CMU Professor Randy Pausch's 'Last Lecture'

This is a bit of an unusual story for Slashdot- it's the "Last Lecture" of a professor at CMU who is terminally ill. His early research in VR has benefited everyone and even if you have never heard of Randy Pausch I think this is worth your time. It's a 2 hour long wmv filled with insight, laughs and wisdom from a man who has really done some amazing work. I've been watching it all morning and I think it would really be worth your time if you can spare it to listen to what he has to say. From virtual reality to education to stuffed animals and childhood dreams, there's a lot here worth your time. Thanks drew for the link. Update: 09/21 15:44 GMT by Z : The link is already a little shakey, so you might want to turn to this cut up YouTube version of the talk instead.

Comments

Re:Moving..

[kraemate]

Here is the good article describing the lecture, for those who cannot download the lecture itself.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07262/818671-85.stm

Re:Sad that youtube forces this stuff to be cut up

[Anonymous Coward]

You can find the full version on Google Video.

Re:Moving..

[Mindwarp]

To be honest you're probably not going to find a cure for Pancreatic cancer any time soon, even with a trillion dollars thrown at it. The problems with this form of cancer are:

1) It's in the endocrine system, meaning it has easy access to a lot of other vital organs that the cancer can spread to,
2) The pancreas is vital to survival (it produces insulin, as well as a host of pancreatic enzymes that the body needs to be able to process food and regulate metabolism) so you can't just chop the whole thing out if it becomes cancerous
3) It's nestled in the middle of a complex set of nerves, arteries and veins meaning that it's extremely difficult, and often impossible, to perform surgical or radiation treatments,
4) Screening programs often don't work, as the cancer is completely capable of developing without showing up in any blood tests,
5) This is the real kicker - the early symptoms of PC are identical to a host of other minor illnesses such as gallstones, back ache, indigestion or acid reflux. By the time the symptoms have become serious enough for the patient to go to the doctor with them, and by the time the doctor has ruled out all the simpler ailments the symptoms point to, it's almost always too late. That's why this disease has a 5 year mortality rate of 98% and a 1 year mortality rate of over 75%, along with being the U.S.'s most fatal cancer.

Even if we could implement an accurate and early-detection screening programme, the cancer is so aggressive that we really need a paradigm shift away from current radiation and chemotherapy treatments. It's not so much that we're lacking money in researching into new forms of treatment as it is we're lacking the knowledge necessary to advance in these areas right now. There are plenty of well funded people working to solve the problems of cancer - right now we're waiting for one of them to have the 'eureka!' moment.