is Ova
Posted: Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Some students from University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine wrote to us about designing a fundraising shirt for their local Medical Students for Choice organization. We are always happy to slap a uterus up on a shirt, so we agreed on the “Ova Achiever” slogan (seems appropriate for you butt-kicking med school types) and they got them printed up. They just sent these fun photos — we always love seeing a man in a uterus tee.
Tales From Your Entrails
Posted: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Time Out New York calls the Morbid Anatomy Library in Brooklyn “mishmash of taxidermied animals, medical artifacts and creepy gewgaws.” The part-time fetish of a full-time graphic designer, the library has everything wonderful and weird related to body parts both human, animal and in-between (we’re fantasizing that she has a jackalope). Joanna Ebenstein’s collection of old teeth and decaying taxidermy became large enough to warrant making a mini-museum. We’re wishing we could go there, so if you’re in New York, maybe you should visit! {photo by Eric Harvey Brown}
