More about bodies. Do they ever stop being interesting?

[flexagon]

This morning a friend came over for handstands and we did some headstand/handstand work. I found myself way ahead of him on all fronts, which surprised me, because he's a slim, athletic guy who works out and does rock climbing and is in generally good shape. I gave him bunches of pointers on both kinds of h-stand, and he's now obsessed with headstand presses and pikes. Yay! I also got him to spot me and time me on a handstand in the middle of the floor... I went 60 seconds, which is probably pretty good. After that, of course, I went to the gym and did my usual upper-body workout (except I've been working harder on military presses, hoping for some crossover into hspu's) and then tried to do handstands again... ha ha, nope, no straddle-ups left, too tired.

(Speaking of unusual exercise, who's up for some parkour? He was never aware of his environment before, he says. He'd walk somewhere, but register nothing. Now, he's looking, looking at that set of stairs, that handrail ... that table. That part sounds good. And unlike urban exploration, which I'm also interested in, you aren't all that likely to be trespassing when you do it. Hmmmmmm.)

To round out my body-centric day, heisenbug and I walked to the Museum of Science to see Bodyworlds 2, which is mostly a display of real human bodies and body parts that have been preserved by plastination. On almost all of them the skin was removed to show musculature and so forth. It gave me a lot to think about, so I'll just give a few impressions.

• I no longer feel silly for not being able to figure out WHICH small inner-thigh muscle is stiff in my right leg. There are a ton of them in there.
• The right lung has three lobes and the left only has two!?
• There are tendon things that run from the neck, down under the collarbone, and over to attach somewhere in the upper arm. Huh? I saw these several times, but I only think they're tendons (not nerves) because I saw them on the muscles-only display, which also included a lot of tendons.
• jg26 was right, they almost always left the eyebrows on, except the pregnant woman who got big wistful-looking eyelashes instead (instead, not as well). They also had lips, anuses, belly buttons and some of the genital area, and usually eyelids, which I guess you'd expect.
• The first thing to disturb me emotionally was the display of lungs, where they showed normal lungs (lightly speckled), a smoker's lungs (pretty dark) and finally a coal miner's lungs (black). The poor coal miner. Some person actually lived that way. :(
• There was only one body I thought was posed somewhat offensively, in the sense of going a little too far toward using the cadaver as abstract art. I think they did their best to walk that line; I heard someone else mutter "that's a little much" at a different one that did not bother me.
There are two ankle joints, one right on top of the other, both of which bend the foot forward and back! The one bone between them is shaped like a crescent moon. Never knew that.
• I also never knew that little kids have an organ called a thymus that disappears as they grow up; it helps set up the immune system and then, T cells produced, it's done. How strange to learn about this in adulthood, when my thymus has already done its work and departed my chest cavity. Farewell and thank you, thymus!

Comments

[miyyu.livejournal.com]

Isn't Bodyworlds fascinating? My sister had to convince me to go at first because I thought it would freak me out, but I'm glad she did, because I really enjoyed it. I think you saw a different exhibit than the one that was in Philly because there are two travelling around simulataneously. Did you get to see the guy on the horse?

[flexagon]

No, the guy on the horse is indeed at another exhibit. I got to see a camel though; they split its head/neck so that the leftmost slice was grazing, the middle slice was in sort of a neutral position and the rightmost slice had its head up. It had a baby camel with it.

I've been psyched about going for weeks. I'm glad we finally did it.

[niralth.livejournal.com]

"The right lung has three lobes and the left only has two!?"

Ya need room for the heart.

[flexagon]

Yeah. I just thought the lobes on one lung would be smaller or something.

When I breathe deeply, I guess I'm squishing my heart.

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

We went yesterday. Tried to go Saturday night, but the line was ridiculous. So we bought tickets online and went Sunday morning.

Definitely a fantastic exhibit!

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are a lot of examples of the asymmetry between left and right, and as far as I know the right side always is 3 and the left 2. For example, the heart has a valve on the left side called bicuspid, and a "matching" one on the right called tricuspid. In this case it's naming the flaps of the valves, rather than lobes. I always thought it was an example of intelligent design, intended by the almighty maker to help anatomy students remember the orientation of organs.

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

There are tendon things that run from the neck, down under the collarbone, and over to attach somewhere in the upper arm. Huh? I saw these several times, but I only think they're tendons (not nerves) because I saw them on the muscles-only display, which also included a lot of tendons.

I'm not sure, but I thought those were nerves. They do look kind of like tendons, but my logic was that the longest tendon in the body is the achilles, and it's only ~5 inches long - those were longer. Also, there are major nerves which run to the upper arm which would be visible. But I'm not sure...

jg26 was right, they almost always left the eyebrows on, except the pregnant woman who got big wistful-looking eyelashes instead (instead, not as well). They also had lips, anuses, belly buttons and some of the genital area, and usually eyelids, which I guess you'd expect.

You noticed the anuses!! Hehe. Anyway, I figured it was supposed to be humanizing, but in some cases I'm sure it's just because it's easier to leave the edges on.

The first thing to disturb me emotionally was the display of lungs, where they showed normal lungs (lightly speckled), a smoker's lungs (pretty dark) and finally a coal miner's lungs (black). The poor coal miner. Some person actually lived that way. :(

I had the same reaction. I wonder how many people walked in there a smoker, and walked out a non-smoker. I also found the cirrhotic liver very sad.

I also never knew that little kids have an organ called a thymus that disappears as they grow up; it helps set up the immune system and then, T cells produced, it's done. How strange to learn about this in adulthood, when my thymus has already done its work and departed my chest cavity. Farewell and thank you, thymus!

Cute. :) Don't be so quick to say goodbye though. Most adults have some residual thymus left, and there are various conditions that can lead to thymus regeneration (chemical castration being one of the most common). Thymus regeneration is one of the most most promising HIV treatments, because the thymus replaces damaged CD4 cells.

Parkour....egads, my reaction was totally "Those kids' poor mothers!" Hehe.

[miyyu.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I didn't get to see the camel. :(

My favorite room by far was the one where they had all of the bodies posed in mid-motion doing various gymnastic things, including the rings. That was so fascinating because that's what really illustrated to me the most how the body works in concert when it's in motion. I felt that that was the best homage to the body donors too, though I can't quite figure out why.