A Lab Coat Fantasy

A guest visitor came in this past week talking about the differences in male and female brains. It was extremely engaging to hear professor and research specialist from UCSD, Alexander “Sasha” Kaufmann speak about the research that him and his team have done. The part that stood out to me the most was when he showed how the male brain tends to make more connections from the front to back of the brain whereas the female brain makes connections from left to right, across the lobes. The front to back connections account for better spatial skills and motor control and the side to side connections tend to account for better verbal skills and intuition. I was left wondering why the certain connections mean what they do. Perhaps crossing the two hemispheres constantly in the female brain can cause a confusion in the brain’s motor sensory areas because it is constantly getting connections from the opposite side.

Watching this presentation encouraged me to make that final

push in sending in my information to apply for an internship opportunity that I really want. I have always envisioned this positive vibe from working at a laboratory ever since I had my first science fair in second grade and we had to dress up in lab coats. Ever since then I had been creating a picture in my head of people just playing with chemicals day after day and slicing things to put under a microscope. Along with this, my aunt let my family visit the lab that she works at and although we didn’t get to do any of the testing, we did get to see the animals she works with along with some of the tools and the type of chemicals that stain certain types of bones.