Hello. I am a student at Spooner High School. I am interested in Medical
Research, and would like to know what it takes to become one, and what the
job is like. How do you go about finding new cures and vaccines? What
kind of education would you need?
Thanks, and I apologize if a request like this is out of place for this
group. If you want to e-mail me info, send it to
gmno…@mail.wiscnet.net
with the subject heading "Medical Research". Thanks in advance.
Spooner High
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Spooner High School, Spooner WI
G. Nowak (gmno…@mail.wiscnet.net) wrote:
: Hello. I am a student at Spooner High School. I am interested in Medical
: Research, and would like to know what it takes to become one, and what the
: job is like. How do you go about finding new cures and vaccines? What
: kind of education would you need?
It takes bloody hard work! To do research, first you must
complete college with high marks, and not by taking the cush’ courses.
You must study chemistry, biology, mathematics. Then you must complete
medical school or a Ph.D. program. (If only medical school, further
formal training must be completed). After that, post-graduate fellowship
is needed.
On the job, one of the most important attributes is the
willingness to work as hard as possible to disprove your most treasured
theories. (This is the primordial failure of those who tout "alternative
medicine.") In science, we cannot prove a theory to a degree of precision
similar to mathematics. Rather, we posit an experiment that would
DISPROVE our theory. If the experiment fails to disprove the theory, then
the theory is corroborated, not confirmed.
Keep in mind that the vast majority of researchers are simple
yeoman in the glorious battle; there are very few captains. Most
researchers whittle away at a problem rather than slash through it like a
Gordian knot. Many researchers spend years pursuing a theory which is
wrong. Others spend years researching a problem which time makes moot
(e.g. treatment of smallpox). Yet others labor to perfect a therapy made
obsolete by someone else’s discoveries (e.g. use of arsenicals to treat
syphilis, made obsolete by penicillin).
Do you have the stomach for it, the balls and the backbone for it?
If so, you can be a link in the chain stretching back to Francis Bacon,
and there’s no shame in that!
Best wishes.
Eric Chevlen, MD