WILTIMS #181: Stellar

We had our first Foundations of Clinical Medicine (or "How to Be a Doctor") class of the year today. And in the long tradition of wasting time with icebreakers and group building activities, we spent an hour doing a NASA moon crash landing activity. We learned that creativity and action movie logic do not make for a good survival score, that I know way too much about the moon, and that working in groups can make you weaker than had you worked alone (in direct opposition to the likely point of the exercise).

Some important things for when you crash land on the moon:

1. The moon has no magnetic field (compases won't help you) 
2. There is no atmosphere on the moon (no lighting matches)
3. A stellar map is not a "really good" map, but, in fact, a map of the stars

This evening was our school's  club and activities fair at which I was representing three clubs (Cancer Education Awareness Program, Woodfield Cottage Volunteers, and Ultimate Frisbee Club). We joked that the club leadership on campus is very inbred, with nearly every club officer working in the leadership on one or more other clubs. There was a great turnout from the first-year students and new arrivals from the other masters and doctorate programs on campus, which is good because as tradition dictates, all of these clubs will transition to being their responsibility this spring as the second-years progressively lose themselves to preparations for the Step 1 board exam. Given our crazy schedules and often unmanageable volume of work, it amazes me that so many people can find time to volunteer in the community, explore professional interests, and participate in social activities. Perhaps all that stuff we amassed on our med school apps wasn't just for show!

TIL: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the two main forms of inflammatory bowel diseases. One of the differences between the two include that Crohn's can be found in patches all along the GI tract (or "rooter to tooter" as our pathology resident put it) while colitis is found in one stretch exclusively in the colon. Crohn's also affects all layers of the GI tissue while colitis only disrupts the innermost mucous layer.