It’s clear that the digital age is upon us, and information is moving faster than ever. Let’s take love letters and Valentine’s Day, for example. Although it is a holiday that lives in extremes (you either love to hate it or hate to love it) as soon as the Christmas decorations come down, stores are filled to the brim with pink hearts and chocolates for your love.
At its onset, the holiday we celebrate today may have been unrecognizable to many of us. The earliest versions of Valentine’s Day are believed to stem from a pagan holiday, Lupercalia, which celebrated fertility. Men and women were paired together when their names were drawn from a hat, and “valentines” were exchanged. (Hiru News, 2024).
Later, the holiday underwent a Christian makeover and was named for a Catholic priest whose deeds blur the line between fact and legend. Legend has it that when a Roman emperor outlawed marriage for young, able-bodied men, believing single soldiers served the empire better, St. Valentine secretly married lovers. He was eventually caught and executed, but not before penning a final love letter to his sweetheart, signed “Love, your Valentine.” (Salem Press, 2024).
From there, the holiday grew into a widely celebrated day of love and romance. People continued writing handwritten notes for their valentines until the invention of the printing press, which made mass production of such cards possible.
Fast forward to the late 20th century and the rise of the internet, and we see the emergence of email; a brand-new way to send a little e-honey. Declarations of love could now be shared not only with your valentines but also with 300 of your closest friends and family in the form of words, graphs, exploding GIFs, and much more. We no longer have to wait days or weeks to receive messages, and it is fascinating to think about how quickly the landscape of communication has changed.
At South College, we are committed to staying at the forefront of the digital age. All the resources and methods today’s students and leaders need can be found on our library website. Whether you are looking for inspiration from a 17th-century poet on the meaning of love or the latest research on stem cells, you will find it cataloged within our vast databases.
For example, I used our library database’s concept map tool to explore the history of Valentine’s Day. This is an excellent resource for beginning research on a topic. It generates a web of related topics that you can add to your search or expand into a new map with a different central focus. For visual learners, this tool is invaluable for connecting large concepts and data, enabling more holistic research. To access this map and other tools navigate to the library homepage, and under the search bar click “Advanced search”. You will find the concept map under “Research tools”.
So, this Valentine’s Day, while reflecting on how love letters have evolved over centuries, consider exploring the library’s resources. You might just find inspiration for your next declaration of love or your next big research project!
References
History of Valentine's Day, and why we celebrate. (2024, February 14). Hiru News.
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A782381925/STND?u=southcollege&sid=ebsco&xid=bb08259e
St. Valentine’s Day. (2024). Salem Press Encyclopedia.
https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=566eccea-c07e-3b31-b370-cb0109e82176
As the days grow longer and the promise of spring fills the air, we find ourselves on the verge of St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday that celebrates tradition, festivity, and, of course, a bit of luck. But what does it really mean to have “the luck of the Irish”? While the phrase and holiday are often linked to four-leaf clovers, well-placed pots of gold, and rainbows, their origins are far more nuanced. The concept of luck traces back to Irish folklore and mythology, but the phrase itself gained popularity during the California Gold Rush, when many Irish immigrants, quite literally, struck gold.
At first glance, luck and science may seem like opposites. After all, one is ruled by chance, and the other by methodical study and measurable results. Yet history tells us a different story. Some of the most groundbreaking advances in medicine and science have come from happy accidents, or moments of serendipity. As defined in Serendipity in Scientific Research, serendipity occurs when "an unexpected and unpredicted event is noticed by an agent with the right skills to make the most of it."
In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day, let’s explore the contributions of Irish scientists and medical pioneers who shaped the world of medicine through ingenuity, determination, and just a little luck.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell & the Discovery of Pulsars
Born in Northern Ireland in 1943, Jocelyn Bell Burnell pursued astronomy at Cambridge, where she made her big discovery. In her second year, while analyzing data from a radio telescope, she noticed an unusual signal, something she initially wrote off as “just a little bit of scruff” (Spradley, 2024).
Well, as luck would have it, that scruff turned out to be the first-ever discovered pulsating radio source, signals from rapidly rotating neutron stars, now known as pulsars. Thankfully, Jocelyn didn’t stop at her first theory of “scruff” or even the second theory, that the signals were from little green men trying to communicate. Instead, she persisted, uncovering one of the most significant astronomical discoveries of the 20th century.
John Joly & the Accidental Birth of Radiation Therapy
John Joly, an Irish physicist and geologist, was originally trying to determine the age of the Earth by studying radioactive decay in rocks. While working with radium, he noticed something unexpected: radiation could destroy living cells. This realization led him to wonder, if radiation could destroy healthy cells, could it also be harnessed to target cancerous cells in a controlled way?
In 1899, Joly and his colleague Walter Stevenson developed the Dublin Method, one of the first medical applications of radiation therapy for cancer. Their technique involved inserting radium needles directly into tumors, killing cancer cells while minimizing damage to surrounding tissue. “Joly’s brilliant insight was to use not the expensive radium itself, but the radioactive radon gas it emitted” (Mulvihill, 2014). His discovery was a huge leap forward in oncology, and radiation therapy remains a cornerstone of cancer treatment today.
When Science and Luck Collide
Joly wasn’t looking for a cancer treatment, he was investigating geology and radioactivity when he stumbled upon a medical breakthrough. Similarly, Bell Burnell wasn’t searching for pulsars, she was just analyzing telescope data when the universe revealed its secret to her. In both cases, luck played a role, but so did their curiosity, persistence, and ability to recognize something extraordinary when they saw it.
Much like Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin, these moments of scientific serendipity remind us that luck and science are not as separate as they seem. In fact, many of the greatest discoveries happen when unexpected insights meet the right minds at the right time.
If you're still feeling curious (or maybe a little lucky), check out this eBook on the psychology on how to get lucky. What Are the Chances? : Why We Believe in Luck
References
Spradley, J. L. (2024). Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=7805bbe2-d486-3a0f-8af3-c6922ea0b195
Mulvihill, M. (2014, June, 12) “The Irish Man Who Brought Radiotherapy Forward.” The Irish Times, www.irishtimes.com/news/science/the-irish-man-who-brought-radiotherapy-forward-1.1828507
Ross, W. Copeland , S. Firestein, S. (2024) “Serendipity in Scientific Research.” Journal of Trial and Error, https://doi.org/10.36850/v91j-7541
“Exciting Accidental Discoveries Are Constantly Being Made, Forcing Us to Adjust Our World View.”(2021, Feburary, 20). XPRIZE. www.xprize.org/articles/ten-major-breakthroughs-that-were-happy-accidents