Category: Paris 2018

As someone who works as an EMT for Emory’s Emergency Medical Services (EEMS), I found our class excursion to the Musée Service de Santé des Armées really intriguing. There were many tools and displays detailing how emergency medicine existed in the past. I was actually surprised to see displays and models of how surgical rooms were set up and how similar they all were to the type of Operation Rooms we have nowadays. It was quite surprising to me to realize how although medical knowledge has very obviously changed and improved in the past couple hundred years, medical treatments and medications are still very similar. There’s a clear foundation in transportation measures and drug administration. For example, people still pack wounds with gauze, syringes are still used to administer some medications, and stretchers and wheelchairs in the current day and age are pretty similar to what we were shown in the museum. Even something like autoinjectors that quickly give a dose of epinephrine to someone having an anaphylaxis episode was around way longer than I had originally imagined. It was quite incredible to see how even though medications and the compounds within them change over time, the method of administering them is still very much the same.

Continue reading “Don’t Eat That!”

The last couple days our class spent attending the International Neuroethics Conference. It was an amazing experience as it was a privilege to be able to listen to some of the greatest minds today in science, technology, policy, and philosophy. To learn from them and also witness their exchanges with each other was nothing short of inspiring. It reminded me of just how interdisciplinary neuroscience can be, which was one of the major reasons I chose to major in this field in the first place.

The topics covered were varied. On the first day, Theory of Mind was discussed a lot, and obviously this was an excellent bridge between neuroscience and philosophy. Some of the most interesting studies were done in animals, and more and more research dictates that animals are much more intelligent and aware than we previously thought (Martin & Santos, 2016). The ethics of Deep Brain Stimulation was also discussed at length and I was amazed at the breadth of diseases and disorders that are already being treated by this procedure. Continue reading “International Neuroethics Conference & OECD Reflection”

Two weeks ago, we had the privilege of visiting Le muse gourmand du chocolat. The gourmet chocolate museum provided insight into the 4000-year-old history of cocoa. I didn’t only enjoy the abundance of free samples scattered throughout the museum but also learning about the origins and evolution of chocolate. This museum was the home of decadent chocolate structures such as a 5-foot chocolate Eiffel tower which is shown in the picture. Not only did we get to learn about rich world of chocolate, but we also had the opportunity to make our own chocolate. We made little praline filled chocolate stars in the workshop and were able to take a bag home! Continue reading “The Rich History of Cocoa”

Our second weekend in the program, we went to a rugby match between Upstarts Castres and Montpellier at the Stade de France. This was a new experience for me, because I rarely go to many sporting events and it was my first time ever watching rugby. There were enthusiastic fans everywhere starting from the metro station all the way to the stadium. Our assignment was to choose a player and count how many times they potentially had a head impact. When the game started, I realized that this was much harder to count than I thought. When the players were hit, there would be so many players in that area at once, making it hard to actually see who was actually hit and who was not. It was also hard to keep track of the same player throughout the course of the game. In the end, everyone made their best guesses and we calculated a class average of around 12 hits throughout the game.

Figure 1. Janet, Coco, and I at the rugby match.

Continue reading “Rugby: More Harm Than Good?”

If you still wonder about where to go in the countryside of France, you should definitely visit the châteaux of the Loire Valley! Château is a French word for the country house of nobility. The Loire Valley is home to hundreds of châteaux, which were built between the 10^th and 20^th centuries. On a cloudy and chilly Friday, our whole class visited Château de Chenonceau, a beautiful château that spans the River Cher and located in the south of France. Surprisingly, despite its serenity, Château de Chenonceau was turned into a military hospital during WWI. At that time, 120 beds were set up in Catherine de Medici’s two great galleries and all the walls were whitened and the spaces were adapted to meet the hygiene standard. Moreover, the ground floor of the chateau was also equipped with one of the first x-ray machines in France. Speaking of war, it reminds me of thousands of soldiers who suffered from PTSD. It makes me wonder, how were the soldiers with PTSD diagnosed during WWI?

Military Hospital in Château de Chenonceau

Continue reading “From “shell shock” to PTSD”

Last Friday we took a trip to the Loire Valley, where we visited Château d’Amboise, a royal palace that was home to Louis XII, Charles the VIII and François I. Although 80% of the palace was destroyed by Napoleon after the French Revolution left the majority of the estate in ruins, we still got a full tour of the remaining castle with an enthusiastic tour guide who shared historical gossip. From forcing queens to join convents to posing for fake pictures with celebrity of the day Leonardo di Vinci to increase the king’s popularity, Château d’Amboise seemed to never have a dull moment.

Continue reading “Leonardo da Vinci’s Contribution to Neuroscience”

In my family, while neither of my parents have red hair, my brother and both my grandmothers on my mom and dad’s side do. It is interesting to think that I may be carrying a gene for this red hair, and could possibly pass it down, because ginger hair is somewhat of an oddity. It is commonly suggested that only around 1 to 2 percent of the world population (70 to 140 million people) have red hair (Barnes, 2013). On Wednesday, June 13^th, I learned even more about my family’s redhead heritage.

Continue reading “Red Hair Power”