How, Why and When Doctors Make Mistakes & How Creatures and People Actually Evolve

When someone is sick or in the hospital, it is customary to send them flowers. Who doesn’t love flowers? But do flowers actually help sick people heal? This episode begins with a discussion on some interesting research that connects healing with plants and nature. http://askinyourface.com/2012/05/06/the-healing-power-of-flowers/ Everyone makes mistakes, including doctors. But medical errors can have serious consequences. It has been reported that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America. Could that be true? What is being done to prevent medical errors and what can we as patients do to make sure we are not the recipient of one of those errors. Here to discuss that is Dr. Ofri, Clinical professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and practicing physician at New York’s Bellevue Hospital for more than two decades. She is author of the book When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error (https://amzn.to/3hVGku9) Have you ever wondered why traffic seems to stop on a highway for no apparent reason and then just starts up again? How does that happen? Listen as I explain the science of phantom traffic jams and what we could all do to stop them if we all worked together. http://www.livescience.com/713-science-traffic-jams.html How does evolution actually happen? How did fish come out of the water and start walking? Where did their lungs and legs and feet come from? How did reptiles transform into birds? How does any creature evolve into another? We have a lot of new evidence that helps explain that says Neil Shubin. Neil is a paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and Professor at the University of Chicago and author of the book Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA (https://amzn.to/3gzfoii). Listen as he explains the fascinating world of evolution.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices