The Life-Saving Benefits of Being Curious! (warning: serious TMI).

In her lecture, The Hungry Mind: Origins of Curiosity, Susan Engel of Williams College beautifully explains the benefits of curiosity not only on student motivation, but learning. See Engel's talk below: 

​Corroborating Engel's conclusions, Min Jeung Kang and his team at Caltech concluded via fMRI, in an article titled The Hunger for Knowledge: Neural Correlates of Curiosity, that when an individual is curious, they are able to negotiate complexity in the content domain they are learning, as well as unrelated content domains! Perhaps it is the Biology teacher in me, however I do not think it is a reach to say that Kang's observations can be extrapolated to a Darwinian hypothesis. That is to say, increased curiosity = amplified awareness = survival fitness. 

After reflecting on Engel's video and Kang's research, I slipped into a nerdy state of reflection regarding the relationship between curiosity, health, survival, etc. I have always been a very curious person (to a fault at times...), and was immediately "curious" about any direct experiences with the relationship between curiosity and "fitness" to survive.  After reflecting, it was clear that my current obsession with curiosity isn't by accident. Without exaggerating, my curiosity has indeed saved my life. Below is a workflow of thoughts that emerged from this reflection. TMI warning: 
1998

• Curiosity: I sucked at standardized tests growing up. Do I still suck in college? 
• Result: I took the MCAT three times, and although I flunked it each time, I learned how to coordinate multiple science topics at one time. 

1999

• Curiosity: Didn't get into Medical School. Would I be a good teacher? 
• Result: Found a job teaching science. 

2008

• Curiosity: Why is my blood pressure so high? Perhaps I have LVH. 
• Result: Pressured doctor into doing an Echocardiogram looking for LVH. Aorotic Aneurysm discovered instead. 

2009

• Curiosity: Do I have to get a mechanical heart valve? Is there a better way? 
• Result: Found surgeon who would do experimental procedure to save my heart valve. 

2010

• Curiosity: How the heck is my surgeon so confident? What were his teachers like? 
• Result: Altered my teaching pedagogy to match that which my surgeon experienced. 

2016

• Curiosity: I'm sick of only teaching chemistry. Can I teach biology? 
• Result: Teaching biology. 

2017

• Curiosity: Is it possible to bring my heart surgery experience into my biology class? 
• Result: Designed a course called "Medical Biology". 

2017

• Curiosity: Invited employee of from Medtronic to come speak in my class about heart valves. 
• Result: Speaker offered to create a 3D model of my pre-surgery aorta as a model for his talk. 

2018

• Curiosity: I was intrigued by shape of print, and apparent Type A Aortic Dissection that was not noticed earlier. 
• Result: Asked Cardiologist about dissection. Unseen dissection was confirmed and consistent with Marfan Syndrome which was ruled out given physical diagnosis in 2009. 

2018

• Curiosity: Is it possible to, in 2018, do a genetic test for Marfan syndrome? 
• Result: Yes it is I pushed and was ordered blood test for Marfan Syndrome. I have Marfan Syndrome! This caused my initial heart issues. 

2018 (Last Month) 

• Curiosity: Given that Marfan Syndrome  is Autosomal Recessive do my kids have it? I have four, so statistically at leasts two of them do 
• Result: Waiting for genetic testing results on my kids currently...