My Understanding Then and Now

            My experience in college was full of self-discovery and discovering the science that surrounds us each and every day. I think the best word to describe my understanding and comprehension of life sciences is naivety. When I entered college, I believed I had that basic understanding of life and the science that surrounds us. I went through the typical classes that everyone had to go through in high school. However, I think that I had forgotten the majority of what I had learned in those classes, because it was high school. I don’t think I truly saw the importance of what I was learning until I had to personally apply it in college. I had heard all the key terms and trigger words to appease the teachers thinking that I had the true depth of knowledge they were looking for; however, I didn’t fully comprehend the idea behind metabolism or the total effect of DNA on the future. I remember doing a lot of rote memorization in order to pass exams and that was the extent of my knowledge. Once I entered into your BIOL 1610 class my freshman year, I got the idea of how to understand and fully comprehend different mechanisms that happen throughout the body. I remember my first exam having to sit down and go over the Kreb’s Cycle about a million times to fully understand the concept of the by-products and the products that are most needed for the full body experience.

            My actual interest in the life sciences were near what they are today after finishing my biology degree. I actually planned on getting a business degree until I had taken a biology class and realized I found it more interesting than business and sitting behind a desk all day. From that first biology class I went into full exploration mode in order to seek out a career that fit my personality and person that dealt with the life sciences and applying them. This is when I fell upon my desire for medicine and wanting to seek out and fix the problems that occur within the human body. So, as I continued to pursue my degree and had finally found my career, I started to really focus in on what is most important in my science classes in order to more fully understand how the human body works.

            Throughout my time here at SUU it has opened my eyes into greater depth of field of what scientists can do in the world. Throughout my courses, each one has added a new greater idea of what scientists do in the field. In my ecology class I remember speaking with Paul and what he did to continue his research and maintain a greater connection with nature and maintaining those ecosystems. He remained very active and made his research include many trips and adventures. One of the major reasons he said he loved doing what he did, was that he can get paid to go on river rafting trips while collecting data and ensuring that he is staying up to date on current issues. He being a scientist and completely devoted to his work and helping the environment, but he also made sure he helped his students to succeed as scientists.

            I think one of the biggest insights that I have realized in science while being here at SUU is that you don’t have to a big title or do something amazing in research to be a true scientist. I think that there are a lot of media portrayals of scientists as those brilliant people that are constantly discovering new mechanisms in the human body or even discovering something new in nature that would potentially change the world as we know it. I don’t think there are many people that show or even truly recognize the value of being or having a scientist nearby to simply help with everyday tasks or everyday bodily problems. My eyes were opened to the vast world of true data collection and manipulation while doing my own research throughout the last year and a half. During my research and collecting countless hours of data, I didn’t realize just how much time it took to process that raw data and begin to analyze that data and making sense of what he just spent hours collecting in hopes of having something viable to see and use for presentation.

            The faculty here at SUU has truly opened up my eyes to show me what it takes to be a true curious scientist or student of nature. They have taught me that as long as you ask questions about the natural world that you will continue to help out and make sure that things in nature continued to progress and help keep things from being endangered and keeping them around for the future generations to enjoy. I think that science had made such an impact in my life in the idea that it has always made me curious as to how certain things work in nature and in the human body. There are countless mechanisms that are all happening at once to keep an organism continually healthy and running and contributing to its overall development. Without the knowledge of the processes of how medications work in the human body and which receptors or triggers in the human body the react to; then the new discoveries of medications would become obsolete and pointless. Using science in healthcare will only continue to help me become a greater professional, because I will continue to ensure that the most up to date medications are reacting the way they are supposed to in the human body, and if they are not asking the question as to why it wouldn’t work.

            I think science will always have preface in healthcare, without the curiosity of a scientist in treating and helping patients, you won’t be able to truly figure out how to treat or fix the problem that the person is currently suffering from. I think that throughout my career here at SUU and my future career in healthcare will continue to have the major focus in being investigative to help all those around me and finding the best solution to that current problem. Without that investigative approach to any career or any path that you are looking for, you would wander aimlessly and going through the motions as to how to accomplish a task, rather than actually helping and finding out a better way to solve any problem. SUU has continually opened my eyes to bigger and better things that have all prepared me for my future career.

Austin Maddox

BIOL 4500

Dr. J. Karpel

December 9, 2016

MY LIFES REFLECTION THROUGH THE SCIENCES

            As I look back through my years at Southern Utah University there have been many fond memories, many of which have revolved around the sciences.  Growing up on a farm I had a pretty good understanding of how life in its many aspects worked, with a broad knowledge in the field of agricultural biology.  When I first entered SUU I had just moved back to Utah from Ft. Sam, TX working as an army medic at San Antonio Medical Center. My interests then were to continue into the medical field and eventually become some sort of Doctor, maybe a surgeon. I enrolled into SUU as a sophomore biology major, with limited knowledge in the life sciences outside of a handful of science courses I had taken at a local community college, life on the farm, and the medical knowledge gained from the army. I really enjoyed practicing medicine and the way the human body worked amazed me. So with my limited experience in the sciences I wanted to learn more, in particular to the health care field. As I started my undergraduate career that sophomore year I remember taking a lot of basic courses but some upper division courses that really intrigued me like microbiology and ecology. These courses may seem complete opposites; one studying organisms invisible to the naked eye, the other looking at the bigger picture. However both of these gave me valuable insights on how we as scientists work and view the world.

Going into my junior year I did extensive research on the mountain pine beetle and its effects on the evergreen forests in Southern Utah. Throughout my research I was able to find that the root cause of the devastation was not the pine beetle but something even smaller. The real tree killer is a mutualistic symbiont to the pine beetle called the blue stain fungus (Grosmannia clavigera). The way it works is the beetle acts as a vector and bores into the tree, once inside the fungus is essentially let out from a special structure in the beetle’s head. The fungus stops sap production and infects the phloem; in doing so the beetle survives, the fungus gets the trees’ nutrients, and sadly the tree dies. My research connected those courses and showed me how something incredibly small such as the micro blue stain fungus can affect things exponentially on an ecologic scale. It enlightened me to how all things are connected in some way or another by a form of science.

Coming into my senior year I have found science to be handy in real life situations. Currently I am doing research on the anticoagulant properties of leech saliva in comparison to current marketed anticoagulant drugs in hopes to create a more potent and effective anticoagulant drug. This would help in many aspects of medical technology. This year I have taken a job at the hospital in the E.R. and have seen many applications of science in everyday things. For example take the physics behind an IV line. The way it works is described by Bernoulli’s principle of hydrodynamics which states: an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure. Currently I am working in the army corps of engineers and the field artillery and have seen many applications of science. When firing artillery rounds there is a science to calculating where your round will land via physics and projectile motion. As an engineer we have built many things such as culverts and bridges as well as blown up things using heavy demolitions. This one time during a firing exercise one of the paladins (mobile artillery piece) got an impregnated tube (round that gets stuck in the tube while firing). To get it out safely we had to use a water impulse charge to push the active round back through the breach as to not blow up everything within a 200 meter radius (rounds explode on contact of high amounts of heat). The water impulse charge was placed using several bags of water (similar to IV bags) some det chord and a blasting cap. The outermost bag acts as a counter-mass while the inner bags act as a battering ram to push the object out. To do this effectively you have to have the same amount of counter-mass as the object you are trying to dislodge. In our situation it worked safely and efficiently and the artillery round was dislodged and fired 3 ft into the ground outside the back of the breach.  

Upon graduation I will commission as an army officer in the corps of engineers so I imagine science will be integrated as a part of my everyday life. Shortly after graduation I will be going into medical school and thus science will play its role too. Simply because science is connected to all things in one form or another and will continue to adapt and evolve to the technology of modern times.

Science Reflection

Science Reflection

The way I think about science has changed dramatically since I began college as a freshman. As Carl Sagan said, “Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.” I find this quote to be very true as I near the end of my college career. Not only have I gained a greater knowledge in many fields of science, but the way I approach knowledge has also changed.

In high school I never gave much thought as to what I would do once I graduated. It changed my senior year when I took an AP biology course. I had enjoyed many biology and science courses before this, but this course was different. In this course we learned about cell division, cell respiration, and all the other basic, somewhat boring general biology topics. We also were introduced to some human anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology. I had never learned about some of these things before and I thought it was fascinating, specifically the section we did on the human cardiovascular system. My teacher went into more detail on these topics a lot more than all of my previous courses, which also sparked my interest. My teacher, an SUU graduate, was an awesome teacher as well. All of these things together made me think that I wanted to be biology major and potentially enter the medical field after college. Once I got to SUU my appreciation for science continued.

I really enjoy learning about biology and the other sciences, but there is also an enormous need for jobs in STEM fields. America use to lead the world in STEM jobs, but over the last while it seems America has slowly lost its global dominance. This is why there has been a real push for children in America to take STEM courses. I believe this will have an enormous benefit on the economy and advances in these fields. America will benefit as a whole from encouraging children to pursue a STEM career, and can hopefully regain its position as a leader in the global science community.

After my four years of college at SUU I have learned many different things. Just a few of these things are include how action potentials are conducted, how cells use complex signaling systems to accomplish everything they do, the structure of sugars

and how they change throughout glucose metabolism, the anatomy of the human body, and countless other things. Not only has my mind been expanded on terminology and facts, but the way I think has also been changed. Now when I hear results from studies I analyze them to see if the results are actually significant and if they obeyed the scientific method in the study. Whenever I see results that are on social media that aren’t in well respected in journals, I automatically disregard their findings. After reading many scientific journal articles, I know the process that is involved in publishing a legit study. Many things have to be taken into account before your findings can be taken seriously. I have also learned once your findings are accepted, how hard it can be for things like trials to take place.

In biochemistry we learned that the average FDA approval process can up to ten years and up to 300 million dollars. That’s insane to me! It’s a surprise that any advances in medicine can ever become approved for use. I have gained a greater appreciation for all scientists after learning about this. They go through tedious, expensive, and lengthy experiments to produce profound results. I have also gained a greater appreciation on the work they had to go through to get where they are. Not just scientists, but medical professionals and other professionals in science careers. They have to complete undergraduate and graduate work to get to where they want to be, which takes a long time (~ 8 years). Depending on if you want to be an MD of PhD you have to complete additional work after school before you become fully certified. This whole process is very expensive and difficult to complete. If you love the work though, the end result will be worth it.

Even though I just went over how long, difficult, and expensive this whole process can be, I still plan on pursuing a career in the medical field. I will have to use my knowledge of biology, chemistry, and physics to be successful in this career. All of the science classes I have taken will help me treat human disorders. I also use my science knowledge in my daily life. I can make more well informed decisions on topics that relate to science now that I know more about what is happening. I have already been smarter when it comes to taking care of myself and providing advice to family members. This will also apply to making important voting decisions when it comes to legislation involving science. I’m sure in my lifetime there will be important legislation that becomes relevant in the field of genetics. I will be ready to make informed decisions as well as provide information to others that don’t understand.

Overall, I have gained a greater appreciation for the field of science and for scientists. Science is all around us and is very important if we want to continue to advance as the human race. Better medications and treatment technology are important as the incidence of cancer is on the rise. Climate change is also a very popular topic these days. Despite what your viewpoint is on climate change, it is difficult to deny that something is happening. My science education has allowed me to get to the truth behind all the political debating. With proper science we will be able to slow down the effects of climate change and preserve the earth for years to come. I know I have really enjoyed my education at SUU and I apply it every single day. 

Everything I've learned about science... except the science part.

I entered SUU with little knowledge about the biological or physical sciences. I was terrified that my lack of retaining knowledge from high school would be an immediate detriment to my schooling as a freshman. Surprisingly I completed the first semester of my freshman year without much effort, but at the same time I also realized that I still didn’t really feel like I learned that much. This inspired me to begin working on research project with one of my professors the next semester. Although I frequently felt like I had no idea what I was doing, I was amazed at how I was able to learn so much more by actually applying what I was learning in my classes to what I was doing in my research. I also think this helped me understand how to actually learn what I was studying in my classes rather than just memorizing the material.

I was never really interested in science growing up. I think this is mainly due to how general everything is explained, and it never made sense to me. I think this is what initially sparked my love for chemistry. I have worked in the SUU Water Lab now for three years, and I have learned how to perform numerous chemical tests and how to follow the standard operating procedures required by the state. I initially loved being in the lab learning about how each water test can be used in different situations, however after a while everything became very repetitive and I realized that I wasn’t using any creativity in my work or in this research. I loved learning about different reactions and mechanisms that show how life works, and about what we still don’t know today. This motivated me to apply to summer research programs, so I spent a few months at Utah State University in a biochemistry lab studying a Gram-negative pathogen with graduate students.

Because I had never taken biochemistry or microbiology, I spent the first couple of weeks learning the basic knowledge and skills I needed to be able to work with bacterial cultures. I learned a lot about how to create different mutations to study the functions of different proteins, how to analyze sequencing data, and how to use multiple chemical instruments I would have never been able to at SUU. I learned how to extensively document everything I was doing, and found how crucial it was to write down every little detail even if it was monotonous, because I frequently had to refer to different strains that I hadn’t touched in months. I learned how to figure out new ways of experimentation when I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted.

I found that even though my knowledge of these subjects were slim, when I got to take biochemistry the following fall I was surprised at how much of the material I had learned without realizing it. I think this especially will contribute to my future career as a physician, because during clinical rotations a lot of our training will come from learning by experience and not directly through textbook material. This research taught me a lot about the different ways of learning, and I’m grateful to have had an experience that helped me learn the application first so I was able to learn more efficiently in my classes.  

I think my favorite part about this capstone class was the opportunity for us to finally be able to ask our own questions. In our undergrad studies, we are frequently asked to review journal articles and write summaries or answer specific questions about them. I remember being asked in labs my sophomore and junior years to come up with our own semester project, and I had no idea how to even begin. However, after taking multiple upper division courses and being involved in research, I have found it easier to be able to read multiple articles, find the gaps in the research, and to be able ask my own questions about how these different research studies could benefit us and they could be used in the future. I think this is probably the most pertinent thing I have learned at SUU because, as a physician, I will constantly be faced with patients and cases where I will have to listen to questions, and be able to ask my own to be able to come up with an accurate diagnoses.

Overall, I think I’ve learned more about how to learn by asking questions and by observing than about specific topics in science. I have also learned what I need in a career for me to continue to be motivated and excited about the scientific and healthcare field. This class reminded me of how much I like researching different topics that I’m interested about and how much I love being immersed in places that I can creatively think and analyze the different aspects of science. I’m confident that these skills will benefit me in medical school and in my career, so thank you!

What I have learned and how I perceive the future

Entering SUU, I decided to major in Biology because of the AP Biology class I took in high school. In high school, I enjoyed learning about molecular biology and was interested in the processes in which energy was metabolized. Although I did not know much about the field of biology, the molecular part is what increased my interest of this field. My thinking process and how I approach different situations are now branched from my scientific education. Throughout the years, I’ve become more skeptical of statements and seek evidence for different claims before developing my own opinion. From an educational standpoint, I excelled in general biology because of the AP Biology class that I took in high school. However, I still had much to learn and didn’t have the in-depth knowledge that I learned by taking the upper division biology courses. Coming to college, I thought I knew a decent amount only to find out that I had no idea about anything. I didn’t know much about chemistry, genetics, ecology, or ochem entering SUU.

I think my biggest insight into how scientist work would be from my Biochemistry course. While going in-depth on topics I knew nothing about, I realized that scientists are people who try to find the truth through experimentation. This means that instead of just thinking our hypothesis is right and arguing those who oppose it (like politics) we actual do experiments to find out what really happens. Through null hypotheses, we can determine if a hypothesis is viable or not. Eventually, an answer can be formed from the given evidence but due to advancements in technology, our views and “answers” for different things will change in the following years. Scientists work and think based on the motivation to discover new things and to solve the unknown. Additionally, I learned that the best conclusion we can come up with for specific scientific processes is “it’s complicated.” There are so many things that work together and are interconnected that it would take forever to describe everything in detail. There have been processes in which we didn’t think were related to other things such as diabetes with cancer development. I think scientist think in ways that everyone should think. With skeptical minds and a desire to find truths about the world around us would help develop technology faster and improve living conditions for everyone.

The world revolves around science. Not only in the medical field, but in different areas of interest as well. Advancements in technology, machinery, developing more efficient ways of production, and even the other fields of study that don’t really matter to me will be improved in some way or another. Across history, we have thought that our technological improvements would hit a peak to which we understand everything in the world; however, I find this to be naïve because of how knowledge and facts change based on new discoveries. The scientific field isn’t meant to be “proof” that something is right, it is simply the field in which people work together to find the truth and seek to understand the world around us. Hopefully in the near future more scientist discover new innovations that will make living conditions better for the majority. As time progresses, more technological advances improve the lives of people across the world. There are still underserved countries, but over time I see science overcoming the shortages in economic success in these countries. We, as the new generation, are responsible for continuing the scientific progress and experimentation that our previous scientist did before us. Additionally, the climate change and lack of resources will drive scientists to figure out solutions to these problems. It doesn’t necessarily help when the people running one of the biggest countries in the world thing global warming was made up by the Chinese.