Gonads, Vulva, and Nematodes! Now that I have your attention....

Earlier this week I got to visit my friend, Jeanyoung, at her office. She is a geneticist currently working in cancer research. She is one of those people who is humbly brilliant. Regular people need to have a dictionary and scientific thesaurus to reference while in a conversation with her. Not pretentious, just super smart. What is common knowledge to her is rocket science to me so I ask a lot of questions. And when I feel too dumb to ask anymore questions I just smile and nod.

We spent a few hours looking under the microscopes at the tiny worms she is currently working with. They are barely visible to the human eye. Maybe the size of a tiny piece of lint and she dissects them to look at their gonads! (I know you were wondering when I would get to that part.) Does this seem crazy to anyone else? DISSECTING WORMS THE SIZE OF LINT???? How do you make tools that small or microscopes that powerful? How do you keep your hands steady enough to make precision cuts? And more importantly, what do worm gonads have to do with cancer? I don't have the answers to any of these questions yet. I'm sure Jeanyoung explained it to me but I used my smile and nod technique. I did get a lesson in the anatomy and sexuality of these worms which I found to be just as fascinating.












I came away from my field trip more in awe of God's complex design even down to a single cell. Just as the universe is infinitely vast in the realms of outer space, so it is on the genetic level. In addition, I'm blown away at how He created us humans in His image! I see that fact expressed in a new light when I look at scientists. Insatiable curiosity to discover and understand. Persistent pursuit of new innovations. We humans are unique in this way.