Sharia law debate
philosophised at 1:54 AM
This is a debate on Sharia law that I attended almost a month back, between the UCL Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society and the Islamic Society. It was quite a heated conversation, but I must say this got me interested in the whole range of Islamic beliefs and most importantly how misinformed we are that all Muslims believe in the same form of Sharia law.
As a side note, this kind of debate is the one thing that I'll miss in Singapore because the Singaporean government will never allow such "sensitive" debate to be held in public.
Lazy
philosophised at 8:41 AM
Haven't really have time to update my blog recently (and partly because I'm too lazy).
And I'm still too lazy now.
Advanced Dissection 2 - Mental Nerve
philosophised at 5:32 AM
Today we started doing our electives dissecting the lower jaw. Other groups got different parts of the body ranging from the arms to the brain (which is quite interesting I think) to the neck. It is nothing like our routine dissection that we are having in our core programme now, which is quite crude, with severed nerves and vessels everywhere, to be honest. In this elective we have to be really meticulous and take our time to dissect the structures in a presentable manner.
Having been told that if we produce a really good specimen, we'll stand a chance of getting it published somewhere, we decided to go about doing everything really gingerly.
We (Edward, Sarah and I) were given a head (yes, a real head) that is literally split vertically into half in the centre. It belongs to an old man. You can see all the wrinkles and hair on the face, and if you turn it over, you can see half the brain, half the tongue and half the nose inside half the head. I actually felt really grateful and touched that he decided to donate his body for us. I don't know who he was, but I know that he used to be a living human with a story behind him.
We spent quite some time discussing how to go about doing it. Unlike our routine dissection, we were not given a dissection guide so we have to plan our incisions from first principles. We talked about things like if we should flap the skin forward or backward to best present the structures (and that depends a lot on the location of the nerve of interest and which direction it runs). We discussed on how deep the incision should be, the boundaries. In the end we settled on cutting a rather small, probably 5cm x 5cm flap of skin on the chin area (circled below). That's where this nerve called the mental nerve emerges from the jawbone. It provides sensory innervation to the lower chin, lip and a bit of the gum at the front of the mouth. During facial surgery local anaesthesia can be administered to numb this area by blocking this nerve.
However the most important point of finding this nerve is such that we can trace it all the way back, through the jawbone, where it branched off from another nerve called the inferior alveolar nerve. The inferior alveolar nerve is the whole point of our group doing this elective, because we are investigating how the inferior alveolar nerve can be damaged during wisdom tooth extraction, as it passes right through the root of the tooth. Dentists got sued a lot if this nerve is damaged, because it can be a bit of a problem if you can't feel anything at the front of your mouth, and it can affect speech and chewing as well. Very unpleasant, considering how wisdom tooth extraction is one of the most common procedures performed.
We started by cutting vertically down from the corner of the mouth, stopping just about 1cm above the lower border of the jaw. At the same time, we cut the lower lip transversely across into half, and then cut the gum in front the teeth (or where they should be, since the old man had lost all his) and peeled it away from the jawbone (it is actually very easy to peel the gum off the bone, I can do it by just sticking a finger in, waggle a bit and the gum is detached). We then spent pretty much most of our time sticking scissors in and opening the scissors up (not actually cutting through anything, but rather displacing the nerves and vessels away using the outer edges of the scissors, while tearing connective tissues at the same time to avoid damaging anything). I'd say it's some really delicate work, and I must say it almost definitely helps to improve our surgical skill should we choose to be surgeons next time.
At the end of the three hours I think we will never ever forget the function of the mental nerve and its course along the lower jaw — we just spent 3 damn hours looking for it and then nursing over it like a baby.
Advanced Dissection
philosophised at 2:20 AM
Photo by MildlyDiverting
Chose Advanced Dissection as my Student Selected Component this term.
Essentially we get to pick our own body parts to dissect, and then use the dissected specimen to explain a clinical point (for my group, two clinical points, since we have 3 people instead of 2).
We decided to dissect the face, specifically the areas around the lower jaw and the cheekbone. Face is quite a difficult area to study for, so this is an extremely good opportunity to really get to know our anatomy. We will be examining the possible nerve damages that can occur during extraction of wisdom tooth, as there are nerves that run quite close to the tooth. As for the cheekbone, we will be investigating the fracture in the cheekbone and any complication to the eyes, since it forms the floor of the eye socket.
At the end of the module we will have to create a poster and present these clinical points.
Leeds Castle, Dover, Canterbury
philosophised at 1:59 AM
Over the weekend we went on this very budget trip that costs just £19.50 to Leeds Castle, Dover (a very very small part of it) and Canterbury (basically all we did there was eating salad wraps).
Photo by Patricia :) Thought this picture was really cute! I think it's the first time in my life seeing a black swan.
Leeds Castle has really gorgeous castle grounds, possibly the nicest I've seen. Maybe even better than the Palace of Versailles in France.
Dover
The white cliff
And this is obviously not my own photo, because when we arrived in Dover we were told it's only a brief one-hour toilet break (and the scenery didn't look particularly stunning where we stopped), so we thought we'll go to the Dover proper later on in the trip. My camera battery went flat as well so I didn't take a single photo in Dover. It is a very very beautiful place so I'm definitely going there again.
Canterbury
A sculpture of Christ on the gate of Canterbury Cathedral.
Didn't do much here, other than having a salad wrap and taking some pictures on the grounds outside the Canterbury Cathedral.
Disability Workshop
philosophised at 9:22 PM
We had a disability workshop about visual impairment today. Someone came down to us to talk about how it is like to be a visually impaired person. We then had to walk down the street outside our school either with our eyes closed or wear special simulator glasses to get a feel of what it is like being blind or visually impaired.
The instructor (who is severely visually impaired herself) started out by telling us to close our eyes and then asking us how we feel physically and mentally. There were like twenty of us in the room, and almost all of us described negative emotions when we had our eyes closed — helplessness, dependence, embarrassment, claustrophobia, sense of loss, disorientation, self-consciousness. It is interesting because this is how we assumed blind or visually impaired people to be feeling, and we as future doctors will often empathise with them in the wrong way. Blindness or visually impairment need not always come with emotional stress.
One thing I am also quite impressed about is how much support the UK government provides to these people, which you will probably not find in other countries. The Royal National Institute for the Blind, for instance, offers services ranging from leisure advisory to help visually impaired people in their leisure activities, to resource centres where you can buy Braille birthday cards, talking clocks and watches, thick marker pens, special grids to measure notes, signature strips, modified spectacles with magnifier, and other specialist equipment, to employment officers where these disabled people can seek career advice and even get someone to be your personal reader to read out stuff for you. It's quite an eye-opener how little we know about these people in our society.
We also realised how much trouble and responsibility it takes to keep a guide dog. Apparently trivial things like getting dog hairs all over your coat when you're out, as you can't see them and don't know they are there until someone points it out to you, can be quite frustrating (probably it feels a bit like having bits of vegetable stuck between your teeth). Then there's always the emotional transition when you started out trying to be normal, going out without walking stick, stumbling and fumbling over things, then realising that it's probably easier to just accept your disability and get a walking stick, because everyone will now know that you're visually impaired and therefore respond more appropriately.
Generally I really appreciate how our curriculum is not only focused on the medical science part of the thing. I for one enjoyed the morning session because being a doctor is more than being able to recite drug names off the top of your head and name every single part of the human body. There are still much for us to learn, in dealing with people, being sensitive and putting ourselves in other people's shoes.
Pub debate
philosophised at 12:40 AM
Last night I had a really long talk with Father Peter during the drink reception for the Debating Society debate on whether patients have a right to die. Naturally the entire conversation revolved around whether God exists, and what is the source of moral value if God doesn't exist.
The interesting thing is that I was with the president of the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist society, so it was quite a huge clash of worldview. One thing I realised about this kind of discussion is that almost always it will end in an impasse, with neither side willing to change their opinion. Both sides hinge on different sets of assumptions, and the most important one being the view that most atheists hold, that everything that exists must be natural, hence bounded by the space-time continuum and obeying the law of nature described by physics, whereas monotheists hold that a 'supernatural' entity exists. Everything else is irrelevant, in my opinion, because once you start from the proposition that a 'supernatural' entity exists, one which logic and physical laws don't apply, then Christians are free to throw out any argument they wish, because no matter how absurd these arguments sound, they can always fall back to the proposition that logic and physical laws don't apply to God. 'God exists' is an unfalsifiable claim. I regret not posting the question to the Father to ask him if there's any argument that will falsify the claim that God exists. I could not think of any such 'silver bullet' to make a Christian un-believe.
On the other side, atheists are committing exactly the same sort of intellectual flaw. Instead of starting from the proposition that there exists a 'supernatural' entity — an unreasonable claim, and by that I mean there's no way a believer can reason a non-believer into believing — atheists believe that all that exists must be natural or physical (i.e. energy and matter) — yet another unreasonable claim. That forms the basis for all their arguments. God could not possibly exist because it is illogical or contradictory (the rationalist argument) and there is no reliable observable evidence (the empiricist argument). Christians will then argue that rationalism and empiricism don't apply to God, and from this point onwards, really, there's nothing to argue about. Maybe thinking about it, Christians do have a 'silver bullet' against atheism — God is above logic. Argument ending.
So really after the two hours of debate, I am still firmly rooted in my original stand — open agnostic atheism. I can't know for sure that God does exist or God doesn't exist, and I'm tending very much towards the atheist side of the spectrum, but I do believe that it is plausible that some people could have gotten some form of 'spiritual revelation' (whatever that is), that it is plausible that an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God, who is personal, and who has sent Jesus to atone for our sin exists, and that it takes a leap of faith to believe in such a God. I do not however believe one can reason their way to reach a conclusion that God exists.
Lecture videos
philosophised at 8:19 PM
This year our lecture videos are all posted online, and consequently I find myself skipping lectures very often because I find it more advantageous to just watch them online in the comfort of my home.
There are a few benefits of doing so:
1. I get to sleep late, and that means I get to wake up late, which means that I won't fall asleep during lectures. You may ask why can't I just go to sleep early and wake up early? The answer is that I can't — I'm very obvious a night person who functions better at night.
2. It takes me 15 minutes to walk to school, and 15 minutes to walk back. It takes another 10 minutes to dress up, comb hair, put on contact lens, wear socks and shoes, and another 10 minutes to take off. Counting in some delay time, it all adds up to one hour every day in preparing for school. A huge waste of time if I can skip school entirely and just watch videos online.
3. I can rewind the video and listen to it over and over again, whereas if I were to attend the lectures, if I miss something, that's it.
4. Going by the same logic, I can pause the video and actually google something that I don't understand.
5. I can pace myself. If I feel tired I will just take a nap before watching the next video. In the long run it's better to have a solid one-hour sleep and study with a clear mind for the rest of the day, rather than study for the whole day without rest and feeling really groggy.
That's about it for self-justification for why I skip lectures.
Medicine
philosophised at 7:41 PM
It has been just three weeks since I arrived in London and the end of the second week of school, but it felt like a really really long time because we have done so many things within such a short time. For the first week we did lots of shopping for household items like broomsticks, mops, bath curtains, towels, ironing board and so on.
University has been interesting so far. My current module, Movement and Musculoskeletal Biology, interests me a lot. It has got all to do with bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints and nerves. I like how it is so macroscopic and that I can use my own body as a visualization aid.
For my electives I chose Advanced Dissections for Upper Limb, Advanced Dissections (Clinical) and Cognitive Neuroscience - Behavioural and Brain Development during Adolescence as my three choices, out of which I will only get one (or possibly none, because I have a feeling they are all oversubscribed).
My cadaver this year proves to be a harder one to dissect than the one we've got last year. He's a bigger chap and has got much more fats to clear away, and we probably spent 90% of the time in the dissection room just pulling away at fats to get a good view at the vessels.
I'm however looking forward more to our Neuroscience module starting near the end of next month. As of now I'm still interested in specialising in Neurosurgery, even though I've been told that it's a darn hard specialty to get into (and legal insurance is a major headache because of how easily things can go wrong in brain surgery).
Internet
philosophised at 6:09 AM
Finally got my Internet up and running at my new house!
Arab Spring
philosophised at 2:20 AM
The more I read about the Arab Spring, the more divided my opinion becomes. Many people take a very clear side regarding the Arab Spring, but I find myself kiting between the camp that says that the Arab Spring will usher in a new era of political instability and military escalation, to the camp that portrays the Arab Spring as a success in the making and will make the Middle East a far more humane place in the future.
I am really ambivalent regarding where I stand on this.
When I first read about the NATO sending in air support to enforce a no-fly zone above Libya, I thought that it was the right thing to do to protect the civilians from an imminent massacre. A few days later it was apparent that the no-fly zone has turned into an air raid to provide support for the rebel army, and in my opinion this went beyond the mandate for a no-fly zone that was initially aimed at minimising civilian casualties, and instead actively taking side in an armed conflict. I'm not so sure about whether this is a right thing to do anymore.
Then there is this issue that still puzzles me. Why do we intervene in Libya, and not Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Sudan? Politicians seem to draw the line somewhere, though the arguments made were extremely nebulous.
For example, Hilary Clinton responded to a CBS interview about why the US did not intervene in Syria by saying that "What’s been happening there [in Syria] the last few weeks is deeply concerning, but there’s a difference between calling out aircraft and indiscriminately strafing and bombing your own cities, than police actions which, frankly, have exceeded the use of force that any of us would want to see."
My first impression is that she is saying that we should not intervene in Syria because the Syrian government is only shooting people, not bombing them like Gaddafi did. So is that where we arbitrarily draw the line between intervention and non-intervention?
I also find myself questioning whether a military intervention automatically guarantees human right. I still think that there's a huge logical gap here. The main reason for my scepticism is that the Arab population is still largely illiberal as far as I can tell, and there is this very prominent example of an illiberal democracy in the Middle East — Iran (though many people are very keen to deny the fact that it is a democracy at all) — that some argue is worse off, or at least no better than before the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
There is a transfer of power going on now, and some would characterise that as a power struggle. Those that are victorious may very well not be democratic, and those that are democratic are not likely to be liberal. In fact I think it's more likely that the Arab Spring will culminate with the establishment of several illiberal democracies, than Libyans and Egyptians and Tunisians and Syrians becoming liberal Frenchmen overnight. Nobody seems to give much thought to that. However, what is truly worrying is how the Europeans and the US will respond to these illiberal governments should they form.
The world seems to be cheering on when the revolution seized the whole region, but regrettably few pragmatists had gotten their hands dirty and talked about the less pleasant outcomes of the Arab Spring. The best scenario is of course these nations turning into Britains and Frances. That will make the world a better place and I'll be the first to celebrate, but I seriously don't see that happening any time soon. People should be more willing to tread into the grey areas and take a deeper look at reality to realize that we are not living in the world of Narnia. People and nations do not and cannot change overnight. We need to have more realistic expectations.
PS. Well, I realized that I drifted towards scepticism again even though I started off saying that I was neither here nor there. I noticed that there's not much to be said if you are not a sceptic, because human right is obviously important and that massacres are obviously wrong and pigs don't fly. No one is seriously disagreeing on these premises. However politicians still go ad nauseum about how we should not stain our conscience by not intervening, that we can have another success like that in Bosnia, that Gaddafi is an evil man, and violent crackdowns on protesters are deplorable, and so on. These are obvious, but we like to hear the obvious. It feeds our wishful thinking.
Vials
philosophised at 4:57 PM
Pretty vials of cells that will soon be frozen with liquid nitrogen.
I am so going to miss culturing cells.
Roadside
philosophised at 8:48 PM
I miss the Buffalo wings!
(I refuse to post the photo up. It is that good.)
Cell culture
philosophised at 8:42 PM
Cell culture.
My routine nowadays.
Microtome
philosophised at 9:51 PM
Spent the whole afternoon microtoming cells.
Research is ending so so soon...
Presidential candidates
philosophised at 1:36 AM
Having watched the TOC presidential debate...
1. Tony Tan seems to have no principles at all. He is definitely not independent. He's not even clear-minded!
2. Tan Jee Say is definitely the most outspoken speaker out of the four. In fact he's my favourite, if not for the fact that he seems to have quite a rosy view of the power of the President. If he's slightly more moderate and slightly ‐ only slight — less confrontational, he'd be a perfect candidate.
3. Tan Kin Lian seems very meticulous, but his ideas are all over the place. I like his idea of setting up a Presidential Advisory Team though.
4. Tan Cheng Bock is an honest man, and I actually thinks he's quite humorous (though not as humorous as TJS). However I think he's not sharp enough for the job because he misses the point in many measures he proposed (eg. Prime Minister having a separate office from Istana).
Given that Singapore is a single-party system, which in my opinion is not flawed in and of itself, it is definitely in need of a check-and-balance mechanism to ensure that the ruling party serves the nation. An elected President with veto power, backed by popular support, and willing and unafraid to exercise the veto power, will go a long way into ensuring that the government continues to function properly and legitimately.
Videos follow:
Political Functionalism
philosophised at 11:59 PM
Like it or not, immigration will continue, and the demographic of every country on earth will change. Any attempt to stop the flow of labour will inevitably fail, just like the isolationist and protectionists' attempts against global trade. The ease of information transfer also broke down the boundaries between countries, and more and more people become not merely connected, but hyper-connected. Globalization is unavoidable, not just on the economic side of things but also demographically and ideologically. Societies will become more and more pluralistic in terms of culture and ideology.
There is a contradiction in cultural pluralism and democracy (or specifically, liberal democracy). As capitalism has shown, people are motivated primarily by self-interest, and it's wishful thinking to believe otherwise. People can occasionally be nice and giving, as in how people donate to charity so readily for the greater good, but there's a reason why our economies aren't run like charities - people are self-interested.
And democracy feeds on the differences of the population. The theory goes as follow: people have different viewpoints, and democracy ensures that people are able to voice their viewpoints, discuss openly and ultimately come to a middle ground.
And here the contradiction arises. Democracy proposes that people will naturally gravitate towards a compromise. However, if people are ultimately motivated by self-interest, the differing viewpoints will naturally diverge from one another, seeking to tilt the balance towards themselves. As the number of differing viewpoints increases, a common ground may be harder and harder to find - and the society may not wait around for the political equilibrium to establish itself.
In a laissez faire economy, consumers are said to be able to vote with money, signalling to the market which goods to produce more and which goods to produce less. This political analogy can perhaps be turned in on itself when talking about democracy. A completely liberal political system faces the same problem as a completely unregulated free market - market failure. Self-motivated consumerism will neglect the external costs to the society and environment. A completely unregulated tobacco industry will result in a major abuse in tobacco, where people only consider their own costs and benefits before buying a cigarette. Public interests are generally not taken into account when making purchase decisions. Yes, there are people who spared a thought for others, excusing themselves to have a puff elsewhere, but you can not run an economy based on the goodwill of people. You need regulations.
The same can be said of the political system, especially as societies become more heterogenous and globalized. The political 'market failures' are all too evident today in many democracies - the poor and the minority being excluded and marginalized, too much political capital going towards maintaining the 'too
The caveat here is not to veer towards fascism and totalitarianism, just like how a command economy may be indeed more disastrous than a completely free one. A balance needs to be struck, freedoms need to be traded off, both among themselves and against other goals like stability.
I argue for what I call 'political functionalism' (It may go by other names but I'm not able to find the correct label for such a view). I believe that a political system should be a practical solution to problems we face in society. We change our political institutions to best adapt to the changing circumstances.
Realise that political functionalism and democracy are not mutually exclusive - if a culture or a society demands for a democratic state, then by all means create one. Eventually, all states may very well become democratic, not because democracy is the true utopian ideal, but rather it's the system that functions the best. Similarly, if the situation calls for a more paternalistic government, then we should not feel the repugnance to create one.
The current Western-style democracy is the complete opposite of my idea of a perfect system - it is committed with a lofty ideal, and then indiscriminately try to impose the system on whatever society it comes across, regardless of their circumstances. It is uncompromising and rigid on various fronts, especially regarding the enshrined values of individual freedoms that are virtually inviolable, no matter what the situation is. Realistically, it is a monistic system that tolerates no other values or the possibility of any compromise, and I henceforth question: can such a system that declares itself the 'End of History' truly withstand the test of time?
London Riots
philosophised at 9:35 AM
It is wishful thinking that the riots are 'spontaneous' and 'nothing more than criminality'. Community leaders have made reference to underlying social and economic conditions that sparked the problem, and it's just pure denial and political irresponsibility to disregard these problems. But even if it is just recreational violence, the politicians ought to be asking themselves how did such a developed first-world country descend into this state of anarchy, senseless opportunism and jocular greed where people - youths and juveniles - just mugged and looted and murdered for 'recreation'. This is more sinister than any riot in Syria or Libya; at least people there are rioting for a purpose. This criminality and moral decadence is an endemic problem that has been brewing under the surface for a long time. There are plenty of room for reflection.
It doesn't matter that these riots aren't politically-motivated. Riots are an outburst of anger, where people often do not stop to put a voice to their anger, but rather choose to be engulfed in pure wrath. There is usually a clear message in protests, but you don't expect to find much rationality in riots. But Riots always have an underlying cause, social tension, urban decay, economic deprivation, unemployment, inequality, police brutality, discrimination, oppression. It is naive to think that any riot is spontaneous. It betrays a more chronic problem in society.
Four Temperaments
philosophised at 9:11 AM
Read about the Four Temperaments:
Sanguine
The Sanguine temperament personality is fairly extroverted. People of a sanguine temperament tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be boisterous. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean very sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when pursuing a new hobby, interest is lost quickly when it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy. People of sanguine temperament can often be emotional.
Choleric
A person who is choleric is a do-er. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were choleric. They like to be leaders and in charge of everything. They can be very manipulative.
Melancholic
A person who is a thoughtful ponderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very considerate and get rather worried when they could not be on time for events, melancholics can be highly creative in activities such as poetry and art - and can become occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist. They are often self-reliant and independent; one negative part of being a melancholic is sometimes they can get so involved in what they are doing they forget to think of others.
Phlegmatic
Phlegmatics tend to be self-content and kind. They can be very accepting and affectionate. They may be very receptive and shy and often prefer stability to uncertainty and change. They are very consistent, relaxed, calm, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators. They can also be very passive-aggressive.
I wonder which category I fit into.
I think that to a large extent I'm a sanguine, and to a lesser extent a phlegmatic.
Career Talk @ TTSH
philosophised at 1:19 AM
I have two takeaways today after attending the career talk:
1. I really like the idea of residency program in Singapore, because it saves time and gives me the freedom to go into a specialty directly. The British system seems really drawn out, albeit it gives us more insight into various specialties before we choose to specialise.
2. The hospitals here really seem not to discriminate much between international medical graduates and the local graduates. Good news for me.
The more I speak to people about ophthalmology, the more I'm drawn to it. The microsurgery, the quick recovery following operation, the low risk of surgery, the competitiveness (and the accompanying prestige), the potentially high income... Although I haven't been down to doing the more clinical stuff, I find the science quite interesting already.
Other thoughts:
- Anaesthesiology seems too medical for me. I want to do more surgical stuff with my hands.
- I can't help but feel like orthopaedics are glorified carpenters, with their saws and drills and nails and screws. However this won't stop me from majoring in orthopaedic science during my BSc year because I still want to give it a shot.
- There is no neurosurgery department in TTSH. I'm really interested in finding more about neuro.
IBN update 2
philosophised at 9:41 PM
I had the good fortune to participate in a retina transplant surgery done on the rats. Yesterday my research mentor and I spent about 4 hours in the operating theatre putting artificial retinal tissue into the rats' eyes. We did 10 rats.
Today I went down with my mentor to Duke NUS medical school to consult Prof. Ralph, a veterinarian pathologist. Being an ophthalmic surgeon, my mentor wasn't familiar with animal histology so she had to seek advice. This emphasizes how divided scientific knowledge is nowadays. One can be extremely proficient in one area and yet ignorant in another.
Besides that, I had little chitchats with some of the colleagues in IBN. Whenever they heard I'm doing medicine, they are curious as to why I chose to do research attachment. Two things struck me here:
1) there are very few doctors in Singapore doing research; the research culture among the health professionals is not quite there yet;
2) even researchers themselves believe that research is not as noble or worthwhile a profession as being a doctor.
On the first one, I had gathered from several colleagues that I'm one of the few medical students who intern in A*STAR. Most medical students who decide to intern in A*STAR, for some reason, seem to be overseas medical students. I know quite a couple of medical students who are also working with me, and none of them are from NUS (there are quite a few from Scotland, interestingly). Several possibilities here: NUS medics either manage to find their own mentors, too busy with other commitments like volunteering or preparing for orientation camps and the likes, or the research culture in Singapore is generally not prevalent.
I'd think that it is a combination of these. Local universities differ from that of the UK in a few fundamental philosophies. For instance, there is a huge emphasis on extracurricular activities: interhall games, orientation camps, sports, rag and flag... and they are often made compulsory to attend one of these at some point in time. In the UK, we do not have any of these activities (yes, not even orientation camps). The rather obligatory nature of these activities appears as though university students here have to be taught how to have fun, and have to be explicitly given the platform and opportunity to bond and socialise. I've heard some faculties here actually have matchmaking session during their orientation camps. Do people here really need to be taught how to love as well?
On the contrary, and quite ironically, I'd argue that the support network for students to get research and laboratory experience in Singapore is still somewhat insufficient, as compared to the UK. Many medical schools in the UK made it compulsory for students to pursue a bachelor of science degree in a specific field, along with their medical degree. For my university, we have customised BSc programmes for medical students, with majors ranging from immunology, to orthopaedic science, to international health, to medical philosophy. I know the Duke NUS school allow students one year off to do research, but I'm not so sure about YLLSOM. Also in the UK we have 'electives' that allow us to get some laboratory experience - I did one on antibiotic resistance and another on speech science. Local medical students seem to have to find their own research projects to do, because the support system isn't in place to lower the entry barrer into research.
But one thing I like about the Singaporean system is that medical graduates here will probably have a rock hard foundation. The exam-oriented culture and the focus on memorisation and regurgitation do have some advantages. Just look at how UK universities scraped essay-type exam questions a few years back. The General Medical Council argued that essay-based questions test study skills rather than thinking skills, as well as not being discriminating enough between the good students and the exceptional ones. Being in the Singaporean system for over a dozen years I'd have to agree with UK's GMC - the ones who have exceptional memory, or the really studious ones, will ace their essay questions, but these qualities alone seem not to be the traits one would associate with a good doctor. Having that said, I often feel that I have not really internalised what I learnt in my course as well as I did for my A levels.
Moreover, my notes nowadays often consist of trivial piece-meal statements like "dysplasia is always pathological and never physiological", "myofibrils in smooth muscle is NOT arranged into sarcomeres", "in blood vessels there is only circumferentially arranged smooth muscle", "patent ductus arteriosus DOES NOT cause hypoxia"... statements that seek to clarify concepts rather than to record information (partly because I think I can reproduce the details from first principles myself, and partly because there is no essay question for us to have the need to memorise hard facts). And I jotted down a lot of negative statements, which I almost never did when I was studying for biology throughout my secondary school and A-levels. The study method is very different from that of my peers in NUS, and I'd argue that we can evaluate information and spot mistakes better than local medical graduates, but we may not be able to recall facts as well or as fast as them (presumably haha).
On another note, I'm amazed quite a number of researchers in IBN feel that the research career is less significant as that of a doctor, which sounded to me to be more than just modesty and humility. One colleague went as far as to say that most research is a "waste of taxpayers' money". I actually do not know enough to make a personal stand, but I've heard some viewpoints from both sides. My director, for example, felt that research will eventually benefit humanity more than doctors, because of the wider application of research. However my mentor felt that being a researcher is often not a very rewarding job, because almost all the time the product of the research never materialises because there is a long train of commercialisation processes and transitional stages before, say, a drug will reach the market. Some research findings never even got that far to benefit anyone. As a surgeon, my mentor felt that saving or improving lives with one's own hands offers constant and immediate doses of satisfaction that kept her going, whereas she had worked on a single project for months and years, and the fruit of her labour still remained uncertain and beyond her control once she published the paper.
It has been a thought-provoking week so far, and I have never learnt so much in such a short span of time before. I really hope I can contribute something - by helping to optimise some procedures, design some material, coming up with new methods, troubleshooting, whatever - to have my name up in the list of authors when they publish their paper. In addition, my goal in the near future is to publish an original paper, before I graduate from medical school, so ideally I can pick up enough knowledge and inspiration and guidance to start one myself. Shall keep my eyes peeled, and fingers crossed, for that.
IBN
philosophised at 10:38 PM
My research attachment has been quite interesting so far. I just went for a workshop on vitrectomy (a kind of eye surgery) in the morning, then I went through a lengthy briefing on how to subculture a kind of eye cells called retinal pigmental epithelial (RPE) cells, followed by immunoflorescent staining.
Research and Work
philosophised at 11:07 AM
I am so excited for my research attachment starting next week! I still am not informed about the exact title of my research project, but I will be doing something on the eyes.
There is this vitrectomy workshop that I will be attending. Vitrectomy is this surgical procedure to remove the vitreous humour - the jelly-like substance that fills most of the eyeball. I will also be doing animal research, and hopefully get to operate on rats. Exciting hands-on stuff :) I will update with more photos next time, if confidentiality and research ethics are non-issues.
I know it's still a distant 5 years away, but I'm now thinking about my future career prospect in Singapore. At the moment, I disapprove of the NHS philosophy and the way the system is run, so working under NHS doesn't seem attractive to me. I think the only disadvantage of studying overseas is that I won't have the necessary network here; they will most likely prefer to work with fellow NUS graduates. But come to think of it such protectionism is not foreign to me, being a foreign student in Singapore since a very young age, I have always been missing out on awards, grants and scholarships and the opportunity to take part in competition because I'm not a citizen. Then there came application to university; in which international students like us have to again compete for the 20 limited places offered to us. And now I somehow managed to get an internship opportunity at A*STAR, presumably also competing for places with the locals and I'd think that A*STAR is not the easiest organisation to get in.
So fighting for a place in the residency programme here as an overseas graduate shouldn't be anymore different from everything else. In fact from the various employment talks MOH held in London it seems that at least it's not an insurmountable obstacle, and I gladly accept the challenge because I want to earn a residency place by my own merit, not by connections.
Italy Day 7
philosophised at 11:56 PM
Last day in Italy, and it's a short day as we prepare to leave for the flight back to London in the evening. Frankly I have gotten a little sick of Italy already.
Inner ceiling of San Marco cathedral.
We started our day with a visit to the Gallerie dell'Accademia, the museum you HAVE to visit when you are in Venice. If you remember my previous posts about paintings I want to see in Italy, I've basically seen all of them (and more!). I am a very satisfied boy now.
Evaristo Baschenis' Musical Instruments. He is quite a weird painter as his paintings are mostly about musical instruments.
The Feast in the House of Levi by Veronese. An extremely famous painting.
Giorgione's two famous paintings, The Tempest and the Old Woman.
The Dream of St. Ursula, by Vittore Carpaccio.
Departure of the Pilgrims by Carpaccio. Note the top right corner. I find the flag with the smiley face quite cute.
Dined at Trattoria alla Rivetta before making a trip to Arsenale for some contemporary art exhibition.
Italy Day 6
philosophised at 4:39 PM
Second day in Venice. We planned to go to the three satellite islands - Murano, Burano and Torcello, famous for glass making, lace-making and being the origin of Venice. We ended up missing Torcello as the vaporetto station was closed.
We walked down a street with a violinist. The other day we heard a pianist practising in his/her house. It seemed quite fairytale-like to walk in the Venetian street; it is as though everyone who lives there are all musicians.
The weather was unbearingly hot, and the sun was blazing. We felt quite uncomfortable while we walked on Murano, the island famous for glasswares. We didn't buy any as their prices were beyond our reach. Our first impression of the island is that it is a giant glass-making factory, and it is so targeted at tourism that it felt like everyone out there is out to get our money.
Towards evening, we took another vaporetto to Burano, the island specialising in lace production. It is also famous for its colourful houses.
We had our dinner in the same Chinese restaurant as the previous night, wearing the same set of clothes and sitting on the same seats. On hindsight I realized that food expenses made up the bulk of our travel expenses. I actually considered bringing some cup noodles and a kettle to make our own dinners the next time we go on a budget trip, because it will scrap a hundred over euros off our bill.
A partially flooded San Marco square.
We ran our way back to the boat, reaching just 5 minutes before it left.
