Life at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
The hardest part about dissecting Sir was when he no longer looked human. When we had cut and sawed and scraped to the point when I could not see Sir’s face — or a semblance of any face — I felt, for the first time, that I had taken something inviolable from him. How many […]
Like many medical schools across the nation, mine taught its first-year anatomy course through dissection of human bodies. Donors of cadavers donate their bodies for the education of medical students, specifically for the anatomy dissection course. It seemed violent, grotesque and bizarre to cut open a preserved, very dead human body. The only way I […]
Pheromones are chemicals secreted by animals that influence the behavior of recipient animals of the same species, often to attract mates. That some form of chemical communication occurs between animals was first recognized as far back as ancient Greece, when the Greeks noted that male dogs were attracted to secretions from female dogs in heat. […]
It’s 6 a.m., and my alarm goes off. Groggily, I continue to press snooze for the next hour, until I realize I won’t be able to enjoy a breakfast that’s not a granola bar if I sleep any longer. It’s been six weeks since I started at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as […]