Inspiring People

Changing the Face of War – Sir Harold Gillies and the Origins of Modern Reconstructive Surgery

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Reading Time: 6 minutes [Describing World War I] Only one village in all of France escaped without losing at least one of its citizens. This explains why, even in the tiniest of villages, there is a monument honouring those who were killed in the war. Every year, wreaths are laid, and ceremonies are held. Wherever we went, people kept returning to one theme: the extraordinary amount of blood that had been shed. “World War II,” they would say. “Oh, it was terrible, but it was nothing compared to …

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How Joseph Lister’s Visionary Approach Changed Modern Medicine

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Until the middle of the nineteenth century, surgery was nothing more than butchering services provided by barbers or people with no formal medical training (some were even illiterate), which performed tooth extractions, bloodletting, enemas, and amputations without a thorough understanding of either human anatomy or infection causes. No wonder hospitals were called Houses of Death, where mushrooms and maggots thrived in dirty sheets and, sometimes, the flesh of patients. Most patients were tortured in surgeries until they died or miraculously survived. As there were no …

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Leonardo da Vinci: Between the Tongue of the Woodpecker and Mona Lisa

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Reading Time: 11 minutes Get hold of a skull. Nutmeg.  Observe the holes in the substance of the brain, where there are more or less of them.  Describe the tongue of the woodpecker and jaw of a crocodile.  Give measurement of the dead using his finger [as a unit].  Get your books on anatomy bound. Boots, stockings, comb, towel, shirts, shoelaces, penknife, pens, a skin for the chest, gloves, wrapping paper, charcoal.  This to-do list belonged to Leonardo da Vinci, written perhaps before a journey da Vinci took to …

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The Apgar Score and Its Hidden Lessons

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Reading Time: 7 minutes The first test newborns have to pass is the Apgar score, a rating system from zero to ten used by healthcare providers to determine how thriving a newborn is.  Appearance (skin colour), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflexes), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration (breathing rate), these categories are each rated from zero to two so that midwives, nurses or obstetricians can quickly assess a baby’s condition after birth. A score of seven or above indicates the baby is in good health. A lower score does not …

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Lillian Gilbreth: When Emancipation Starts In the Kitchen

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Reading Time: 10 minutes I hate housework. You make the beds, you wash the dishes, and six months later, you have to start all over again. Joan Rivers  Wiping, hoovering, polishing, dusting, washing, scrubbing. Shopping, prepping, cooking, cleaning. Repainting, redecorating, decluttering, repairing. Housekeeping is not like other types of work: we can’t put it on our CV, we get no recognition for not letting things fall apart, and it’s a Sisyphean work, as it must be done over and over again.  And yet, our generation has access to some …

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When the World Needs Dreamers: Marie Curie

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Reading Time: 9 minutes Marie Curie, born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, was a self-sacrificing genius with an incredible work ethic and a complete disdain for money. She was also radioactive. To this day, Curie’s papers (including her cookbooks) are considered too dangerous to handle due to their levels of radioactive contamination. Her notebooks are sealed in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to check them must wear protective clothing.  Marie Curie was a person of firsts. She was the first woman in France to earn a PhD (in Physics, 1903). The …

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Life Lessons from John Grisham’s Writing Habits

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Reading Time: 6 minutes While researching for my articles, I came across John Grisham‘s fascinating debut as a writer. Grisham became the master of legal thriller books, with many of his works adapted as movies: The Client, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief, A Time To Kill, The Firm, etc.  Grisham never developed an interest in writing until he was practising as a lawyer. One day in the courthouse, he heard a tormenting testimony of a twelve-year-old girl.  I seriously doubt I would ever have written the …

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Celebrating The International Women’s Day – “Let me remind all women that we live longer and better lives when we have sisters we love, not necessarily born in our bloodline or of our race.” – Maya Angelou

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Reading Time: < 1 minute The International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March, started as a strategy to promote equal rights, including suffrage for women. It seems appropriate that in this day when we celebrate womanhood to remember the eternal words of the ever-inspiring Maya Angelou. While researching the history of this date, I discovered that the Appenzell Innerrhoden (Swiss canton) was forced to accept women’s suffrage by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland in 1991 (yes, 1991).  I also want to share one of the most inspiring videos I have ever watched, the Australian prime minister Julia Gillard attacking the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, calling him a misogynist and …

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