A Toast to Change
I've always had a hard time with change. Leaving home to go to college was a huge change. Deciding to change my career from mathematics to dance was a huge change. Fortunately, I've been able to find my favorite brand of all-natural peanut butter everywhere I've lived, so I haven't had to deal with a peanut butter change! But what's true is that each of these changes, as rough as they were, has led to something positive, and slowly, I am learning to become more comfortable with change.
If only scientific fields were the same way!
There have been several articles/news stories out lately introducing and repeating information that challenges what, in the scientific and medical community, we would consider to be "common knowledge." Our ideas regarding cholesterol, gene expression, and even the anatomical structure of the knee are evolving. Cholesterol only becomes a problem for our bodies when we have excess inflammation and blood vessel damage. The mechanical loading (forces and pressure) on the cytoskeletons of cells can affect how those cells express their genes. And scientists have confirmed the presence (in the large majority of the population) of another knee ligament, called the anterolateral ligament.
Let's just focus on that last one for a minute. Though this structure in the knee was first mentioned in 1897, no one had specifically classified the structure and identified its function until now. Just browsing through Google Images of the knee, I don't come across any pictures with this structure. The image of the knee and its joint capsule and ligaments in my Skeletal System Pro app (created in conjunction with the Stanford School of Medicine) looks like this:
No anterolateral ligament here!
(Granted, this program also displays the pelvis in a significant posterior tilt when the skeleton is upright (below left), not to mention a head that is very anterior (forward) relative to the ankle (below right). Remember, not all anatomical images equate to accurate alignment or information!)
Think of the countless anatomy textbooks out there, the numerous images online, even the three-dimensional models of the knee. All of that will have to change. After all, we wouldn't want to be teaching an incomplete picture of the knee.
And yet, will those resources actually be changed?
Think of what we have been taught and told regarding cholesterol and genetic expression. And then read the linked articles that flesh out, and in some cases correct, our understanding.
Think of how we get our scientific information, and then read this article that demonstrates how we are only getting a small and specific picture of the scientific research that is being done.
I don't know about you, but I won't be holding my breath waiting for an updated anatomy textbook with the anterolateral knee ligament identified. This is clearly a change in our current image of the knee, and as we've seen, even scientific fields can be slow to change. But, assuming this ligament's presence continues to be confirmed, this is change I will embrace!