Written by Liam Rodman, BS candidate, Saint Louis University and participant in the 2024 Institute for Public Health Summer Research Program
Funny, isn’t it? That the same fundamental force that silently unleashes a relentless barrage of high energy particles destroying everything around it, also has great potential in medicine. And further still, that same force that can bring about the destruction of entire cities and cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people also holds potential to solve the world’s energy problem. It’s as if it were written by some sadistic poet, no good without bad, nothing so hallow as to be spared from that vile embrace. And yet, the street doesn’t only go one way. No matter the severity of the storm that surrounds you, a silver lining can always be found.
Today I’d like to share with you a little bit about the everyday paradoxes that surround us, and how those fit into the Summer Research Program in Aging and Neurological Diseases. It may not sound like an apparent connection, but just like it isn’t apparent that radiation has applications in medicine, once you take a closer look, an understanding begins to emerge.
I begin with the one that hits you right in the face once you are in the surgery room – the taking of life for the sake of life. Animal models are an invaluable tool for researchers, but their use does present us with a counterintuitive situation. Many have pondered on this particular moral quandary, but no matter where you stand, you do have to admit we owe a lot to mice.
Another paradox, one that I had never even thought of before, was brought up in a talk by Professor Emily Willroth, PhD. The talk was on “Open Science”, which is a term I had never heard before. Apparently, not so long ago, it seems that many scientists would, purposefully or not, obfuscate basically everything about their work. All the safety mechanisms to avoid bias and promote clarity with other researchers that I have been taught haven’t always been the cultural regime. To me that is incredibly strange, science, the ultimate quest for truth, riddled with practices that make it harder to actually discover what is true.
And then there’s aging. And what could be a bigger paradox than that? Something that we experience everyday but don’t talk about. The question of so much mysticism and superstition, but also scientific inquiry. It is often said that the older are wiser, but they are also riddled with neurological diseases and cognitive decline; or are they?
During the Summer Research Program seminars, we learned many things about public health, neurological diseases, and aging. One of the first things that surprised me was, very few older adults actually experience steep cognitive decline. Another was that, despite the news stories, aging research is not filled with billionaires trying to live forever, but largely by people interested in public health.
There were many more surprises than these, but unfortunately there is a word cap. I know that these musings were not strictly informational, or maybe even useful at all, but I wrote about what I found interesting. And that is the takeaway message for anything really. Personally, I am interested in research, aging, and the paradoxes that surround us. The Summer Research Program in Aging and Neurological Diseases allowed me to further explore and refine my interests, giving me an experience that couldn’t be replicated in a classroom, and that I would happily do again. So whatever position in life you are in right now, put in the effort to pursue your interests now, and soon you will find yourself in a place where you can thrive.