Lightbulbs
Each time a light goes out in my apartment, I am reminded of a joke I heard during my internship. “How many doctors does it take to change a lightbulb?” “Only one, but a nurse has to tell him or her which end to screw in.” It brought a chuckle to me then, and it still does, for how well it captures the division of knowledge in medicine. Doctors have intellect, but without a nurses’ common sense, it means nothing. But as you know, the set-up is not a unique one. In fact, the lightbulb joke is an example of an endless-variations joke, with innumerable permutations. For starters, The Light Bulb Joke List has cataloged jokes mocking 759 different target groups, including Torontonians, Christian Scientists, chess grandmasters, and poltergeists. It is clear that no group is spared the punch-line – there is even a joke about lightbulbs changing lightbulbs - but I wonder what we are losing about the lightbulb itself in all of this? What would PubMed say about this mercenary of appliances?
Surprisingly, PubMed has quite a lot to say about lightbulbs -- and only some of it is funny. Plugging “lightbulbs” directly into the search field will yield six results, but if you modify your search to include “light bulbs” or “light bulb”, the return shoots up to ninety-one. In this larger subset, there are studies from the Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, which would have been quite interesting indeed. However, I ultimately decided to stick with my original spelling and limit it to the top three hits.
Oddly enough, the first reference to lightbulbs was in a witty turn of phrase. At the end of an abstract entitled “Depression and its relation to light deprivation” published in Psychoanalytic Review, the author writes that “in all too many situations psychoanalysts are being replaced by lightbulbs.” Brushing off the biological basis of depression, and misspelling hormones along the way (it’s serotonin, not seratonin), the abstract argues that developmental models of the absence of light need to be better considered in treating depression. Darkness signifies ego regression, light generates anxiety, and so on. Basically, if there’s a light out, it doesn’t always mean turning one on is the answer.
In other cases, having it on might be really helpful. Specifically, the advent of “fluorescent lightbulbs that deliver monochromatic light at 311-nm UVB” represents an important new treatment for psoriasis, a chronic skin condition characterized by scaly patches and inflammation. According to an abstract in the dermatology journal Cutis, although ultraviolet light has long been an option for severe psoriasis, the narrowband wavelength of this new bulb is more effective and safer than other available options. It does a better job of clearing skin plaques, bothers red blood cells less, and by golly, patients like it.
Unfortunately, not all articles on lightbulbs are as uplifting. In the abstract “An unusual oxidation type on bulb filament after a car crash dive,” the examination of lightbulbs were used as part of a forensic investigation. Called to the case of two dead bodies found trapped in a car, scientists revealed a strange oxidation type on a broken bulb filament. After analyzing the results, it was concluded that “the lightbulbs were switched on during the crash dive, in contrast with the investigators idea.” A critical illumination of the facts, for sure.
Now, who would have thought lightbulbs were so diverse? Although the subject of the ultimate one-trick-pony of comedians, lightbulbs are quite eccentric players in the scientific literature. From their use as a dermatologic treatment to an important tool in a criminal case, there is certainly much more than meets the eye. After all, it takes five scientists to change one. “One to write the grant proposal, one to do the mathematical modeling, one to type the research paper, one to submit the paper for publishing, and one to hire a student to do the work.”
References
Wilson N. 2002. Depression and its relation to light deprivation. Psychoanal Rev. 89(4): 557-67.
PubMeditation
PubMed is the search engine of choice for most scientists and doctors, and is the reason why science libraries are usually empty these days. With archives of abstracts that go back decades and links to full journal article PDF files, PubMed is the gateway to science history, the tool for inflating your reference list, or making the painful discovery that your experiment has already been done. For this recurring column, we exploit its power for fun and mischief.