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Two neuroscience bloggers team up for one chimeric blog, and world domination of course.
Shelley Batts is a Neuroscience PhD candidate at the University of Michigan. She studies hair cell regeneration in the cochlea, and is trying to finish that quixotic quest called 'thesis.' She lies awake at night pondering how science intersects with politics, culture, policy, money, medicine, and religion in an attempt to be more than just a niche scientist sitting in the oh-so-lovely ivory tower. Follow me and my parrot, Pepper, on our quest to finish my PhD, land a post-doc, and stay sane.
The Omnibrain is a psychology graduate student at an online university. He hopes that the three weeks and $29.95 that he is spending on his Ph.D. will get him a job at a Tier 1 research university. Do online universities have postdocs? Ok...just kidding, he is really a Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology studying high level vision. You know... stuff like scene & object perception.
While not an official contributer to 'Of Two Minds,' Shelley's sidekick is an African Grey parrot named Pepper. His heros are Irene Pepperberg, Alex, and Rachel Carson. He spends his time learning Mandarin and writing the Great American novel.
"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life." ~Rachel Carson
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Category: Humor
Posted on: March 7, 2008 5:42 PM, by Shelley Batts
In response to Steve's post about what clinical psychologists do, I just had to post this hilarious video about what anesthetists do while a patient is sleeping by the Amateur Transplants. The group is composed by two humorous (and real) doctors who I'd rather see on the other side of a microphone than at my bedside.
For bonus laughs, check the singer's pronunciation of 'anesthetist.' If you love these guys as much as I do, check out their equally hilarious "Careless Surgeon."
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Comments
Just a note: "the white stuff" referred to is propofol, known as "milk of amnesia". I'll leave it to Shelley to explain what it is and how it is used. There is no doubt that she can do a better job than I can.
Posted by: Anon | March 7, 2008 7:56 PM
Not too far off.
Anesthetists are the advocates of the unconscious but most of their work is at the beginning and end of the case. They induce, intubate, and then put a bunch of lines in the patient. Then the patient must be positioned carefully - this is critical, you can do huge amounts of injury by improper positioning of a patient or, perish the thought, letting them fall off the table. But once this is done and the surgery starts they pretty much are taking notes, watching monitors and pushing a little more drug or gas as needed. There are exceptions of course. In open heart procedures anesthesia is pretty intense.
So, yeah, during surgery they tend to be pretty inert, and you can occasionally rely on them to change the radio station.
Posted by: MarkH | March 8, 2008 10:58 PM
The pronunciation (and spelling in the titles) of anaesthetist is of course correct in English. Sloppy american corruptions raise more of a groan than a chuckle over here. Just saying..
Posted by: albacore | March 11, 2008 4:26 AM