As I was driving to the train station this morning I noticed that the front window of my car was particularly dirty and so, I decided to quickly clean the window using the windshield washer. It was as the beads of water were retreating towards the edges of the window that I realized that these droplets of water resembled chromosomes withdrawing from the midline of the cell during anaphase of mitosis/meiosis.

                Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that I’ve made a bio connection like this and I’m almost certain it won’t be the last. I guess it is a bit expected that I think along the lines of a biologist, always looking for the physiological/biological reasoning behind what might not at first seem to be a scientific phenomenon. However, I have to admit that my biological instinct tends to overpower my human capability to empathize at times. For instance, a few days ago, my neighbor was reminiscing about her almost-encounter with a celebrity, when she mentioned that she “almost passed out.” Immediately, by rote, I began to wonder why she had felt so light-headed – was her blood glucose low or was she possibly dehydrated and therefore, lacking blood volume? Fortunately, I didn’t voice any of these inquires.

                It’s hard not to think from the biological standpoint most of the time, especially considering that I am a bio major and that I work part-time in the operating room. At work, I frequently listen in on the doctors’ review of the patient’s medical/surgical history with the patient and his/her family. As the patient recounts his/her symptoms/complaints to the doctor (s), I mentally try and match the patient’s symptoms with known diseases or conditions that might perhaps require a surgical fix.

                I guess then that my reason for interning for the publishing group this term was so that I could perhaps relearn how to think from the human perspective, such that I might be able to re-figure out how to empathize and actually listen to, rather than analyze, what people say. Moreover, I hope to also be able to verbalize the beauty that I see in science through normal, everyday language, such that the general public too may see what I see. Eventually, who knows, I might even be able to appreciate nature for what it really is rather than comparing it to cell division.