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Now that we're back I wanted to give one final update on the trip and disaster response itself. While I think everybody would agree that we made a difference, there are areas for improvement.
It was interesting seeing the FEMA contractors working alongside nonprofits and church-based organizations. While their street closures made it tough to get [...]

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The lab I decided to stay in is just getting started at LLU, so right now it’s just me and the PI, Dr. Salvador Soriano. Since there wasn’t any ongoing research in the lab when I got there, the experiments we’re planning out are going to be my thesis. While the opportunity is tremendous, it’s [...]

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I’ve been allergic to peanuts my whole life. A food allergy is a major pain – it’s like a weakness, a Kryptonite that renders me helpless at even a small dose. Unlike Superman, I don’t have remarkable powers to fall back on when things are good. Peanuts contacting my mouth rapidly initiate a multistage anaphylactic [...]

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Perhaps as a result of Loma Linda University being a private graduate school (and the increased tuition income that allows), the Student Association’s Christmas party this week was fantastic. In addition to folks spending Monday through Thursday wrapping every vertical object near the party area with lights, they brought in snow. [...]

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Looking over the long road ahead of me, one might consider asking, incredulously, why somebody would want to do an MD/PhD program at all. It’s certainly a justified question, to which the short answer is that I think receiving training in both clinical medicine and research science will be especially valuable in my future career.

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Okay, I admit it. I have a deep-seated irrational fear of zombies. I know, I know, they’re fictional and scientifically improbable if not impossible – but if they were real, the situation is ghastly. There’s something about the zombie apocalypse that invokes a more holistic fear than your typical doomsday scenario: Even beyond the devouring [...]

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I’ve now received some form of response to all sixteen of my med school applications. The final stats: Twelve rejections, four interviews.  Of those four, Loma Linda University, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, and New York Medical College offered acceptances, while the University of Maryland School of Medicine (where I’ve worked for two years) [...]

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A while back the leasing office started advertising a “breakfast on the go” event for this week. It sounded great and the time included when I normally leave for work; unlike most events, I planned to avail myself of it (this was assisted by the placement of the ad above my mailbox). The night before [...]

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Redundant Acronym Syndrome syndrome: people incur it all the time. They say an acronym but repeat the final word as well: DVD disc, ATM machine, ISBN number. Were the acronym to be fully expanded, they’re duplicating that final word and saying “digital versatile disc disc.” This used to aggravate me immensely, but the other day [...]

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Like just about everybody else, I often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I want to do. Short of jettisoning my internal clock with something like the 28-hour day (and I can see my lab’s circadian expert shuddering from here), the best I can do is try to manage [...]

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