Category Archives: Anatomy and physiology

Is Blood Ever Blue? Science Teachers Want to Know!

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According to one of the leading experts on the human circulatory system, blood flowing through veins is blue.

I’m not going to mention any names. All I’ll say is this: A person I know visited a major research center last year and saw a demonstration of organ removal and some other experimental stuff. A person also visiting asked the famous high-level researcher doing this work if blood was ever blue. What he said was not recorded in detail, but it was very much like this statement I found on the Internet:

… human blood is red as soon as it is oxygenated. Blue blood flows through veins back to the heart and lungs…..
[source: Some Guy on Yahoo Answers]

My friend was disturbed by this, as s/he had been teaching high school students for years that blood is not blue. Her understanding of the situation was that people thought blood was blue because standard anatomical drawings and models depict arteries as red and veins as blue, and because if you look at your veins they are blue. Obviously veins are not clear, but if you don’t think that out you might assume that you were seeing blue blood.

Continue reading Is Blood Ever Blue? Science Teachers Want to Know!


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Is Human Behavior Genetic Or Learned?

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Imagine that there is a trait observed among people that seems to occur more frequently in some families and not others. One might suspect that the trait is inherited genetically. Imagine researchers looking for the genetic underpinning of this trait and at first, not finding it. What might you conclude? It could be reasonable to conclude that the genetic underpinning of the trait is elusive, perhaps complicated with multiple genes, or that there is a non-genetic component, also not yet identified, that makes finding the genetic component harder. Eventually, you might assume, the gene will be found. Continue reading Is Human Behavior Genetic Or Learned?


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Piecing Together Human Anatomy In The Time of Covid-19

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Bored?

Resorting to jigsaw puzzles?

Like science?

Then you are in luck! Try the new Dr. Livingston’s Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles, based on art created by Mesa Schumacher, a Certified Medical Illustrator from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Livingston’s Human Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles come in three volumes so far, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The maximum dimensions of each puzzle would make this a 1000 piecer for sure, but since they are not rectangles they run closer to 500-600 pieces. They are also not terribly hard. Some of the puzzle perimeters have a double edge: the actual edge of the puzzle, and the edge of the illustration (ie., skull) running close and in parallel, so that 12% or so of the puzzle practically does itself. Also, you can’t really be a good anatomical drawing and ahve the kind of vagueness that a harder puzzle tends to have. But that’s OK because you will want to do all of them in a short time anyway.

I believe there are plans to make a total of seven puzzles, but at the moment there are only the three mentioned above available.


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Yet Another South American Alien Turns Out To Be Human

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But a very interesting human. A human being six inches tall (if standing), with only 12 sets of ribs, about 7 years old at the time of death. Did I mention six inches tall? New research on the so called “Atacama humanoid” (not an alien, just a human) shows a wide range of interesting genetic differences, according to a just published paper. Continue reading Yet Another South American Alien Turns Out To Be Human


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Measurements of the human male kakadodo organ, does it matter and why?

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This is a repost of an item I put up in 2013 based on some interesting scientific research. Today, I was told by Google that if I do not take the article down, I will lose my ad sense qualification. Google and companies like Google are giant behemoths that do not have humans to whom one can talk when they do something boneheaded like this. So, I’ll unpublish the original item and post it here with a change in title. Also, words that might be interpreted by an unintelligent robot at Google as violating policy have been changed. Continue reading Measurements of the human male kakadodo organ, does it matter and why?


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Autism linked with stress hormone levels

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Some of the symptoms of the autistic condition Asperger Syndrome, such as a need for routine and resistance to change, could be linked to levels of the stress hormone cortisol, suggests new research led by the universities of Bristol and Bath.

Normally, people have a surge of this hormone shortly after waking, with levels gradually decreasing throughout the day. It is thought this surge makes the brain alert, preparing the body for the day and helping the person to be aware of changes happening around them.

However, a study by Dr David Jessop from the University of Bristol and Drs Mark Brosnan and Julie Turner-Cobb from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath, has found that children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) do not experience this surge.

Press release


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