Charlie goes to Medical School

RPS by xkcd

Wrapped up Test 2 in my Muscle/Skeleton module on Monday.  My sleep schedule is still pretty warped, but it is midnight and I am getting tired so I will retire here soon.

We’ve kicked off the start of oxidative metabolism of glucose with Krebs and some mitochondrial transport.

In the meantime, here is a recent highlight from my favorite webcomic, xkcd.  RPS is a reference to reverse polish notation which is form of mathematical expression where the operator comes after the operands.  This was a play on the earlier polish notation where the operator comes before the operands.

To spell it out.  It is like saying 3 4 + (RPN) or + 3 4 (PN) instead of 3 +4.  I think they were supposed to get rid of parentheses or something.

We covered this in an almost footnote-like manner in my high school computer programming class (I think our teacher started off this lesson with, “By the way…”).  Keep in mind that this was well before I actually discovered the internet.

RPS is part of the xkcd webcomic consortium.  I think he is selling a new book which you should check out since he offers his stuff up under creative commons.

Scrubs is a TV show which used a backwards X-Ray. The heart goes on the left.

Sorry for the delay in posts.  I’m a little busy with an upcoming test.  I’ve also been working on some more content heavy posts that just need a little review.

Learning Radiology

Since we have started the musculoskeletal system and anatomy lab, imaging has rapidly become a very important part of what we are doing.  Interestingly enough a lot of places still refer to radiology even though other technologies are used besides radiographs.

We had a quick intro to radiology in the form of a two hour lecture where we covered everything.  It was very quick and I didn’t retain a lot of it.  It wasn’t really intended for us to get everything anyway, since a lot of the structures in the body are more than a little foreign to everyone of us.  However, it was to be a quick intro since we use radiographs and other imaging studies to demonstrate the anatomy that we are learning, so we might as well start learning about the techniques early.

To help start us off on the right track, we were told that we should make sure that we take the radiology elective fourth year.  We were also given a huge powerpoint to refer back to as we study x-rays.  And, we were given a number of websites to refer to.  Learning Radiology is one of them.  I picked it to share since they have a number of neat features to check out including a case of the week and 22 must see diagnoses for medical students.

My next desktop wallpaper for my computer is coming from this site.

A quick note about the picture, the TV show, Scrubs, has used a backwards X-Ray in their credits for a while.  It is supposedly on purpose to signify how backwards interns can get things on their first day.  I do have to give them credit that more so than other TV shows, they actually do a lot of fact-checking and try to get the medical stuff for the show correct.  I’m now having a similar problem where I look at everything like it is in the anatomical position (you always look at a subject like they are facing you), including my own body.  So now, my right is my left.

Anyway, there is something to check out while I work on my next test.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Oh, and the picture is from Scrubs, currently produces by ABC Studios.  I have no permission to use their picture (notorious for having the X-Ray backwards) other than plain old fair use, so please do me a favor and watch their show.  They are filming new episodes apparently.  The old episodes are in syndication.  The DVDs are available on sale at wonderful places like Amazon and Best Buy or you can rent at Netflix.  That’s Scrubs…on your TV…and Learning Radiology…on your internet.