InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network
As we hear of opportunities that may be of interest to Christian scholars, we often share them at the ESN blog as a public service. Duke Divinity School shared this scholarship opportunity with us recently. [Read more…] about Duke Divinity Scholarships for Fellowship in Theology, Medicine, and Culture
For graduating 4th year medical students, spring brings warm weather, seasonal allergies, March Madness… and the dreaded Residency Match. The Match is kind of like medicine’s version of online dating. Med students and residencies consider and rank their most eligible suitors, hopefully leading to a 3-to-5 year committed relationship. As Match results are revealed, med schools announce proudly, “X percent of our students got their first choice for residency!†Then, as in any romantic comedy, residency programs and new physicians live happily ever after. But sometimes not. [Read more…] about The Residency Match: Medicine’s Romantic Comedy
Psalm 139:13-14 (NASB): For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.
Trouble in mind, I’m blue
But I won’t be blue always
‘Cause I know the sun’s gonna shine in my back door someday
(composed by Richard M. Jones and first recorded in 1924)
With all respect to the bard, there is power in a name — why else would Juliet consider changing hers? That’s why the WHO proposed new practices for naming a newly emerged disease. Diseases are often named after the place they were found, a significant animal vector, or some other notable feature connected to its discovery. Name choice can have negative consequences for the original owner of the name. The residents of Hendra, Queensland aren’t thrilled that their town has a namesake virus. The pigs couldn’t complain about swine flu, but the name impacted pork trade even though it was not a transmission route. The Sin Nombre (Spanish for “without name”) virus was so dubbed after multiple suggestions were rejected out of respect for the fact that no one wanted to be associated with it. [Read more…] about Science Corner: Where the Viruses Have No Name
Every year, the translator at our pediatric hospital asks this question:
What are the four hardest words to translate?
He will pause for a moment and then say,
Your child is dead.
Every time I hear it, I wonder how many times he has had to say that phrase. Every year, I think the tally must be a little higher.
Fixed in every medical provider’s mind are similar moments of unsettling and stunning grief. Death, crippling injury, and disability rarely happen in the dramatic TV show ways. They are ordinary and commonplace. A car accident left one child with a few scratches but instantly killed his sibling. The seasoned pediatric surgeon who told me the story was visibly distraught by it; he said, “Go home and hug your kids tight tonight. I will.”
A two year old drowns in the kiddie pool in the backyard. A newborn has brain cancer. A girl with Down Syndrome develops leukemia. “What are the odds that these tragedies can happen?” you may wonder. I can tell you. [Read more…] about Reasons: Why I am a Christian Part 2