Death and Dying

Hey all! Just a quick update. I just wanted to write a bit today and put something out on the blog for y'all. I've recently read the New Yorker article: "Questions for Me About Dying" by Cory Taylor that you can read here. [1] Author of Me and Mr. Booker, My Beautiful Enemy, and Dying: A Memoir, her writing combines …

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My Pet Peeve

Where did the love go? More and more often, as I find myself caught up in the race that pre-meds succumb to, I have found myself asking the question: Where did the love go? When I mean the love, I don't mean an emotional outpour, I mean the support in the little things in life. …

Day One: Who is Mr. Bacteria?

Today is the day I claim the name: "Mr. Bacteria". Today is also the day that marks the beginning of this series. I want it to be fun and exciting and my goal is to share the excitement and disappointments that come along with studying these inscrutable microorganisms. I googled the name "Mr. Bacteria" and …

So What Does It Means to Do Good Science Anyway?: A Conversation with Michi Taga

By: Joseph Maa Date: 5/25/2017 Why can't researchers do research and have professors just teach? It's a natural question that exists at all research institutions, with Berkeley as no exception. It's a problem that frustrates both students and professors to no end: researchers are increasingly subjected to higher and higher demands on their time, while students …

The Heroin Epidemic

Hi everyone Joseph here, Today I wanted to address the heroin epidemic after the recent events in Ohio addressing the morality of reducing dispatch to chronic heroin overdose users, as well as look at a few mechanisms of action by which heroin acts on the body. Heroin's rising abuse in the US is my impetus …

Today is Rejection Day

By: Joseph Maa Date: 6/10/2017 Today sucks. No two ways about it. For one, my second Reddit post ever got deleted. It was a breakdown of Bertrand Russell's first chapter of: The Problems of Philosophy. Alas, I'll never get to hear commentary on my analysis. My feeble attempts to write a critical philosophy analysis will never …

A Weird Thought about Blood Pressure

By: Joseph Maa Date: June 10, 2017 Hi everyone! Just a weird thought about blood pressure for today. The common numbers that everyone knows is 120/80 mmHg mercury for normal blood pressure. The mmHg just means the pressure to push a column of mercury 120 mm at sea level. I was really confused today after …

A Review of “The Care of the Patient” by Francis Peabody

Article by: Joseph Maa Date: 6/8/2017 "Death is not the worst thing in the world, and to help a man to a happy and useful career may be more of a service than the saving of life." In 1927, Francis Peabody delivered a timeless message to physicians addressing the relationship of the patient and physician. …

Finding Waldo: A Systematic Approach to Isolating and Identifying Bacteria

By: Joseph Maa Date: 6/5/2017 Hi everyone, Joseph here: Today I wanted to talk about something near and dear to my heart: finding and isolating bacteria. Now, the process of isolating single pure colonies (all the same species) of bacteria is important for a couple reasons. For one, having a lot of colonies is amenable to …

A Retrospection: Why Did It Begin With Potatoes?

By: Joseph Maa Date: 6/2/2017 A couple of readers have asked about why the blog's title is: It Began With Potatoes. A few more are on their way to starting their own blog, (I'm cheering you guys on wholeheartedly!) or already have an established blog. (Leslie's blog here: [1]) So, this article aims to explain my …