Learn about how and why we study fruit flies with some help from Stephanie Mohr, author of the new book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” But first, learn why it’s actually a good thing that doctors work such long hours. Get your copy of “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery” on Amazon: https://amazon.com In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about why it might actually be a good thing that doctors work such long hours: https://curiosity.im/2UvhpVy Additional resources from Stephanie Mohr: “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery” — https://amazon.com Follow Stephanie Mohr on Twitter @smohrfly — https://twitter.com/smohrfly Harvard bio — https://scholar.harvard.edu/smohr If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about how and why we study fruit flies with some help from Stephanie Mohr, author of the new book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” But first, learn why it’s actually a good thing that doctors work such long hours.
Get your copy of “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery” on Amazon: https://amazon.com
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about why it might actually be a good thing that doctors work such long hours: https://curiosity.im/2UvhpVy
Additional resources from Stephanie Mohr:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/fruit-fly-research-essentials-w-stephanie-mohr-and-why-doctors-work-long-hours
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn why it might actually be a good thing that doctors work such long hours. You’ll also learn about fruit fly research with Stephanie Mohr, a lecturer on genetics at Harvard Medical School, in the first edition of our four-part “Fruit Fly Friday” mini-series.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
For Doctors, Lack Of Sleep Might Be Better Than The Alternative — https://curiosity.im/2UvhpVy (Cody)
There’s a good reason why doctors have very long shifts. And when I say “long shifts,” I’m not kidding: on average, U.S. doctors work almost 60 hours a week. And a lot of the time, younger residents work up to 80 hours and have to deal with grueling 24-hour shifts. We wanted to cover the research behind this today, because at first glance, those long hours might seem like a disaster waiting to happen — delivering medical care is stressful, highly demanding work, and doing it on little sleep seems like it would result in people getting hurt. But there's a convincing reason why doctors prefer to keep working instead of handing their patients off to another doctor: It can save lives. And this is backed up by a lot of research that’s shown that even when training shifts and weekly scheduled hours for doctors are cut back, there haven’t been significant changes in the number of lives saved. So what gives? One of the major reasons for this is the risk that go along with changing a patient's doctor. This routine is known in the medical profession as a patient handoff. Handoffs require a lot of clear communication on every detail about a patient's condition, prognosis, and treatment. When you multiply this by the number of patients usually under a doctor's care, it's pretty much guaranteed that details will be lost without a robust and organized method in place for communicating them. Up to 80 percent of serious medical errors can trace their origin to miscommunication during patient handoffs. That’s why sleep-deprived doctors who have firsthand experience working with a particular patient are less likely to make serious errors than doctors who are wide awake, but who were never told about a patient allergy or another complicating factor. These days, hospitals typically enforce strict patient handoff procedures and implement their own fatigue-mitigation strategies. That can include scheduling planned naps, strategically using caffeine, and keeping staff involved when designing work schedules. The future should be brighter, since trials are still underway to find the perfect balance of work hours, shift policies, and sleep policies. But for now, it’s worth remembering that there’s at least one good reason why doctors work long hours.
[NHTSA]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is paid for by NIT-suh.
CODY: It can be a little frustrating, especially if you’re in a hurry or running late, to find yourself at a railway crossing, waiting for a train. And if the signals are going and the train’s not even there yet, you can feel a bit tempted to try and sneak across the tracks.
ASHLEY: Well, don’t. Ever. Trains are often going a lot faster than you expect them to be. And they can’t stop. Even if the engineer hits the brakes right away, it can take a train over a mile to stop.
CODY: By that time, what used to be your car is just a crushed hunk of metal and what used to be you… well, better not to think about that. The point is, you can’t know how quickly the train will arrive. The train can’t stop even if it sees you. The result is disaster. If the signals are on, the train is on its way. And you... just need to remember one thing… Stop. Trains can’t.
Stephanie Mohr Interview Clip 1 - Why we study fruit flies (Ashley)
ASHLEY: Did you know that scientists do a TON of research using... fruit flies? [ad lib about how Cody did not know this]
ASHLEY: Well, fruit flies are so important, we decided we’d talk to an expert who knows a thing or two about them. Stephanie Mohr is a lecturer on genetics at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” And she’s joining us for a 4-part series we’re calling “Fruit Fly Friday.” For our first installment today, here’s what she told us about how and why fruit flies are such a big deal in the research world, and what scientists are actually looking at.
[CLIP 3:46]
ASHLEY: Again, Stephanie Mohr is a lecturer on genetics at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” You can find links to the book and more in today’s show notes, and next Friday, she’ll be back with more on fruit fly research.
CODY: That’s all for today, but you can keep learning all weekend on curiosity-dot-com.
ASHLEY: This weekend, you’ll learn about why you’re made almost entirely of empty space;
Whether you can learn perfect pitch;
Things you’re probably cleaning too often;
Why Easter is called “Easter”;
And more!
CODY: If there’s something ELSE you’re curious about, then find our contact info on our website, curiosity-daily-dot-com. We might answer your question on a future episode!
ASHLEY: You can also search for past episodes and listen to more than 300 episodes on our dedicated podcast website. Know what else you can do there? LEAVE COMMENTS. And I have to read this one from last Wednesday’s episode: https://curiositydaily.com/quantum-computing-101-qubits-and-entanglement-w-professor-chris-bernhardt/#comment-162
CODY: One more time, that’s curiosity-daily-dot-com. The story I’m making up is that you’re gonna join us again Sunday and learn something new in just a few minutes. In the meantime, have a great weekend! I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!