A BioChemical What?

Hello Humans! “What if all you understand could fit into the center of our hands. Then you found it wasn’t you who held the sum of everything you knew. We’re insane, but not alone. We hold on, then they’re gone. Like the sun we will live to rise. Like the sun we will live and die, and then ignite again. Like the sun we will live to rise again. What if the one thing that I missed was everything I need to pass the test. If I fail what happens then? Can I still count on you as a friend? We’re insane but not alone. We hold on and then they’re gone. Like the sun we will live to rise. Like the sun we will live and die, and then ignite again. Like the sun we will live to rise again.” I found a career path that would let me do everything I’ve ever wanted in life. And I’m so excited. The career path that I have decided to go down is BiocChemical Engineering. Most of you are probably looking up some of the words trying out trying to figure out what the heck that sentence means. Well, the “common name” is a Biomedical Engineer, except I want to do more and understand more than just a Biomedical Engineer, so I added schooling and extra smarts in there, and I have my dream job! So I’m going to tell you all what BioChemical Engineer does, and then explain why I love each of the individual topics associated with this job.

So, to start off with, what a Biomedical Engineer does is they engineer things that enhance the body. Things like prosthetic limbs and heart monitors. Except, I want to take it to the next level. I recently subscribed to this totally awesome streaming site called “Curiosity Stream.” First of all, #notsponsored. Second of all, I have been watching so many science videos to pass the time faster and keep my brain working. I watched one a few weeks ago about this Biomedical Engineer in Australia. He was working with a boy who had Cerebral Palsy. The boy’s only motion that he could control at all times was his eye movement. This boy wanted to be more independent and not have to live off of other people. So what did the Biomedical Engineer do? He made him able to turn lights on, switch the television channel, and work a computer by the boy’s eye movements. Sounds like it comes from a comic book, right? Well, the scientific principles and laws used are actually some of the simplest. When your eye moves, an electronic pulse is sent though the brain. We can detect these pulses, and the movements of the eye they correspond with by finding the electric field difference. Pretty much, all that was going on, was the Biomedical Engineer was turning brainwaves into electronic signals. He gave the boy a tablet to put on the back of his wheelchair. This tablet was the device that turned the brainwaves into electronic signals, and then in response, turned other electronic devices on or off due to the wave’s frequency, amplitude, and energy. I was astonished by this, but I wanted to take it to the next level. Think of how many implications this could be used for! I mean, if there is an amputee, you could track their brain waves due to when they are trying to move the limb they lost, and program the prosthetic to move due to the brain waves. That way, they could move the limb just like their old one. To tackle some of these harder and trickier challenges head on, I will need to know more than Biology and Chemistry. I would have not have even come close to understanding the science behind that video if I hadn’t known simple Physics. Knowing Physics helps in understanding the Biology and Chemistry and how and why it works. And then I’ll have to know Engineering and Technology to build my machines and make all of the signals transfer properly. And while it would be cool to just be building these machines, it would be even cooler to research and discover them yourself. So, I think that’s everything.

The first topic I need to understand is Physics. As I’ve said before, my attitude towards Physics has changed with a perspective change. I hated it in High School, because my teacher over explained everything, and I loved in in College, because my Professor just told us that it’s math equations that explain nature, which has some laws of science associated with them. My perspective change again towards the end of my Freshman year of college, when I learned that Physics clarifies and explains Chemistry and Biology, and vice versa. Combining all three sciences is a powerful tool in the Science World.

Second topic: BioChemical. This is basically just Biology and Chemistry smooshed together. Biology is self-explanatory. It’s the body of the human I’ll be dealing with. Biology has always come easy for me. The anatomy of a cell is easy to understand, evolution is seen happening around the world, and the interactions between animal and environment is our lives in 6 words.

Second topic, part 2. Again, it’s the word BioChemical, except now we’re going to talk about the “Chemical” part. Chemistry and Physics are my two true loves. Except, I don’t know if I’d love researching Physical Chemistry all day. But, a BioChemical Engineer gets to use them both on a daily basis. YAY! Anyways, Chemistry was my first true love with Science, whether I knew it, or not. I first fell in love with science way back in the 7th grade. I remember drawing simple (and wrong!) diagrams of atoms, and loving it. I loved it because it was one of the first things that made me stand apart from my peers intellectually. And then, we started into Environmental Science, and I excelled in that as well. I loved learning about the different chemicals and the impact they had on the environment. I didn’t know why or how, but I felt really cool saying “Dihydrogen Monoxide,” “Sulfuric Acid,” and “Carbon Monoxide.” My easiness of understanding this subject, again, put me ahead of my smart friends. My friends were always very smart. They loved English and Reading, and were all a year ahead of me in Math. This is actually really funny looking back, because I can do math faster than any of them now, and am double-majoring in Mathematics. Anyways, I was able to understand science faster, score higher on the final exam, and I was better friends with the teacher than they were. I also loved how it made me think of the world around me more. Fast forward to Jr. year of High School and I’m taking CE Chemistry (it’s a college-level and dual credit course) while my friends are in honors chemistry. It was a big leap of faith on my part, and I learned more in that class than I thought I did while actually in the class. Fast forward again to last year, and I learn that Chemistry challenged me intellectually, and that excited me. I loved to read my Chemistry textbook, which I understood very well. I really knew that I wanted to go into Chemistry when I got fast at Chemistry. I started turning in my tests in only half the time as everyone else does. My Professor was dumb-founded, and asked if I had really finished when I turned it in. I got one of the higher scores in the class too. I’ve learned as I’ve learned more Chemistry that it relates to literally everything. Biological functions and metabolic pathways are explained by chemistry. Cellular respiration is just one amazing and complicated chemical reaction. Potential differences are explained by Chemistry on the sub-atomic level. Just everything is related to Chemistry. So, Chemistry is just good to know in general for life. Everyone should know the foundations of Chemistry.

Lastly, Engineering and Technology. How am I going to build my amazing products if I don’t know how to? This will be something I hope to pick up later. For now, I will stick with my BioChemistry and Mathematics. But we live in such a cool, electronic world. We can learn anything at the touch of a button. Literally. But why not make it with the blink of an eye? Or if that fails, I could always build myself an Iron Man suit and actually become the hero I was always meant to be.

“There’s always risks involved in Science. That doesn’t mean we don’t pursue it anyways.” I heard that in my Netflix show last night. I loved it so much that I had to write it down. There are so many examples of this, like when people were accelerating electrons and collide them together to find smaller particles, or a better source of energy. But like, that is seriously dangerous, because they could blow the world up if the electrons got fast enough. And Researching Pharmacists risk lives with every drug made. So I will take risks to progress humanity. I will risk my future on the hope that I can better someone’s life. I mean, I risked my life on someone’s new Helex Occluder. Yes, I do have a personal tie to this job career. I was born with a hole in my heart. When I was 4, my parents decided it was time for me to have surgery. There were two types of surgery I could enroll in: The standard open-heart surgery, or a new, more experimental surgery. Through much thought and prayer, they were inspired to choose the experimental surgery. This surgery involved the doctors putting a probe, with the Helex Occluder attached to the end of it, through a vein in my leg, up to my heart. Once inside my heart, the probe would find the hole, and insert the Helex Occluder into it. The Helex Occluder the would blow up, and compress on both sides of my heart. The tissue eventually grew over it, and my heart has never had a problem since. Here’s a video that shows how it’s placed in the heart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQr9w6cbGVA I don’t even have a scar to show for it. Also, I literally have Titanium as a part of me. I guess I’m closer to being Iron Man than I originally thought.

I want to make cool medical advances like that. Ones that truly change someone’s life. If I had had the open-heart surgery, I wouldn’t have been able to play a contact-sport, due to my broken ribs. I want to make someone think about the good they can do in the world. I want to put a smile on someone’s face. I want to help people who can’t do a lot due to a disability, do something new. Even if it’s as small as turning on a light. Stay wild, flower child.