Visual media for learning biology/medicine

[forestglip]

I just want to recommend the channel Ninja Nerd for learning about biology and medical concepts. I watched half of their video so far explaining multiple sclerosis, and the host is entertaining and appears to be very knowledgeable, and there are a lot of visuals. The channel has a ton of content about many aspects of biology and lots of different diseases.

 

[ME/CFS Skeptic]

Thanks for sharing. Maybe they can do an episode on ME/CFS?

Did a quick search and noticed that none of the team members is an actual doctor or specialist. Zach Murphy, the CEO and guy in the videos is a physician assistant.

 

[forestglip]

Maybe they can do an episode on ME/CFS?

That might be interesting. I'll see if I can send an email requesting that. [Edit: Sent!]

Did a quick search and noticed that none of the team members is an actual doctor or specialist. Zach Murphy, the CEO and guy in the videos is a physician assistant.

Yeah, I saw that. Would be good to hear the opinions of some specialists about the channel. Looks to be 9 or 10 medical students on the team as "medical editors". I get the impression it's targeted mainly at medical students studying for exams, and maybe also clinicians treating patients.

 

[Trish]

Maybe they can do an episode on ME/CFS?

Be careful what you wish for. You may end up with an item led by BPS proponents.

 

[forestglip]

Be careful what you wish for. You may end up with an item led by BPS proponents.

Of the hundreds of videos, it doesn't seem like any deal with psychology, at least based on the titles.

I assume they try to stick to what is known clinically or physiologically with very high certainty. So I was thinking there might not be nearly enough "known" information about ME for it to be worth making for them, at least for the pathophysiology section of the video.

 

[Trish]

I assume they try to stick to what is known clinically or physiologically with very high certainty. So I was thinking there might not be nearly enough "known" information about ME for it to be worth making for them, at least for the pathophysiology section of the video.

Given that even some ME researchers and doctors and patient groups try to insist that there is a lot known about ME/CFS biology, ranging from outlandish to possibly plausible if replicated, I don't think we can assume anything.

It depends entirely on who they decide to consult and what references they use. I wouldn't assume anything about what they might include. I'm not keen on novices using You Tube channels to provide half baked 'education'. Call me cynical, but who would you trust to do a good job on ME/CFS?

 

[forestglip]

Given that even some ME researchers and doctors and patient groups try to insist that there is a lot known about ME/CFS biology, ranging from outlandish to possibly plausible if replicated, I don't think we can assume anything.

It depends entirely on who they decide to consult and what references they use. I wouldn't assume anything about what they might include. I'm not keen on novices using You Tube channels to provide half baked 'education'. Call me cynical, but who would you trust to do a good job on ME/CFS?

Yeah, was probably rash of me to request they cover ME.

I'm not keen on novices using You Tube channels to provide half baked 'education'.

For me personally, this is about the limit of what my brain can handle. I've tried reading through textbooks, and can barely do a page a day at best.

 

[ME/CFS Skeptic]

Be careful what you wish for. You may end up with an item led by BPS proponents.

It seems that they mostly focus on medical students. So if they use something like the IOM report, Mayo review article, NICE guideline or just the Wikipedia page on ME/CFS it would likely be much better than what most medical students learn about ME/CFS (if they hear anything about it all).

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

Would be good to hear the opinions of some specialists about the channel.

It's terrible.The guy knows nothing about what he is talking about and simply regurgitates the worst sort of dumbed down textbook stuff. MS is not type 4. Factors are not just genetic and environmental... Nothing to do with HHV-6 as far as I know... I presume the rest of it is as bad.

This is the sort of stuff we are here to chuck in the garbage can.

 

[forestglip]

It's terrible.The guy knows nothing about what he is talking about and simply regurgitates the worst sort of dumbed down textbook stuff. MS is not type 4. Factors are not just genetic and environmental... Nothing to do with HHV-6 as far as I know... I presume the rest of it is as bad.

This is the sort of stuff we are here to chuck in the garbage can.

Is there any visual media you'd recommend? I was originally looking to try to understand the basics of the immune system - T-cells, B-cells, NK, etc. And I'm interested in digging into the mitochondrial energy cycles as well.

 

[Trish]

I wouldn't start with YouTube as a source. There are thousands of people with poor understanding spouting all sorts of stuff, as we've found here, and those of us without background knowledge will find it hard to distinguish between them.

I had a lovely time for a few years before I took on forum duties following free online courses run by universities from all round the world on all sorts of subjects.

I found Coursera a good source, and EdX. There was a lovely pictorial one on mitochondria, and some good ones on human biology, cells and genetics. You work through them at your own speed, and don't have to do any of the assessments if you don't want to. They were mostly pitched at introductory university level.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/physiology

If you want school level the Khan Academy might be better.

 

[forestglip]

For better or worse, the Ninja Nerd channel replied about ME/CFS:

"Thanks so much for reaching out to Ninja Nerd.

We completely agree with you! We are hoping to address these topics in our updated Neurology section. We plan on releasing this in the coming months. Thanks and we wish you all the best of health!"

 

[forestglip]

I found Coursera a good source, and EdX. There was a lovely pictorial one on mitochondria, and some good ones on human biology, cells and genetics. You work through them at your own speed, and don't have to do any of the assessments if you don't want to. They were mostly pitched at introductory university level.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/physiology

Thanks! I just signed up for that coursera course. I was worried because it was saying at least $50 to take it, but looks like it's free if you don't want a certificate.

 

[forestglip]

One thing is that animations are amazing for helping me quickly and easily understand and remember things. If I can get a visual of a little T-cell bouncing around, doing whatever it does and showing how it interacts with other cells (little faces on the cells welcome but not necessary), that will absorb much better than text or a lecturer just describing it.

If some well-made comprehensive physiology courses had the super visually engaging style of a YouTube channel like Kurzgezagt or 3Blue1Brown, that'd be perfect.

Edit: In fact, Kurzgezagt has some beautiful intro videos about the immune system, and it looks like they cite every single thing they say, at least in these immune videos, down to the exact quote from the paper/book they cite.

– A Macrophage can eat 100 bacteria before it is exhausted.

The name macrophage stems from ancient Greek and literally means “large eater”, so it is no surprise that they can eat up to 100 dishes before they die.

#Macrophage - New World Encyclopedia

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Macrophage#Life_cycle

Quote: “Macrophages can digest more than 100 bacteria before they finally die due to their own digestive compounds.”

#Who Claims You?, Jae Choe, 2005

https://books.google.de/books?id=Mwv19o5wUCgC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=Macrophage+can+eat+100+bacteria&source=bl&ots=NVldaYziSu&sig=ACfU3U3zC29zV77s7JYnUOUc-WKTT4ymLQ&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYmILqrtPwAhVtgf0HHcl6BqgQ6AEwCXoECA4QAw#v=onepage&q=Macrophage%20can%20eat%20100%20bacteria&f=false

Quote: “These big cells (as the name correctly implies) can “eat” the invading bacteria and other pathogens. For instance, one macrophage can “eat” to kill up to 100 bacteria before it itself dies away.

 

[pooriepoor91]

There's also an anime series called "Cells at Work", which features anthropomorphized cells in the human body. The two protagonists, an RBC and a WBC keep bumping into each other throughout the whole series, which is hilarious. It is aimed at students and the younger generation, but still good for beginners. Might be available in Netflix or Crunchyroll.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8673610/

 

[Wyva]

There's also an anime series called "Cells at Work", which features anthropomorphized cells in the human body. The two protagonists, an RBC and a WBC keep bumping into each other throughout the whole series, which is hilarious. It is aimed at students and the younger generation, but still good for beginners. Might be available in Netflix or Crunchyroll.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8673610/

This reminded me of the French animated series Once Upon a Time... Life that aired when I was little. All I remember now is the red blood cell characters always carrying oxygen on their back and that sometimes an invader arrived that needed to be fought (a virus, etc). It was for little children of course but were educational stories about the different cells and what they do, how the immune system works and whatnot (as pictured here).

 

[Sasha]

One thing is that animations are amazing for helping me quickly and easily understand and remember things. If I can get a visual of a little T-cell bouncing around, doing whatever it does and showing how it interacts with other cells (little faces on the cells welcome but not necessary), that will absorb much better than text or a lecturer just describing it.

If some well-made comprehensive physiology courses had the super visually engaging style of a YouTube channel like Kurzgezagt or 3Blue1Brown, that'd be perfect.

Edit: In fact, Kurzgezagt has some beautiful intro videos about the immune system, and it looks like they cite every single thing they say, at least in these immune videos, down to the exact quote from the paper/book they cite.

I just stumbled across Kurzgezagt while searching Amazon for 'Immunology for Dummies', which apparently doesn't exist. Kurzgezagt have done an immunology-for-beginners book, which has got an average 4.8 stars in nearly 9,000 reviews. I downloaded the Kindle sample and so far I think it's the best pop science book I've ever read. The sample was so much fun to read - it's really engaging, with brilliant ways of getting you to visualise the concepts - and I learned more about a top-level conceptual view of cell biology in 15 minutes than I have in spending hours trying to miserably plod my way through other introductory texts (and the book isn't even about cell biology!).

I ordered the hardback and now can't wait for it to arrive. The Kurzegezact book has actually managed to excite me about biology as opposed to making me think of it as a thing I 'ought to learn'. Really can't praise it highly enough.

I'm hoping it will help me understand at least a bit of Jonathan Edwards's upcoming paper. A lot of us are going to need some help!

 

[Sean]

A lot of us are going to need some help!

I will follow my usual plan of relying on the Summary for Dummies from those members who do get it.

 

[ME/CFS Skeptic]

This reminded me of the French animated series Once Upon a Time... Life that aired when I was little

I remember that show, classic!

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

I'm hoping it will help me understand at least a bit of Jonathan Edwards's upcoming paper. A lot of us are going to need some help!

The animations in the video from Forestglip are very nice and give a rough idea of what is going on. The only problem is that the VoiceOver includes a lot of popular ideas about how the immune system works that are wrong or misleading. Those can be ironed out later maybe but it is a pity that misconceptions that have grown up over the last forty years have become entrenched. I do wonder whether with modern technology it would not be better to illustrate with real time-lapse pictures of blood vessels and white cells. We have those and they are real so avoid building in misconceptions.

I guess that visual accounts like this may help people understand what I have written but they may confuse with a lot of unnecessary detail. The important arguments in my paper do not really rely on knowing much about this level of detail. They do, however, draw on an understanding of the major roles for cells like T cells and B cells and macrophages. These are things that immunology textbooks often get subtly but importantly wrong. T cells are not 'in charge' of B cell responses for instance. Antibodies do not stop you dying from new infections, unless you are a newborn baby, and so on.

But as the Ski Instructor Phil Smith has always said, the thing is to try all these things and then use what suits you at the time to get the rest you want.