Over the years, my day to day professional life has narrowed in what kinds of technology I am routinely exposed to. While my undergraduate education at Caltech gave me the privilege of being taught about and utilizing technology across different scientific fields, from geology and physics, to bioengineering and organic chemistry, my current engagement with technology is increasingly more exclusive to the medical field.
That said, one of the values from my undergraduate education that has resonated with me over the years is the worth of rigorous scientific literacy. Caltech put us through such a broad scientific education in the hopes that we as future professionals would be able to continue to have conversations with folks throughout the scientific landscape, no matter their specialty.
While the medical field I’ve chosen is one that demands a fairly broad base of knowledge itself, I strive to continue incorporating at least microdoses of novel science into my life. While social media is very much a double-edged sword, I greatly value the ability it gives me to follow and learn from sources of new (to me) science like astronaut Kellie Gerardi, science educator Dr. Harini Bhat, and, of course, research behemoths themselves like NASA.
I value even more the opportunities I have to see science from my own friends and colleagues make it to the public stage, such as Dr. Brett Gardner’s conservation medicine and The H.O.P.E. Research Lab’s environmental pollutant studies. I’m also grateful to see institutional monoliths taking a step forward towards more general accessibility, such as the New England Journal of Medicine’s recent collaboration with Dr. “DocGlauc” Glaucomfleckin to turn what can be incredibly esoteric research papers accessible into comedy skits.
It gives me hope that rather than falling further behind paywalls and the often literal walls of academia, the technology that more and more people around the globe carry with them in their pocket will make the full breadth of science available on an everyday, easily at hand basis.
Byte-By-Btye Column
By Dr. Miceala Shocklee
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