Please
click here to submit a suggestion for improving the course.
Welcome to my public website providing additional resources for IPHY 3410, Human Anatomy.
- Exam Preparation
- Sketches and screencasts
- Study tools contributed by UGTAs
- Course outlines and learning goals
- IPHY 3410 Section 1 Course Outline (Spring 2017) - Compilation of all the lecture outlines given at the start of each Content Powerpoint for this lecture section, as of Spring 2017
- IPHY 3410 Learning Goals (rev. 2017) - This 20-page document (PDF) lists the skills and knowledge areas that all sections of this course attempt to provide, although there are differences among instructors in emphasis and depth in each topic, choice of examples, etc.
- Anatomy links (for more recent additions, the date of addition to this page is indicated):
- Anatomy (general)
- Cell structure
- Tissues
- Tissue engineering - skin & bone: A researcher describes her laboratory's work engineering scaffolds to help treat corneal scarring and cleft palate. At 4:50, note the discussion of fibroblasts (which become connective tissue proper) and MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells), which ultimately become bone tissue.
- 3D Bioprinting of Living Tissues: Discusses technologies under development at the Wyss Institute for engineering tissues and organs using 3D printing techniques, where the "inks" are suspensions containing cells and extracellular matrix. Scroll down for links to press releases.
- Integumentary System
- Bones
- The Life of Osteoclasts: Time-lapse video footage of osteoclasts forming by the merger of smaller cells, and breaking down bone matrix
- Register as a bone marrow donor: You can save the life of someone with blood cancer. About 70% of all patients in need of bone marrow transplants must find a matching donor outside of their family.
- Joints
- Phys Ed: Can Running Actually Help Your Knees?: Studies show that running is not necessarily harmful to knees
- Famous orthopedic injuries
- Anterior cervical decompression and fusion surgery: Live footage and animations explaining surgery on the vertebrae of the neck to treat a herniated disc and the resulting nerve compression. Note that "annulus" = annulus fibrosis, "nucleus" = nucleus pulposus (terms used in the lab but not in lecture; the annulus fibrosis is the fibrocartilage part that I do mention in lecture). At 2:40, he shaves off the cartilage from the bone: this part is hyaline cartilage, part of the symphysis joint as explained in class. At 3:30, "uncovertebral joints" are at edges of vertebral body (see Wikipedia for function, but for illustration see here).
- Inexpensive prosthetic hands, fingers, etc. made using 3D printers. For example, a plastic hand with fingers that all close together by flexing the wrist (2/17/2015): See NY Times article for overview, and descriptions of several different prosthetics at enablingthefuture.org.
- Dissecting a Chicken Leg: This demonstration shows some of the parallels in structure between the lower limb of a chicken and that of a human. For example, similar ligaments cross the knee. (Added 10/4/23)
- Muscle
- Digestive system
- Respiratory system
- Cardiovascular system
- Animation of the cycle of heart contraction
- Heart in a Box: Dramatic footage explores a new system for keeping hearts continuously beating until transplant to a suitable recipient (2013).
- What Happens During a Heart Attack?: Compellingly acted dramatization of what a heart attack looks and feels like along with realistic animations illustrating the mechanism
- Artificial Hearts Ticking Along Decades After Jarvik-7 Debate: Article and video reviewing the history and current status of total artificial hearts (March 2016).
- Heart rhythm dance: Video of cardiologists dancing to demonstrate cardiac arrhythmias. "Sinus rhythm" is the normal rhythm; pulling the arms in represents the atria contracting, and bending the knees represens ventricles contracting. "Sick sinus" means the SA node fires sometimes too fast, sometimes too slow; when the atria haven't contracted for a while, there is no signal to the ventricles, so the cardiac muscle cells in the ventricles get a chance to spontaneously contract, indicated by the irregular contraction of his legs. "Atrial flutter" is an excessively fast, but regular, rhythm in the atria, usually with some degree of heart block so the ventricles only contract with every few atrial contractions. "Atrial fibrillation" is rapid, irregular contraction of the atria. In "ventricular tachycardia", the ventricles beat too quickly so there is not enough time to fill with blood and circulation is poor; a woman enters with a defibrillator which stops the heart temporarily so that the normal rhythm can resume spontaneously. "Pacemaker" shows how an electrical device is used to "prompt" the heart to contract when the rhythm is too slow.
- Nervous system fundamentals
- Inner Life of a Cell: Protein Packing - Simulates the interior of a neuron; see links above under "Cell structure"
- Microglia - video 1 shows microglial processes in action (April 2016); video 2 shows microglia converging on an experimental lesion (April 2016). Note: Doesn't work in Safari. You need to download the file, then open it.
- Brain
- Green Fluorescent Protein - Cool Uses - Brainbow: Details on the fluorescence technique for elucidating neural connections, and various interesting applications
- Colorful Images to Help Illuminate the Brain: Beautiful photos of nervous tissue colorized with fluorescence and antibody techniques, with explanatory text for each image
- Eddie Adcock Plays Banjo During Brain Surgery - This procedure was done to treat essential tremor, a condition that involves the basal ganglia. (Similar treatments are done for Parkinson's Disease.) The audio is not great, but listen for the surgeon asking him to utter repeated simple sounds -- another behavior (besides playing the banjo) that uses the basal ganglia.
- This Is Your Brain on Drugs: Research shows structural effects of marijuana on a pleasure/reward center of the brain (10/29/14).
- Legally High on a Colorado Campus: A look inside the marijuana culture (medical, legal and otherwise) on the CU-Boulder campus and programs for students dealing with pot-related motivational problems (10/29/14).
- The Family that Walks on All Fours: A dramatic example of what can happen when the cerebellum does not develop properly
- Brainstem model - You can manipulate this 3D model to view the brainstem, ventricles, thalamus & basal ganglia (these are not distinguished well), corpus callosum, internal capsule, cranial nerves, etc. Created from a scan of a plastic model. Other 3D anatomy models (including some made from real brains) can be found on sketchfab as well.
- Spinal cord
- Autonomic nervous system
- Senses
- Ear
- Urinary system
