Anatomy and Physiology For Dummies

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If you’ve taken geometry, you know that a plane is a flat surface and that a straight line can run between two points on that flat surface. Geometric planes can be positioned at any angle. In anatomy, usually three planes separate the body into sections. Figure 1-2 shows you what each plane looks like. The reason for separating the body with imaginary lines — or by making actual cuts referred to as sections — is so that you know which half or portion of the body or organ is being discussed. The anatomical planes are as follows: Pelvic cavity:Contains the end of the large intestine, rectum, urinary bladder, and internal reproductive organs Anatomy and physiology narrow the science of biology by looking at the specifics of one species, Homo sapiens. Then, every time the term comes up in class or in your textbook, add to the running list of notes on that concept. You’ll have references to metabolism at each point it comes up and you’ll be able to analyze its influences across different body systems. Form a study group Simply put, the mnemonic is the thing you commit to memory as a means for remembering the more technical thing for which it stands.

PartI introduces the basics of human anatomy and physiology: the fundamental concepts of organismal biology and cell biology, some elementary terminology, and some hints about the scope and utility of anatomical and physiological knowledge. Unlike with other sciences, you don’t always have to go to a lab to perform experiments. You may have one, or even a pair, of anatomical structures close by to investigate. You discover some of the body functions that have been happening right under your nose — and in some cases right inside your nose — all your life. Chapter 1 Anatomy and Physiology: The Big Picture In This Chapter The short answer is, scientists do say what they mean (most of them, most of the time, to the best of their ability), but what they mean can’t be said in the English language that people use to talk about routine daily matters. Scientists develop vocabularies of technical terminology and other forms of jargon so they can communicate better with other scientists. It’s important that the scientist sending the information and the scientist receiving the information both use the same words to refer to the same phenomenon. To communicate in science, you must know and use the same terminology, too. Establishing precise terminology Atoms are made up of the subatomic particles protons and neutrons, which are in the atom’s nucleus, and clouds of electrons orbiting the nucleus. The atomic weight, or mass, of an atom is the total number of protons and neutrons in its nucleus. The atomic number of an atom is its number of protons; conveniently, atoms that are electrically neutral have the same number of positive charges as negative charges. To keep anions and cations straight, think like a compulsive dieter: Gaining is negative, and losing is positive.

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Human anatomists and physiologists have divided the human body into organ systems, groups of organs that work together to meet a major physiological need. For example, the digestive system is one of the organ systems responsible for obtaining energy from the environment. Other organ systems include the musculoskeletal system, the integument, the nervous system, and on down the list. The chapter structure of this book is based on the definition of organ systems. Level V: The organism level Every person has his or her own sense of style, and woe betide anyone who tries to shoehorn the masses into a single style. The same, of course, is true of students. To get the most out of your study time, you need to figure out what your learning style is and alter your study habits to accommodate it. 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

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. Ovaries, uterine tubes, uterus, vagina, and vulva in females; testes, seminal vesicles, prostate, urethra, and penis in malesThere are 98 naturally occurring elements in nature and 20 (at last count) artificially created elements for a total of 118 known elements. However, additional spaces have yet to be filled in on the periodic chart of elements, which organizes all the elements by name, symbol, atomic weight, and atomic number. The key elements of interest to students of anatomy and physiology are