When we think about human growth, we usually imagine it happening in a steady way. A child gets a little taller every day until eventually they reach their adult height. Dr. Michelle Lampl, a physician and researcher at Emory University, was able to show that this is not exactly how growth happens.
One of Dr. Lampl’s areas of research that I thought was really interesting is something called “saltatory growth.” This means that instead of growing a little bit each day, children can experience short bursts of growth or periods where there is little or no growth. Her research on infants found growth occurs over short periods, separated by days or weeks without any increases in length. This is really interesting because it shows how much we still have to learn about something so basic, like growing.
Her work also connects to my interest in medicine and public health. A child’s growth can tell doctors a lot about nutrition, development and overall health. Understanding how normal growth actually happens could help doctors better recognize when something might be wrong.
Dr. Lampl’s career is also interesting to me because she has both an MD and a PhD in anthropology. Her work combines medicine, biology, anthropology and public health instead of looking at health through only one subject.
