Anatomy and Physiology For Dummies, 3rd Edition (For Dummies (Lifestyle))

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Each of these major groups, called a kingdom, has its own characteristic anatomy and physiology. It’s evident at a glance to everyone at the beach that a starfish and a human are both animals, while the alga in the tide pool and the cedar tree on the shoreline are both plants. Obvious details of anatomy (the presence or absence of bright green tissue) and physiology (the presence or absence of locomotion) tell that story. The different forms within each kingdom have obvious differences as well: The cedar must stand on the shore but the alga would die there. The starfish can move from one place to another within a limited range, while humans can (theoretically) go anywhere on the planet and, with the appropriate accoutrements of culture (a human adaptation), survive there for at least a while. (That is, assuming the cedar and the alga keep on photosynthesizing.) Scientists use these differences to classify organisms into smaller and smaller groups within the kingdom, until each organism is classified into its own specie-al group.

The organs that belong to one system can have functions integral to another system. In fact, most organs contribute to more than one system. The blood vessels are an excellent example: They serve as a transportation network, delivering nutrients produced by the digestive system to the skeletal muscles to provide energy for locomotion and to the uterus to support the developing fetus. They remove the byproducts of the energy consumed in locomotion and by the fetus in development and carry them to the organs of the urinary system for excretion. Level IV: The organ system level Why does science have so many funny words? Why can’t scientists just say what they mean, in plain English? Good question, with short and long answers. Creating better communication Scientists try to create terminology that’s precise and easy to understand by developing it systematically. That is, they create new words by putting together existing and known elements. They use certain syllables or word fragments over and over to build new terms. With a little help from this book, you’ll soon start to recognize some of these fragments. Then you can put the meanings of different fragments together and accurately guess the meaning of a term you’ve never seen before, just as you can understand a sentence you’ve never read before. Table 1-1 gets you started, listing some word fragments related to the organ systems we cover in this book. /Table 0101a /Table 0101b Darwin made scientific history in his own way, of course, but it was a German physicist named Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen who’s remembered as the father of medical imaging. In 1895, Roentgen recorded the first image of the internal parts of a living human: an X-ray image of his wife’s hand. By 1900, X-rays were in widespread use for the early detection of tuberculosis, at that time a common cause of death. X-rays are beams of radiation emitted from a machine toward the patient’s body, and X-ray images show details only of hard tissues, like bone, that reflect the radiation. In this way, they’re similar to photographs. Refinements and enhancements of X-ray techniques were developed all through the 20th century, with extensive use and major advances during World War II. The X-ray is still a widely used method for medical diagnosis screening for signs of disease, usually tumors. The longer answer to the question of why scientists don’t say what they mean starts with a little chat about jargon. Contrary to the belief of some, jargon is a good thing. Jargon is a set of words and phrases that people who know a lot about a particular subject use to talk together. There’s jargon in every field (scientific or not), every workplace, every town, even every home. Families and close friends almost always use jargon in conversations with one another. Plumbers use jargon to communicate about plumbing. Anatomists and physiologists use jargon and technical terminology, much of which is shared with medicine and other fields of biology, especially human biology.

But don’t restrict it to late-night cramming just before each test. Meet with your group at least once a week to go over lecture notes and textbook readings. If it’s true that people only retain about 10 percent of what they hear or read, then it makes sense that your fellow group members will recall things that slipped immediately from your mind. Outline what’s to come Human anatomy and physiology are closely related to biology, which is the science of living beings and their relationship with the rest of the universe, including all other living beings. If you’ve studied biology, you understand the basics of how organisms operate.

tip.eps Every time you come across an anatomical or physiological term that’s new to you, pull it apart to see whether any of its fragments are familiar. Using this knowledge, go as far as you can in guessing the meaning of the whole term. After studying Table 1-1 and the other vocabulary lists in this chapter, you should be able to make some pretty good guesses. Looking at the Body from the Proper Perspective

Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes

As you read through a chapter of your textbook to prepare for the next lecture, prepare an outline of what you’re reading, leaving plenty of space between subheadings. Then, during the lecture, take your notes within the outline you’ve already created. Piecing together an incomplete puzzle shows you where the key gaps in your knowledge may be. Put in time to practice If you remove all the internal organs, the body is empty except for the bones and tissues that form the space where the organs were. Just as a dental cavity is a hole in a tooth, the body’s cavities are holes where organs are held (see Figure 1-3). The two main cavities are the dorsal cavity and the ventral cavity. The body takes a divide-and-conquer approach to completing all of the tasks it must do to sustain life. Each body system has its own role to play, as shown in the table below. System remember.eps Anatomical planes can pass through the body at any angle. The planes are arbitrary for the convenience of anatomists. Don’t expect the structures of the body, and especially the joints, to line up or move along the standard planes and axes. Mapping out your regions This table represents some common Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes you should know when studying anatomy and physiology: English Form

Flash cards, mnemonic drills, practice tests — be creative and practice, practice, practice! The more you know about the format of any upcoming exam, the better. Sometimes instructors share tidbits about what they plan to emphasize, but sometimes they don’t. In the end, if you’ve done the work and put in the time to study and practice with information outside of class, the exact structure and content of an exam shouldn’t make much difference. Sleuth out clues The laws of thermodynamics are the foundation of how the physics and chemistry of the universe are understood. They’re at the we hold these truths to be self-evident level for chemists and physicists of all specialties, including all biologists. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed — it can only change form. (Turn to Chapter 16 for a brief look at the first law and other basic laws of chemistry and physics.) Energy changes form continuously — within stars, within engines of all kinds, and, in some very special ways, within organisms. This is a simple idea that far too few students practice regularly. Don’t stop at underlining and highlighting important material in your textbooks and study guides: Write it down. Or type it up. Whatever you do, don’t just regurgitate it exactly as presented in the material you’re studying.Pelvic cavity:Contains the end of the large intestine, rectum, urinary bladder, and internal reproductive organs