Study Break: K-POP and Anime Meet Medicine

What do k-pop, anime and medicine have in common? A geeky med student's love for them. If you are a die-hard anime and k-pop fan and a med student you will find it hard not to find anime and k-pop references in everything you stumble upon. Many a time I had to hold in laughter in class so as to avoid looking like a guffawing buffoon amidst what could pass as a civil learning environment while the teachers explained or in an exam - I try to steer clear of the mental hospital.

1. You know when you first hear something, there is always one fleeting image or thought that comes upon the first impression? Well this was the image my neurons flashed me when I heard the term "Ghon focus" in a pathology class about TB:

2. If you're familiar with microbiology then you must have come across the BAP acronym. If like me you have not come across the acronym previously but the full name itself and were staring at your lecturer in bewilderment as the words "BAP" were displayed in the presentation and a picture of 5 handsome boys flashed in your mind, then you my friend are more k-pop-notized than you realize. 

This is exactly what happened to me as my microbiology lecturer was giving us a lesson on bacteria that cause meningites. She asked about the type of bacteria that can be cultured in a BAP. Instead of displaying an image of a scraped blood culture plate with disgusting colonies of bacteria, my brain screened a colony of guys with awesome hair.

Note to self: the medical 'BAP' means Blood Agar Plate.