So... why the blog?

UPDATE: I don't really use the blog for this so much anymore.   :)

First, a little about me. I am a Biochemistry major just weeks away from an undergraduate degree. After I graduate, I'm headed to medical school. Am I a doctor? No. Do I have a bit of a leg up on your average CNN reporter when it comes to how the body works? I like to think so. So why am I writing a blog? Because I happen to think that, equations aside, biology isn't that rough.

I'm not sure exactly what made me decide to start this blog, but I have a few guesses. When I was a kid, I used to read books in the Tell Me Why series. There I was, 7 or 8 years old, and I was learning about all sorts of crazy things from St. Elmo's fire to laughing hyenas. Fast forward 10 or so years and I'm at college, taking courses in persuasive writing, economics, political science, biochemistry, etc. A lot of my time is spent doing problems and cramming for tests, but every now and then I walk out of a lecture feeling like the whole world makes a lot more sense than it did when I walked in. Instead of Tell Me Why I'm reading The Armchair Economist, but the light bulbs keep turning on just the same. I don't know how great a job I'll do, but I think the world is better place thanks to people like the authors of the books mentioned in this paragraph, who cover topics that took them years to learn in a few pages, and make it all make sense.

Of course, sometimes lecture aren't so great... cue CNN.com. Great news source in a lot of ways, but sometimes I raise an eyebrow or two on the conclusions they draw from "recent studies." After reading a few particularly questionable ones, I've started to feel bad that most of the world has to rely on the "expert says" game to know whether to get that lump checked out or not.

I happen to think people are intelligent (at least when they're not cutting me off on the highway). Sure, we all have our moments, but I really feel like there are a lot of light bulbs that could be turned on in the world if information was presented straightforward and at an appropriate level. I'm not saying things need to be dumbed down, I'm just saying that I like the Wikipedia entries that help me 'get it' more than the ones that take 4 pages of differential equations to explain why the sky is blue.

So basically, long story short, I want to help the world make sense to people who have time to read blogs, but not enough time to attend half a decade of college. I hope this turns into something like The Armchair Biologist (if it hasn't been written yet). I don't plan on sticking to just physiology and the like, as I think the social sciences are just as important as we try to straighten out the world around us. So, mission explain the world as I know it starts... now.