I spent the better part of my life avoiding math and science. I pretty much absolutely hated the shit, mostly because I had to deal with it academically. I had to learn theory and fact, I had to implement and solve equations. My response, predictably, was to whine that "there's nothing happening in math, there's no story in science." Far better, I thought, to study history and literature, to learn about the passion of human struggle, failure and triumph.
By and large I do still feel that way, but as I've had to confront science on a more personal level in the past few years through my mother's medical struggles and as science fact becomes more and more like science fiction, in other words as science becomes a story, the wall in my head that keeps me from valuing math and science has been slowly breaking down. Most notably, manic British comic author (and if ever there were a redundant phrase it's that one) Warren Ellis frequently excerpts articles from British magazine New Scientist at his research blog, die puny humans, and I've got to say I get seriously excited about some of the shit he cites. So much so that I've taken to reading the New Scientist headlines as part of my daily Visitations. I'm not going to start quoting them here regularly - that's Warren's thing, not mine - but it's worth sharing one of the stories that has gotten me excited over the past few days:
Blood could generate body repair kit. A small company in London, UK, claims to have developed a technique that overturns scientific dogma and could revolutionise medicine. It says it can turn ordinary blood into cells capable of regenerating damaged or diseased tissues... the founder of TriStem, says that by adapting standard culturing methods she has managed to turn white blood cells into heart, nerve, bone, cartilage, smooth muscle, liver and pancreatic cells... It would avoid the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem cells.Cloning is a hot-button for me. My mother waited years for an organ transplant and even now, a year after her transplant, is ridiculously over-medicated and limited in activity and diet so that she can avoid rejection. If science could make her a new kidney, from her own cells, the freedom she could have would be amazing. But it actually strikes a little closer to home than even that. I don't talk about it much, but the chance that I'll get polycystic kidney disease, the same disease my mother has, is both real and significant. If I can avoid the problems she's suffered - the siezures, the strokes, the constant tiredness and need for sleep, the betrayal of her own body and mind to weakness - it would be a Godsend.
Comments (4)
i like math to a point
i like math when i can see of feel it working for a purpose.
theres some math that i feel its only purpose its to understand deeper and deeper math which i dont see practical uses in my daily life.
on the medical advancement thing thats great news but it had me thinking
we have so much more than the people in the past in the way of what the medicine can do for us and how much longer we can live.
but at the same time we have less and less of our planet are we better than our parents and will our children be better than us or it is the other way around....
Posted by gus | June 7, 2004 1:14 PM
Posted on June 7, 2004 13:14
heres an interesting link for you i know you'll like it
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3766863.stm
Posted by gus | June 7, 2004 3:44 PM
Posted on June 7, 2004 15:44
The trouble with Atlantis is that everyone found it at one point for another. Five minutes searching on google news turned up no fewer than ten articles on the subject, each of which had Atlantis supposedly being found by some team from a different country. Unfortunately, I can't find my favorite article on the subject, from a few months back, which had a local man from Crete (yes, he was a Cretan) laughing at the research team, as he said he did for every other research team that had been through in the past thirty years. There's a story in this somewhere, everyone finding Atlantis. I'm just not sure what approach to take yet.
As for the rest, well, it's a strange trade, Gus. We (arguably) lead better lives than our parents and our children will (arguably) lead better lives than us. Yes, clearly, there's a point of diminishing returns, where we've fucked up the environment enough that a good life is no longer possible under any circumstances. Of course, the two aren't mutually exclusive. We can have both health and a healthy planet, if we choose to. But it's going to require setbacks and a different way of thinking. And now I'm starting to sound like some Greenpeace reject, so I'll fuckin's stop.
Posted by Jason | June 7, 2004 8:18 PM
Posted on June 7, 2004 20:18
Rejected by Greenpeace?
That IS sad.
Posted by Erik (the roommate) | June 8, 2004 3:00 PM
Posted on June 8, 2004 15:00