Never met, yet humbled
Most people that I know, knows that I am doing an intercalated degree, which is basically taking a year out between 3rd and 4th year of medicine to a do a pure science degree. In the end, I will get a BMSc degree (bachelor of medical science), which is almost equivalent to the BSc. degree. During this year, on top of completing the gross anatomy I and II modules and 4 extra modules of my choosing, I also have to do a lab project that is going to be written up for assessment. This is something similar to a dissertation that is written up in the final year of all other degrees. My lab project is related to Barrett’s oesophagus, a pre-malignant (pre-cancerous) condition to cancer of the oesophagus. Through this project, I hope to learn about medical statistics and the numerous lab techniques that maybe used, including immunohistochemistry, Western blotting and real time RT-PCR. Don’t worry if you do not know what these techniques are.
My supervisor handed me a book a week ago that contains the PhD thesis of one of his students that graduated in 2010, with the aim to make me understand the science behind oesophageal cancer. It was related to my project, or to be precise, the idea of my research was solely derived from her thesis. I remembered clearly when I received the bounded and author-signed book with my two hands, I felt the pressure of my supervisor’s expectation indenting on my palms. My supervisor then said, “I want this back, because this is the signed version, you know.” I immediately understood the high quality of research recorded down in this black volume of bounded paper and its resemblance of three years of hard work by a bright student. My respect for this tome archived in my supervisor’s library grew before I even turned to a single page. From then on, I treated this book like the Holy Bible, and never once drank anything in its proximity, to prevent unintended spills and stains on the book, for which I believe if happened, will be the end of my relationship with my supervisor.
I decided to read it just this week. At first, I noticed the student’s name was written in front with silver print, italicized. Simple and not extravagant. Delicately, I flipped open the cover page and my eyes began feasting on the font with 1.5cm spacing in between lines - a typical university assessment submission format. To my surprise, the written text was not difficult to understand at all, it was “clean”. Mind my expression, but not a single word was superfluous to the descriptions made and the presentation of information was solid and logical. I had the impression that I was reading into her mind, just the simplistic way she knew her topic of study, and through these unartistic non-fiction lines, I came to know her. She was thorough and analytical. The way she broke down each topic of significant difficulty to the fundamentals, gave me an epiphany of something another supervisor once told me about learning medicine. He told me, “Keep it simple, and that’s the best.”
I can’t help but read through the pages with admiration and uncontrollably compared it with my own work. I realize that my knowledge or at least the way I acquire knowledge is by far more crude to her systematic approach. The project essays I wrote, which I thought were well written now seem like a poor quality piece of work. If this was a game of chess, she would be getting a checkmate without a losing single piece. I felt defeated but not depressed. This is a sudden realisation that there is still more to improve in terms of my scientific writing and the need to be more critical with my learning.
With such respect to this now PhD doctor, I decided to search through PubMed, a government search archive for medical research journals. I found only 2 published papers by the same person. It hit me that even such a person with dedication to complete a 3 year PhD and the brilliance to come up with a novel research topic, is unable to make a prominent standing in the scientific community. I could not help it but think about the intelligent people in the field of science. All elegantly using their brains to the full potential, but not find anything massively significant to this world and thus remained unheard of. They may die without knowing the answer to the question they have pursued for their whole life, with a deep feeling of yearning to know. A wish unfulfilled, when to them, whoever finds the answer does not even matter anymore. It is unfortunate, as I believe they could have all been great people. With this in mind, I will raise my glass to you, someone I haven’t even met, who has earned my respect just from your research thesis. Dr. K Blackett, I am truly humbled.
