THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Did you know that your thumb is the same length as your nose or that your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to boil or that a higher IQ equals more dreams? These are some of the crazy quirky facts that you find on posters exhibited at the Medical College as part of the Medex exhibition organised by the Students’ Union.One poster even says - ‘Believe it or not - Heart attacks are more likely to happen on Monday.’ But don’t look around for explanations, you won’t find any, in the posters at least. Explanations, you will find, for all your questions on anatomy, physiology, chromosome abnormalities, on how the eye works, how a surgery is done, radiodiagnostics, microbiology, neurology, nephrology and the hundred little things that could go wrong with your skin."This is the first time that all the 38 different departments of a medical college are getting together to put up a show of this magnitude. We also have special stalls put up by Regional Cancer Centre, Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Dental College, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology and the Ayurveda College,’’ said Sujith Varghese Abraham, a fourth year medical student who is also the general convenor of the Medex exhibition.Right from the time you step into the exhibition venue through a skull made of sponge and scaffolding, it will be one whirlwind tour through the human body, the precision with which it works, the factors that affect this precision, what could go wrong where, communicable and non-communicable diseases, how to treat and repair the body and even forensic medicine that explains how a decomposed or mutilated body can be identified scientifically.If things get too heavy, you can take a break and go watch skeletons do a jig. These skeletons can even play musical instruments, but of course, controlled by human beings.If the community medicine stall takes you to all tick-borne and mosquito-borne diseases, the microbiology department takes you right to all the microbes - various hues and shapes of bacteria, fungi and viruses. They even have still models of the AIDS virus, influenza virus, rabies virus and cultures of bacteria and fungi. And if you think these microbes are too small for you, you can go watch a cadaver being opened up or the laparoscopic techniques that are demonstrated as part of the exhibition.The answer to all these germs from the proverbial Pandora’s Box lies in venue number three, that of the Pharmacy College, where you can really see the process of how a drug is made, how it can be modified for various uses and so on. A major part of the pharmacy show is based on plant-derived drugs, though they do give a brief mention about the synthetic drugs.From the first step of identifying, isolating and purifying the active compound from plants to pre-clinical and finally the clinical trials, the pharmacy students make sure that the visitor understands every intricate process. They also explain with clarity how a tablet or capsule is made, right from making the gelatin coating to drying, weighing, mixing, blending and finally punching the tablets and making it sugar-coated or otherwise.Besides all these, there are video shows, live demonstrations of machinery, free screening tests and seminars to keep you engaged throughout the day. So, what are you waiting for?
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