SARA COLLINS_SCI 100 PROJECT 3

Allergic Contact Dermatitis

What is your article about?

My article was called "New RX for Allergic Contact Dermatitis", it was about how a new prescription drug (an experimental cream) has been discovered to treat allergic contact dermatitis that doesn't give the same side effects as long term corticosteroid use. ACD is a severe allergy that some people have where the object(s) that they are allergic to can take days to weeks to recover from.

Question

What question do you have about your article's topic and why is the question you identified important to you as a member of society?

Question: How will the duration of treatment time with the new experimental cream be determined?

This question is important to me because I work in the Allergy department at National Jewish Health and I am around patients that deal with ACD on a daily basis. I see the side effects that corticosteroids can cause so, understanding the timing of this new medication and the severity of the disease is very important as a member of society and as a health care professional.

Answers

Who might be most interested in the answer to your question?

This question could affect people with ACD find an alternative medical treatment. Patients that couldn't afford corticosteroids could be interested in the financial aspect of this medication if a treatment time is discovered. People with different severity levels of ACD could be asked to be apart of human trials during the research process to determine the treatment time of this experimental cream. This could affect people around me by seeing progression in patients that deal with ACD.

the Natural Sciences

What is the benefit of studying topics in the natural sciences?

It is beneficial to study topics in the natural sciences because advancements our society is introduced to makes our scientist and doctors responsible for the advancements to our healthcare system. With the evolution of the human body comes the evolution of diseases that threaten our population. Studying natural sciences and doing research enables us to improve treatments and (sometimes) come close to or fully get rid of those threatening diseases that have affected our population for centuries.

Major developments in the Natural Sciences

Major developments in the Natural Sciences related to ACD.

"A steroid chemist and an entrepreneur, Percy Julian ingeniously figured out how to synthesize important medicinal compounds from abundant plant sources, making them more affordable to mass-produce."

(Science History, 2017)

This scientist and his doing in proving how important steroids can be to healthcare gave scientist and doctors in my article and in modern medicine the tools to continue to improve the healthcare system when it comes to treatments of diseases.

Science is a never ending developmental topic. As science develops so does the thinking minds of scientist. My topic is a good example of this because when corticosteroids were discovered to treat Allergic Contact Dermatitis; scientist believed they had solved the problem. The development of science influenced scientist and doctors to find a better treatment, which led to the creation of this new medicine.

Percy Julian

Major Developments in Scientific Thinking

The craving scientist have to understanding how things work is what drives their scientific thinking. Having a deeper understanding of many different things can fulfill anyone. Developments in scientific thinking influence how scientific study is carried out. These developments give scientist the tools they need to answer "Why?"

Stephen Hawking’s research contributed to the field of natural science because he went deeper into science, he took chances that others were scared to take. His ambition and scientific thinking influenced many people and upcoming scientist curious about the world around us.

Inform Questions

What is the relationship between major developments in the natural sciences and the questions that natural scientist are interested in?

Major developments in Natural Sciences give scientist the tools they need to be successful in answering the questions they are interested in. The development in science is always helping influence the developmental minds of scientist. The scientist and doctors in the ACD case were able to come up with questions on how to improve a system, and because of the developments in Natural Sciences they were able to answer those questions and improve that system.

Obligation

How can being a more scientifically informed member of society benefit you and your community?

Having the background knowledge on how science can affect you and the environment around you can really help increase self-care, ultimately helping create a better environment, and decreasing how much damage the population creates on the environment. Understanding science can help the population understand a lot of how the world works. In the Ted Talks video titled The Earth is Full by Paul Gilding, he makes the great point that we have taken over more of the Earth than what was given to us. We keep forcing growth and development in places that just simply aren’t available. The human species is trying to “bend the laws of physics” and take advantage of mother nature to the point where we are ultimately hurting ourselves and our future. This is important because if we had a better understanding of natural sciences we could reverse the damage we have caused to our planet.

https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_gilding_the_earth_is_full?language=en#t-36790

Video"Why is Science Important"

by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnWm6UsX-OM

References

Gilding, P. (2012). The Earth is full. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_gilding_the_earth_is_full?language=en#t-295345

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. (2018, March 8). New Rx for allergic contact dermatitis. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 13, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180308105320.htm

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. "New Rx for allergic contact dermatitis." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180308105320.htm (accessed March 13, 2018).

Gordon, W. C., García Lýpez, V., Bhattacharjee, S., Rodríguez Gil, D., Alcover Díaz, J., de la Losa, F. P., & ... Bazan, N. G. (2018). A Nonsteroidal Novel Formulation Targeting Inflammatory and Pruritus-Related Mediators Modulates Experimental Allergic Contact Dermatitis. Dermatology & Therapy, 8(1), 111-126. doi:10.1007/s13555-018-0223-8

Percy Lavon Julian. (2017, December 09). Retrieved April 08, 2018, from https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/percy-lavon-julian