Letter on Science Education and Medicine

This week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News (Washington DC, weekly, 140,000 subscribers) published a letter I wrote in support of science education based on the technology that put me back together after several bad accidents. It's a subscription Web site, so I am copying the letter rather than posting a link.

Broken neck, evolutionary biology

One of the few moments I remember from the hours following the bike accident that splintered my seventh vertebra and broke nine other bones is the neurosurgeon saying: "You have two choices. Get the surgery or we can put you in a halo cast for a year and see what happens." I said, "surgery." And I have walked three to 10 miles per day since I left the hospital eight days later. Since the cervical collar came off on Aug. 2, 2007, I have been back on my bike.

But 10 or more years ago I would have had no option but the halo cast. My seventh vertebra was in pieces. Cadaver bone replacement was not a routine option in 1997. I would still be screwed into a cage or maybe in traction or recovering from surgery to "harvest" bone from my hips. In 1967, I would have been quadriplegic or dead.

C&EN writes well and regularly about modern science and why evolution is so important to our intellectual life. Understanding how the body works at the molecular level is key to accepting donor body parts. So for me the insights of Darwin and Mendel, which led to the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick, then to huge advances in medicine and all biosciences in the past 50 years, allowed me, a 54-year-old bicycle racer, to walk out of the hospital eight days after a 50-mph crash that would have left me caged for a year, quadriplegic, or dead if it happened earlier in my life.

I am also a believer. So in addition to thinking rejection of modern science is crazy, I also think it is very bad manners. I would respect those who believe in science-rejecting young-earth creationism more if, consistent with their beliefs, they lived in caves and refused all of the technology that comes directly from science in the past century. But who in America does not benefit from modern medicine or high technology?

In my adult life I have been blinded by shrapnel, seen the bones and ligaments inside my knees after a motorcycle crash, and in 2007 was saved from paralysis by the latest trauma medicine. I certainly support modern science on an intellectual level, but for me I am also a fan of modern medicine, as passionate as my fellow Penn State alums are about football.

Obviously, I am writing with no specific expertise, just an ACS member who thinks support of modern science and rejection of pseudoscience is not just right—it's a matter of life and death.

Neil Gussman
Philadelphia

My Father and Fort Indiantown Gap

My father, George Gussman, served in Pennsylvania for most of World War II. His first enlistment was in 1939 at 33 years old. When the US declared war on Japan in 1941, Dad was close to discharge. Of course, no one got discharged after December 7, 1941. My father was the fourth of six sons of immigrants who came to America just before the turn of the 20th century to escape the pogroms in Russia. My father went to school only through the 8th grade then went to work. He liked to say he was a Teamster when there were really teams of horses. His first job was stable boy, working the wrong end of those horses.

When the war broke out my father was twice the age of the other recruits and had real experience in warehousing, what the Army calls the quartermaster corps. Despite his lack of education, he went to Officer Candidate School. As a brand-new 36-year-old 2nd lieutenant, my Dad was soon put in command of a Black maintenance company at Camp Reynolds in the northeastern part of Pa. He was very proud of that command. I still have scrapbooks of clippings and photos of the men he commanded. He kept in touch with some of his sergeant's long after the war was over.

Then he got assigned to Fort Indiantown Gap. More on that later.

Passed Phase 1

I just passed the last module for Phase 1 of the 63J course. A week from tomorrow I report for Phase 2 school at Aberdeen MD. I'll be blogging daily from the school--everything from wake up calls to lights out if I can.

Orders for 63J Training

I just got orders to report for 63J10 training at Aberdeen MD on March 8. So the clock is ticking now for me to complete the seven modules that make up phase 1 of the training. I just returned from a business trip to Boston. I took the train and went through most of one of the modules on the way up and back. Here's a picture of the steam cleaner that is part of the latest module.

Laser Fire

Saturday morning I was able to join another company is a laser fire exercise. I fired an M-16 with a laser device attached tot he end of the barrel at electronic targets. It has been so long since I fired an M-16--in tanks my personal weapons were a .45 Cal pistol and a "Grease Gun" submachine gun--that I was happy to practice aiming, squeezing the trigger, and assuming firing positions. Firing prone I put together a 3 cm shot group. Kneeling and standing, not so good. I also had a good shot group sitting, but that's not part of qualification fire. I am looking forward to live fire at summer camp.

PT Test

Sunday morning I took the PT test again with a couple of guys who missed the previous tests. The morning was cold and because of a snow squall the track was icy in some spots and wet in others. My run time was 16:23, 42 seconds slower than September, but I did 11 more pushups and 14 more situps (42 and 66 respectively) so I got my overall score up to 271. Next fall I hope to get my score up to 290 by get my run time down to 14:40 (max for age 52 to 56) and adding a few more pushups.

My New Washer Dryer

Here it is!