Comments on: Describing the elephant http://www.thelancetstudent.com/2008/06/06/describing-the-elephant/ Thelancetstudent.com is a recently established website for students in medicine and related health areas, with a particular emphasis on global health. In the student podcast, Editor Rhona MacDonald highlights new content and interviews student authors of a key article published that week. Tue, 2 Dec 2008 14:33:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: ohadoren1 http://www.thelancetstudent.com/2008/06/06/describing-the-elephant/#comment-2111 ohadoren1 Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:35:09 +0000 http://www.thelancetstudent.com/2008/06/06/describing-the-elephant/#comment-2111 I highly enjoyed reading this extraordinary article, which raises a crucial point (perhaps "in reverse" to the prominent debate that has been going on, till lately, about doctors gaining the essential foundations of basic research). The notion of bench scientists working with horizons unbelievably narrow is familiar to me. Without the slimmest of orientation and the least of perspectives, many of them strenuously perform laboratory work, subconsciously forgetting that a "blessed" link to medicine will transform their work into one of a much greater value, with potential contributions far bigger than simply researching a voltage-gated channel of Drosophila, or any other science-abundant-but-with-no-medical-affinity topic, with all due respect. Your description of a future "roadmap" for a scientific-medical issue, step-by-step delivered between the experts of the various fields a certain research topic has releveance to - really exemplifies your interdisciplinary chain of contributions, with synergism resulting and possibly leading to a 21st century that not only preserves the scientific revolution initiated in the previous century, but may be able to overwhelm us in its oustanding pace. A great article I really found fascinating, Ohad Oren I highly enjoyed reading this extraordinary article, which raises a crucial point (perhaps “in reverse” to the prominent debate that has been going on, till lately, about doctors gaining the essential foundations of basic research). The notion of bench scientists working with horizons unbelievably narrow is familiar to me. Without the slimmest of orientation and the least of perspectives, many of them strenuously perform laboratory work, subconsciously forgetting that a “blessed” link to medicine will transform their work into one of a much greater value, with potential contributions far bigger than simply researching a voltage-gated channel of Drosophila, or any other science-abundant-but-with-no-medical-affinity topic, with all due respect.

Your description of a future “roadmap” for a scientific-medical issue, step-by-step delivered between the experts of the various fields a certain research topic has releveance to - really exemplifies your interdisciplinary chain of contributions, with synergism resulting and possibly leading to a 21st century that not only preserves the scientific revolution initiated in the previous century, but may be able to overwhelm us in its oustanding pace.

A great article I really found fascinating,
Ohad Oren

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