Welcome to Magic Bullets
Cancer. It's one of the words that people fear the most. It seems like everyone knows someone—a
friend, a family member—who has been affected by cancer. It is the second leading cause of death
in the United States. That makes cancer an important health issue. But, let's be honest, why
would anyone in high school want to study it? Why is cancer the topic for this module? Isn't
that a senior citizens' disease?
"Conquer Cancer"
While it is true that the people most likely to get cancer are older people, we know that factors early in your life play a major role in whether or not you will get it. The most important reason for you to be interested in cancer, other than the fact that you may know people who have it, is that there are things you can do now, today, to decrease your chances of getting cancer. That's why there are four sections in this module on cancer prevention. We've tried to give you a lot of information about how cancer may be related to:
- The foods you eat
- Whether you smoke
- Your exposure to the sun
- Your family history
The readings and activities in these sections will give you the information you need today in order to help protect yourself from cancer.
The other sections in the module will help you understand the disease, how our knowledge of it developed, how it can be detected, and how it is treated. Throughout these sections are stories of the real people who played important and interesting roles in cancer's history. The brief stories are included because developments in science and medicine are the result of real people being committed to understanding why we get sick and what we have to do to get well. Timelines give you some overall perspectives. If you read carefully, you will find that ideas in science are built on earlier ideas and that one scientist's work is often the basis for the research of the next generation of scientists.
This module has readings, class activities, simulations, labs,and computer activities. Most of the topics are related to science, specifically chemistry. But you will encounter some math, some history, some health, in addition to some biology and physics. There's even a little geography. You'll have to do some reading and writing for some of the activities. This module is, in short, interdisciplinary.
Many of the parts of the module are related to each other, but you can begin anywhere in the module. So, pick a topic that looks interesting to you and get started.
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Image credit
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"Conquer Cancer": Courtesy National Library of Medicine.