Before this presentation, I had never heard of or thought about the combination of the fields of medicine/health and geology. They originally seemed liked two completely separate fields, but the further through the presentation that she got, the more and more it made sense and I wondered why I hadn’t considered this before. It also makes you wonder what other disciplines could be combined to generate better outcomes for both fields. With most scientific fields, experiments are run in extremely controlled environments, but as shown in vaccine trials, that is not the case. There are uncountable variables that the scientists cannot control, but with the research that Dr. Root presented, trials can become a little more scientific as some variables are now under control. I am curious if this practice will be widely used in vaccine trials in the future or if there are other medicinal trials where this could be made applicable. Overall a very thought provoking presentation.
Quent, I agree that the presentation was thought-provoking. I, too, was ignorant of the merging of these two fields when I first heard Dr. Root speak. I also had the same feeling that it seemed obvious in retrospect. In some ways, I think this represents how a field develops and evolves, becoming more complex as more and more variables are recognized.