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C.P Snow goes into great detail about the divide concerning scientists and literary intellectuals in “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”. His whole essay resonates with my education from kindergarten to today. UCLA is a prime example of the “divide” as we have North campus and South campus. It is almost as if these “two” campuses speak two different languages. It saddens me that although I am certain of my career path, I cannot be a part of both campuses and I have to choose form one. I almost feel alienated when I have to “cross” the bridge to get to North campus for a mandatory English class.


My career goal is to be in the medical field and I have found form experience that it is quite rare to find a doctor with good let alone great bed side manners.
In Medicine, people are hidden behind 'medical conditions' rather than being seen as a human beings, so the science and labelling makes it all very impersonal.
It may be essential (as a defense and coping mechanism) for the Doctors to be distant from the person, but that creates an impersonal and cold empirical mindset. This party could stem from the issue of “two cultures” as once you are in the science word, there is not getting out and broadening your education and even communication skills. This all stems back to the “divide” that C.P Snow talk about. Pre-Med students are all stuck in formulas and theories and to an extent, struggle with basic north campus mindsets. It is vital that this “divide” is merged as the future of our doctors looks grim and uninviting to the patient’s eye.


On the other hand, I can see technology and drugs have become an essential part of medicine. If technology did not bind with Medicine, then we would not have all of the life saving machines that save millions of lives each year. Perhaps an increase in “intellectual literacy” to science, which in turn is “closing the gap”, is essential for understanding and treating the patient as a whole.

In the lectures, the message (even as originally CP Snow wanted it) is that sciences and humanities should support each other as science helps reduce ambiguity and language helps expression. Educational systems however have encouraged separation and division between the two and developed stereotypes that encourage a mindset of separation.

Sources:
C.P. Snow on 3rd Culture Bridge. Photograph. https://www.stoa.org.uk/topics/two-cultures/images/ttc1.jpg

Medical Technology. Photograph. https://i1.wp.com/www.ibiobq.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/future_of_medicine_with_ehr.jpg?fit=1732,1155

Bed Side Manners. Photograph. https://www.robertkotlermd.com/finding-plastic-surgeon-bedside-manner/

Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Cambridge UP, 1959. Print.

Vesna, Victoria. "Toward a Third Culture: Being In Between." Leonardo. 34 (2001): 121-125. Print.

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