For four years after the U.S. dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and …
For four years after the U.S. dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, America held a monopoly on the production of atomic weapons. During this period, debate centering on the use of nuclear bombs in future wars proliferated among government officials, scientists, religious leaders, and in the popular press. In the following article from Collier's, former Navy lieutenant commander William H. Hessler, using data from the Strategic Bombing Survey, argued that saturation bombing of urban areas during World War II, while devastating for civilians, did not achieve war aims. A future atomic war, therefore, might well destroy cities but fail to stop enemy aggression. Furthermore, with a much higher urban concentration than the Soviet Union, the U.S. had more to lose from atomic warfare. The article, while providing detailed explanations of the bomb's destructive capability, demonstrated the lack of information available regarding the long-term medical and ecological effects of radioactivity. Hessler's prose also evoked both the fascination that gadgetry of atomic warfare held for Americans of the time and the fear many felt about the risks involved in putting this technology to use. On September 24, 1949, one week after publication of this article, news that the Russians had conducted atom bomb tests shocked the nation. The following April, a National Security Council report to President Harry S. Truman advised development of a hydrogen bomb--some 1,000 times more destructive than an atom bomb--and a massive buildup of non-nuclear defenses. The subsequent outbreak of war in Korea in June 1950 justified to many a substantial increase in defense spending.
In 1981, the U.S. medical community noticed a significant number of gay …
In 1981, the U.S. medical community noticed a significant number of gay men living in urban areas with rare forms of pneumonia, cancer, and lymph disorders. The cluster of ailments was initially dubbed Gay-Related Immune Disease (GRID), but when similar illnesses increased in other groups, the name changed to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The mid-1980s saw a number of advances toward understanding and treating the disease, but no vaccine or cure was forthcoming. Gay advocacy and community-based organizations began providing services and pressuring government to increase funding for finding a cure and helping victims. As two representatives of AIDS health services organizations stated in the following 1987 testimony to Congress, AIDS spread in disproportionately high numbers throughout U.S. minority and disadvantaged communities. They advocated increased federal funding for prevention efforts targeted at minority communities and administered by community-based organizations. Despite such efforts, the number of minority AIDS cases continued to rise sharply, and by 1996, African Americans accounted for a higher percentage of reported adult cases of AIDS (41%) than did whites.
Inspired by Mary Shelley's novel about a man-made monster who turned upon …
Inspired by Mary Shelley's novel about a man-made monster who turned upon its creator, this cartoon depicted the railroad trampling the rights of the American people. Agriculture
Explores the changing roles, ethical conflicts, and public perceptions of science and …
Explores the changing roles, ethical conflicts, and public perceptions of science and scientists in American society from World War II to the present. Studies specific historical episodes focusing on debates between scientists and the contextual factors influencing their opinions and decisions. Topics include the atomic bomb project, environmental controversies, the Challenger disaster, biomedical research, genetic engineering, (mis)use of human subjects, scientific misconduct and whistleblowing.
Meet the Antibiotic Hunters—a team of professional and student scientists at the …
Meet the Antibiotic Hunters—a team of professional and student scientists at the Tiny Earth Network who search for new antibiotics in the soil.
Resources available for learning about this lab include: • Interactive cards designed to introduce students to scientists in a more personal way • A video with a personal story that explains why the lab's research matters in real life • Questions to consider that will spark connection, reflection, and conversation • An interactive video experience where you can ask questions of scientists in the lab and learn about their research • An inquiry-based activity that focuses on doing science, using some of the same science practices that the lab uses • An educator guide with information about standards alignment, curriculum connections, and tips for using the media resources
These resources are part of Meet the Lab, a collection of educational resources for middle school science classrooms.
Nuclear Medicine is a fascinating application of nuclear physics. The first ten …
Nuclear Medicine is a fascinating application of nuclear physics. The first ten chapters of this wikibook are intended to support a basic introductory course in an early semester of an undergraduate program. They assume that students have completed decent high school programs in maths and physics and are concurrently taking subjects in the medical sciences. Additional chapters cover more advanced topics in this field. Our focus in this wikibook is the diagnostic application of Nuclear Medicine. Therapeutic applications are considered in a separate wikibook, "Radiation Oncology".
In this autobiographical account of the life that awaited new nursing recruits …
In this autobiographical account of the life that awaited new nursing recruits in 1893, former nurse Mary Roberts Rinehart painted a vivid portrait of the daily obstacles that stood between nurses and the professional status they hoped to attain. Rinehart described the "simple, plain hell" faced by the young nurse, a description that challenged conventional expectations about professional work.
" This course does not seek to provide answers to ethical questions. …
" This course does not seek to provide answers to ethical questions. Instead, the course hopes to teach students two things. First, how do you recognize ethical or moral problems in science and medicine? When something does not feel right (whether cloning, or failing to clone) ŰÓ what exactly is the nature of the discomfort? What kind of tensions and conflicts exist within biomedicine? Second, how can you think productively about ethical and moral problems? What processes create them? Why do people disagree about them? How can an understanding of philosophy or history help resolve them? By the end of the course students will hopefully have sophisticated and nuanced ideas about problems in bioethics, even if they do not have comfortable answers."
This course presents the fundamentals of digital signal processing with particular emphasis …
This course presents the fundamentals of digital signal processing with particular emphasis on problems in biomedical research and clinical medicine. It covers principles and algorithms for processing both deterministic and random signals. Topics include data acquisition, imaging, filtering, coding, feature extraction, and modeling. The focus of the course is a series of labs that provide practical experience in processing physiological data, with examples from cardiology, speech processing, and medical imaging. The labs are done on the MIT Server in MATLABĺ¨ during weekly lab sessions that take place in an electronic classroom. Lectures cover signal processing topics relevant to the lab exercises, as well as background on the biological signals processed in the labs.
In this online game, learners test their knowledge of human anatomy. Learners …
In this online game, learners test their knowledge of human anatomy. Learners are presented a mystery image of a body part and use their mouse to select the proper body part from a full size anatomical model (known as "Jerome"). Learners try to match all 10 body parts correctly. Use this activity to review human anatomy and/or introduce learners to the use of anatomical models.
Meet the Cancer Detectives—a team of scientists at the Skala Lab who …
Meet the Cancer Detectives—a team of scientists at the Skala Lab who develop new ways to treat cancer using laser microscopes.
Resources available for learning about this lab include: • Interactive cards designed to introduce students to scientists in a more personal way • A video with a personal story that explains why the lab's research matters in real life • Questions to consider that will spark connection, reflection, and conversation • An interactive video experience where you can ask questions of scientists in the lab and learn about their research • An inquiry-based activity that focuses on doing science, using some of the same science practices that the lab uses • An educator guide with information about standards alignment, curriculum connections, and tips for using the media resources
These resources are part of Meet the Lab, a collection of educational resources for middle school science classrooms.
This course has been designed as a seminar to give students an …
This course has been designed as a seminar to give students an understanding of how scientists with medical or scientific degrees conduct research in both hospital and academic settings. There will be interactive discussions with research clinicians and scientists about the career opportunities and research challenges in the biomedical field, which an MIT student might prepare for by obtaining an MD, PhD, or combined degrees. The seminar will be held in a case presentation format, with topics chosen from the radiological sciences, including current research in magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and other nuclear imaging techniques, and advances in radiation therapy. With the lectures as background, we will also examine alternative and related options such as biomedical engineering, medical physics, and medical engineering. We'll use as examples and points of comparisons the curriculum paths available through MIT's Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. In past years we have given very modest assignments such as readings in advance of or after a seminar, and a short term project.
Complementary, Alternative and Integrative therapies are defined in this unit. More common …
Complementary, Alternative and Integrative therapies are defined in this unit. More common methods are further explored. Students and teacher have the opportunity to experience guided meditation.
D-Lab Health provides a multidisciplinary approach to global health technology design via …
D-Lab Health provides a multidisciplinary approach to global health technology design via guest lectures and a major project based on fieldwork. We will explore the current state of global health challenges and learn how to design medical technologies that address those problems. Students may travel to Nicaragua during spring break to work with health professionals, using medical technology design kits to gain field experience for their device challenge. As a final class deliverable, you will create a product design solution to address challenges observed in the field. The resulting designs are prototyped in the summer for continued evaluation and testing.
"There is nothing about an individual as important as his IQ," declared …
"There is nothing about an individual as important as his IQ," declared psychologist Lewis M. Terman in 1922. To the extent that this is true, it is in large measure because of Terman himself and the opportunity that World War I afforded for the first widespread use of intelligence testing. The army's use of intelligence tests lent new credibility to the emerging profession of psychology, even as it sparked public debate about the validity of the tests and their implications for American democracy. The idea that experts could confidently assign a man to his proper place in the army--and by extension his place in life--suggested a kind of determinism that some found profoundly at odds with American democracy and its credo of upward mobility through hard work. Walter Lippmann, an influential political commentator and journalist, skewered the army intelligence tests in a series of six essays that appeared in the New Republic in 1922. He denounced as "nonsense" the claim that the average mental age of an American adult was fourteen years, and forcefully warned his readers of the danger of uncritical acceptance of IQ as destiny. He addressed the conditions of IQ testing, the possible biases of army intelligence tests, and the larger social problems raised by such classifications.
" This design course targets the solution of clinical problems by use …
" This design course targets the solution of clinical problems by use of implants and other medical devices. Topics include the systematic use of cell-matrix control volumes; the role of stress analysis in the design process; anatomic fit, shape and size of implants; selection of biomaterials; instrumentation for surgical implantation procedures; preclinical testing for safety and efficacy, including risk/benefit ratio assessment evaluation of clinical performance and design of clinical trials. Student project materials are drawn from orthopedic devices, soft tissue implants, artificial organs, and dental implants."
This virtual textbook on Public Health teaches strategies for disease prevention. The …
This virtual textbook on Public Health teaches strategies for disease prevention. The website explains disease prevention using three categories - primary, secondary, and tertiary. In the description of each one, the website includes several examples like vaccination, regular tooth brushing, screening, environmental modifications, and check-ups. The website also provides a chart with three medical conditions and the stages of disease prevention. As an interactive activity, teachers can print out this chart for students, leaving the stages of disease prevention boxes blank. Students can brainstorm what methods of disease prevention would fall under each category of each medical condition. At the end, the teacher can review some correct examples, using the key provided on the website. The goals of this activity are for students to identify methods of disease prevention; identify if the method is primary, secondary, or tertiary; gain an understanding of what primary, secondary, and tertiary mean; and be able to list some strategies of disease prevention for example medical conditions.
This course examines the growing importance of medicine in culture, economics and …
This course examines the growing importance of medicine in culture, economics and politics. It uses an historical approach to examine the changing patterns of disease, the causes of morbidity and mortality, the evolution of medical theory and practice, the development of hospitals and the medical profession, the rise of the biomedical research industry, and the ethics of health care in America.
This website provides an icebreaker, presentation/video, and classroom research/discussion activity to teach …
This website provides an icebreaker, presentation/video, and classroom research/discussion activity to teach students about diverse beliefs that impact medical care delivery. The resource provides a lesson plan for teachers which includes learning objectives, lesson format, vocabulary, and materials needed. Through the optional icebreaker, students can reflect on their identities and learn about diversity in the classroom. Through the Cultural Competence presentation and video, students can learn about diversity and culture in general. And through the research/discussion activity, students can understand a certain culture/country and their beliefs on medical care. They can share their findings with a small group and answer some provided discussion questions. Not only does this activity teach students that diversity can impact beliefs and behaviors about medicine, but it also teaches respect for other cultures AND it teaches what specific countries/cultures believe about medicine.
The 1920s and 1930s gave rise to new forms of popular humor, …
The 1920s and 1930s gave rise to new forms of popular humor, humor with a sophisticated edge drawn from a more prosperous, cosmopolitan urban experience. In New York, a circle of urbane humorists with a national audience rose around the New Yorker magazine and the famous "Algonquin Round Table," an informal group that met occasionally at the Algonquin Hotel. Ironic, witty, emphasizing word play and "in jokes," the New Yorker work of Benchley, Thurber, Perelman, and Dorothy Parker satirized the pretensions of ordinary middle-class life. "Do Insects Think?," a 1922 essay by Robert Benchley, gleefully mocked the pretentious tone of American science, as well as the cult of pep, productivity, and activity that characterized the 1920s. Doing nothing, it suggested, offered the best evidence of intelligence.
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