Material for Science Educators


DISCUSSION POINTS FROM THE

BEN CANDIDI NOVELS, by Dirk Wyle

of possible use for

EDUCATORS AND SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS

Note: Many of these topics can be searched on-line, starting from Links for Scientists and Laymen on the Main Page.


For Pharmacology Is Murder, by Dirk Wyle

  • Forensic vs basic science


  • Are the attitudes expressed in the CSI TV series useful in a biomedical research laboratory?


  • Pick a title: B.S., Ph.D., post-doctoral fellow, assistant professor, associate professor, full professor, chairman, dean, Nobel laureate, inventor, trail-blazer, biomedical research scientist.


  • Why insulin cannot be taken by mouth. Prion disease. Pharmacokinetics and drug delivery.


  • Research specialties of the 13 scientist-suspects


  • The transforming experience of the Ph.D. program


  • Ph.D. vs M.D.: Separate cultures or completely different animals?


  • Career paths in biomedical research


  • Medical inventions, patenting and commercialization


  • Are today's scientists natural philosophers, as implied by the title Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)?


  • Does the novel identify aspects of academic biomedical science that need to be more carefully examined or perhaps even changed?



For Biotechnology Is Murder, by Dirk Wyle

  • Why new drugs are expensive and hard to bring out: discovery, mechanism, source, purity, FDA guidelines and process, animal testing, side-effects, clinical testing, manufacture. And who is going to come up with $100 M to pay for it all?


  • Drug discovery: big companies vs small scientists


  • Dr. Moon's problems


  • Intermediate-stage financing


  • Defining intellectual property


  • Venture capitalists: Was Dr. Broadmoore typical?


  • Due diligence


  • Biomedical consulting scientist: a serious career or an occasional moonlighting gig?


  • The animal testing described in the novel


  • "GMP according to FDA guidelines"


  • Academia, government agency, big company or small company: Career choices for the freshly minted Ph.D.


  • "People skills" and "social engineering": Where to draw a line that will ensure that it's still science?



For Medical School Is Murder, by Dirk Wyle

  • Patent examiner as a career for a freshly minted Ph.D.


  • Biomedical research in medical schools: hard- and soft-money positions


  • Why the most dangerous time in a heart attack is when blood flow has been reestablished


  • Scientific discoveries overlooked or made. How discovery disfavors an unprepared mind.


  • Gradations in value of scientific work. How are scientific contributions weighed and assigned value?


  • Dr. Thomas Stockmann: Enemy of the People


  • MRI and other minimally invasive diagnostic techniques


  • Medical research as conducted by M.D.s and Ph.D.s.


  • Limitations of statistical analysis in longitudinal studies


  • Waste, fraud and abuse with respect to Federal funding of research






For Amazon Gold, by Dirk Wyle







For Bahamas West End Is Murder, by Dirk Wyle

  • Oceanography of the Florida coast, Staits of Florida and Gulf Stream, Little Bahama Bank


  • Ecology of the Little Bahama Bank


  • Bahamian economy


  • Bahamian political system


  • History of the Bahamas


  • Anti-cancer compounds from marine sponges. A scientific literature on this exists. (Also see Biotechnology Is Murder.)


  • Assuming that the compounds were efficacious, what would be the economic impact on the Bahamas?


  • Hull hydrodynamics: Planing vs displacement hulls


  • Validity of Ben's time-required-to-sink calculation


  • Gulf Stream currents and eddies


  • Validity of Ben's engine-vs-current-vs-wind method for back-calculating the position of the yacht


  • The science behind Rebecca's time-of-death calculation based on measurement of anal temperature. How the accuracy is influenced by activity level at death and environmental factors.


  • Medico-forensic basis of Rebecca's time-of-death estimate on the second body


  • Factors influencing distribution of sponges, coral and fish on marine ecospheres such as the Little Bahama Bank






For Yucatán Is Murder, by Dirk Wyle



  • Research and discuss the geography of the Yucatán Peninsula: mountains, hills and plains; weather; soil, ground cover; flora and fauna.


  • Research and discuss the present-day economy of the Yucatán Peninsula. What is the best prospect for growth? Tourism? Vacation- or retirement living? Agriculture? Technology? Developing human capital? Oil?


  • Yucatán hydrology: Its effect on sustainable population and ecology


  • Yucatán hydrology: As a determinant of Mayan history; cenotes


  • Similarities between Florida springs and Yucatán cenotes


  • Similarities between the Florida and Yucatán coastal environments


  • Research and consider the differences between Egyptian, Chinese and Mayan hieroglyphs.


  • The vulture as a cadaver dog


  • Follow leads in the novel to research carbon dioxide triple-point extraction technology.


  • Follow leads in the novel to research underground conduit drilling technology.


  • Research the use of DNA technology (described in the last chapter) to prove bodily contact with objects that have been collected as evidence.


  • Research the use of light-micoroscopy and histological stains to identify tissues collected as evidence and establish their human vs animal origin.


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