Where to begin?

During the course of my day/week/whatever, occasionally I’ll find something that I find completely fascinating (even if it is mundane to some, it’s better to live with child-like eyes I suppose), but I am hestitant to share it with my usual audience of friends. It’s not that they aren’t intelligent, they just don’t find the same things interesting. More to the point, I’m posing my thoughts to the wrong audience.

Instead, I thought I’d throw my thoughts into the blog arena. It seemed a natural course of action considering I have a ridiculous list of science blogs that I check out on a regular basis. Rather than play the passive reader, I’d rather engage, share my comments, and see if people have comments for my thoughts. (So if you happen across here and see your blog listed, "Hi! I'm a fan!")

While I'm not a traditional student (read: not early 20s), as an undergrad I’m going to have biases. I’m going to be completely misinformed. I’m not going to have the big picture. By throwing my ideas out there, someone who might know more than me is bound to say, “Cripes she's an idiot!” and then correct me. And I gain something from that. Conversely, as I’m not yet elbow deep in the post-grad academia rat-race, I might have a different perspective to a situation.

One tidbit of news that I’m surprised hadn’t pinged off of any of the blogs I read was this little nugget from nytimes.com:

Scientists Look to Vaccines in the War on E. Coli

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/health/01coli.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

The article discusses giving cows a vaccination or antibiotic to reduce the amount of E. coli, to prevent contamination of water used to keep crops of food growing. Is anyone hearing a giant bell? Seeing a red flag? Two words: Antibiotic Resistance. We risk creating super-microbes resistant to anything we can fling at them, instead of addressing what is, essentially, a sanitation issue.

While I was on my run this evening, a commercial for some antibacterial product flashed by on a tv screen. The media has the whole culture scared silly over bacteria that they’re disinfecting our way to mutated microbes that will make the 1918 Influenza Virus look like a bedtime story. Ok, maybe that’s exacerbating a little, but seriously…consider it.

Most people don’t realize they NEED microorganisms to digest their food or keep their skin hydrated properly. I also thought that these paradigm shifts need to be introduced early – just like global ecology and preservation need to be emphasized and embraced early. The kids need to find interest in this. They need to be exposed to it, and they need to find fascination with it. Because it is fascinating, and we need to know this stuff earlier…not in college, to utilize this information properly.

I think back about Steve Irwin’s death – and everyone had the same thought, “dumb shit deserved it.”

But would you take a step back and realize how enthusiastic he was about educating people to the diverse, weird, and fascinating life we have on this planet? One thing I appreciate and enjoy the most is enthusiastic teachers. Their passion and child-like fascination becomes infectious, and I’ll take that over any monotone PhD who is miffed they’re teaching a lower level class for their tenure. Ok, tangent aside….I realized that there’s got to be a way to get kids interested in this. I’m still rolling the putty over in my brain, but eventually something might take form and grow.

Maybe I’ll finally utilize my zest for stand-up comedy after all. I'll just have to clean up my language for the kiddies...