Prior to Elisabeth Root’s discussion about John Snow and the geography of science related topics, I had never thought much about the topic. Throughout her talk, there were many things that stuck out as important parts of studying science and understand its history. The idea of scientific progression through learning more about where ideas (such as the cholera epidemic) were rooted is more closely tied to geographic mapping than I had previously known. When scientific revolutions occur, it can be viewed as a paradigm if it explains things that have never been thought of before or sheds new light that changes already accepted ideas. Throughout the talk, I enjoyed hearing how large shifts of ideas are paired with looking at geographic locations.
Particularly, I was interested in the idea of landscape genetics. Landscape genetics attempts to describe how genetic characteristics vary in space and follow the patterns that have been seen genetically, so it is possible to make predictions. There are many applications of genetic evolution that are seen in medical therapeutics. Overall, medical geography has come a long way since John Snow’ data collection of the water system.
I am interested in learning more about job opportunities available for individuals in the landscape genetics area of study. It is interesting to have the opportunity to look at how genetics can evolve and diversify, just as humans do. With that information, it is possible to determine problems that may occur, and even try to help figure out how to prevent them.
I would encourage you to speak to Dr. Root or others in her field to learn more, Savannah. One nice thing about all of our guest speakers is that they are very interested in talking to students. Yes, it is interesting to note how far things have come since John Snow. I often wonder what it would be like to bring these scientific figures back to life in the modern day and hear their thoughts of the modern world.