Wanna Know Some Things?

[amarie24]

Hey, all! Umm…so I mentioned my pre-Anatomy & Physiology homework a few times in previous entries’ comments. And I had just a few people politely express interest in my studies so far, which is delightful!

And I admit that even through my exhaustion and worry, I am happy and excited to be learning what I love. I’ve been going through the pre-material that will aid or even be identical to the material that we’ll learn in the actual class and taking my usual geeky-nerdy notes to keep up. I’ve been keeping my notes in one of my spiral notebooks and I’ll keep it throughout the semester and the next so that I can pull it out any time and it’ll be beneficial.

So I thought I’d briefly geek/nerd it out with you all by sharing some of the new and fascinating things I’ve learned in my notes! Ready? Here we go!

From the basic anatomical terminology/anatomical position section:

• “Buccal” means cheek! And it rhymes with buckle! So I’ve been mispronouncing it all this time, teehee!!!
• “Pollex” means thumb! The muscle that moves the thumb is called the flexor pollicis longus & extensor.
• “Acromial” means the point of the shoulder. The acromion bone is part of the scapula.
• “Olecranal” means the back of the elbow. Such a strange word…
• “Sural” means the calf/the back of the leg.


From the building blocks section (It’s a big ol’ section and I’m still in the middle of it!):

• Protons (positive charge), neutrons (neutral/no charge), & electrons (negative charge) are the three subatomic particles that make up…atoms!
• The “Atomic Number” simply tell us the number of protons in an element’s atom’s nucleus. And since each element has its own unique number of protons, the Atomic Number acts as the element’s identification card on the Periodic Table!
• The “Mass Number” simply tell us the sum of the number of protons and the number of neutrons combined! Currently, Uranium holds the heavy weight championship of all the elements with a Mass Number of freaking 238. @__@
• An atom’s “electron shell” is where the electrons hang out in their electron cloud around the atom (remember the protons and neutrons hang out together in the atom’s nucleus). And the “valence shell” is the outermost electron shell and it’s always tryna get friendly and sharing with other atoms’ valence shells to be stable.
• Covalent bonds are awesome because they happen when two atoms share electrons equally! What a healthy relationship that is!

And this is still under the gigantic building blocks section, but now under the sub-section of the cellular level!

• Our cell membranes are made of a layer of adoracute molecules called “phospholipids”! Overall, they work very, very, very hard 24/7 to bring in what needs to come into our cells and keep out what should stay out of our cells! Give a big round of applause for the cutesy, hardworking phospholipids!
• We have a special protein in our cell membrane called a “glycocalyx”. They, too, work very, very, very hard and have all kinds of work to do in our cells, like becoming enzymes in our digestive system to help break down nutrients. I think it’s fascinating that they’re a product of our unique genetic makeup; they’re what give each of our cells their identification card saying they belong to our bodies!
• “Selective permeability” is the rule our cell membrane fastidiously lives by. Our cell membranes don't play. And it’s deeply important because not just anything can come in or go out of our cells. For example, carbon dioxide (CO2) can’t just come in however much it wants because it’s a waste and it must take it’s ass outta there more than it comes in.
• Osmosis and water are long-time lovers that keep going back and forth with each other. (Okay, I been knowin’ that, but I never tire of it.)
• When cells are “hypotonic”? This means they have far, far too much water than solute! And with too much water, they run the risk of swelling and even bursting! Aww, no…I hope one of my cells isn’t bursting right now…that makes me sad. 
• But! On a happier note, cells are just fine an’ dandy an’ happy when there is an “isotonic” environment both inside and outside! When we’re isotonic inside, that’s also some indication that we’re workin’ real good with the homeostasis (having a stable, internal environment).


And that’s about as far as my notes go for now! I hope that was, umm…entertaining and easy to follow! Thanks, everyone! :D

Comments

[indigodragon]

This is fascinating! :D If you wanna make this a series and share your notes via here with the rest of us, I do not mind in the least. Nope not at all. :D

Plus! Rewriting (or retyping as the case may be) and wording it so that others aside from yourself can understand it and learn it, is a great aid to making sure that information sticks to your head longer and that you also understand what you're reading about. :D So bonus!

But really I just love learning these things too. :3 I don't have the benefit of being able to go to college like you so I hope you don't mind me sitting here and listening for whatever you wanna share? :3 *scooches closer and chin on hand* :3c

Btw, it wasn't really clear to me, but what's isotonic mean again and what does it mean if it's an isotonic environment on the outside? I deduced that isotonic environment on the inside is something similar to homeostasis which I already know, with keeping every functioning working real well and stable and consistently too. Just was curious that's all! :3

[amarie24]

-scooches closer to you, too- Oh, I don't mind at all making this into something of a series for you, friend! And yes, I've always found that reworking and repeating your study material to friends to be a great way to help things stick in your head!

Ah, isotonic! -clears throat & opens my notes again-

When speaking about water in general, "istonic" just means that there is an equal balance of water and solute! Not too much water, not too much solute; everything is stable and equal.

So what "istonic" means when talking about the inside of our bodies? It means that the solute and water (well, err...all the substances, materials, etc. that we have inside of us) outside of our cells is exactly equal to and balanced with the solute and water inside our cells. Not too much, not too little-everything is equal and just right! And when that happens, our cells are happiest! They won't shrivel up or burst! :D

Does that make sense? :D

[indigodragon]

Oohhh thank you that makes sense now! :D My next question would be what is solute? I can totes get it now with how the stuff inside the cells needs to be equal with the stuff outside the cells to make everything happy. :3 It's the same principle with pressure in the inner ear where "popping your ears" when you ascend to higher or lower altitude with lesser or greater air (or water) pressure around you respectively, is out of need for your body to balance the pressure inside your ears with what's outside of you. :3

Also if the pressure differences are inequal and dramatic, and then there's a hole that opens up in the layer dividing the two, there's an often nasty pop with all the greater pressure rushing out into the lesser pressure. D: Everything from a balloon popping to a hole in the fuselage of an aircraft. D: The latter is called "explosive decompression" and didja know that whenever that happens, things will not just fly out of the hole (anything that isn't secured) if the hole is great enough, and there'll often be a weird fog will fill interior that will make you breathless if you breath it because its too little oxygen for your system to survive on if you're above 10,000 ft? o.o ~

Sorry I wanted to share that in return because that's what the importance of istonic made me think about. :D And I'm an Air Disasters tv show nerd who loves learning about plane functions and how things go wrong and why and what it does. :3 By now I can usually guess what's going on even if its a new episode I've never seen before and call out one of the several variables that caused the crash they're deconstructing. :D Sort of an airplane crash version of murder mystery books and shows. :3

(On a funny note, my dad complained about all the Air Disasters I watched with them when he went on an airplane trip for his job because he couldn't stop thinking about that while in the air. XD Oops sorry?)

Oh and random aside since the song came up on my shuffle just now, have you heard "Stories (Down to the bottom)" by Superchick? ouo It's mah jam of late alongside "Just Like Fire" by P!nk, "I'm Alive" by Sia, "I can't help it" by Michael Jackson, and "Brave" by Sara Bareilles. ouo What songs are your jam of late? :D

[amarie24]

Ah, solute is just what's in the water. So like, in our bodies, that would be vitamins, minerals, electrolytes (sodium, potassium, etc.), and just everything else that's always moving in our fluids.

And again, I'm really happy that you're so interested and excited, friend. But you may wanna google the rest of your questions because the textbook they're having us use only goes into the basic things with just a little in-depth study and I just don't know a whole lot. Thanks, though!

Hmm...you know, it's funny that you mention "Brave" by Sara Bareilles because I was just listening to that a few days ago! :D

[silveradept]

Ooh, useful knowledge all around, some of which I knew in the general, but not the specific.

[amarie24]

Yep, yep! Very useful! And it made me all the more grateful for all the hard work my cells do, day in and day out! :D

[redsixwing]

Noooootes :D This is fascinating, thank you!

>>Buccal” means cheek! And it rhymes with buckle! So I’ve been mispronouncing it all this time, teehee!!! <<

o.o Me too! I thought it rhymed with... uh. Actually I can't think of anything. Cuckoo, sort of?

I love the physics stuff (atomic numbers and electron shells and bonds). That is a happy, happy place to be.

Phospholipids are interesting. *chinhands*

[amarie24]

You're very welcome, Red! :D

And you thought "buccal" probably rhymed with "cuckoo"?! Teehee, that's awesome and funny! :D

I had a lot of fun with the physics stuff, too! (Although, uhh...I thought that was the chemistry stuff? It was referred to as the chemistry material in a mass email sent out by one of the professors. But! I suspect that protons, neutrons, atomic numbers, etc. overlap in the physics, chemistry, & biology fields, yes? And so, since we're talking about human anatomy & physiology here, we're going with chemistry. Uhh...I think that makes sense. :O )

And, yes! Give a big thank you and a round of applause to your phospholipids! :D

[redsixwing]

Oh! Yup, that aligns with chemistry, too. There's a lot of overlap. I took a bit of physics and some astronomy as my science courses, so I tend to see atoms and go whee, physics! but I still have a layman's view of all of it, haha.

Ooooh, does that mean you're headed for biochem? That will be so cool!

Keep on keeping on, phospholipids! *applause*

[amarie24]

Oooohhh, you took astronomy?! How cool is that?! Awesome sauce!!! :D :D

And, uhh...biochemistry? Well, actually, I'm headed for microbiology next semester. Umm...I suppose that's not as cool as biochemistry, but it does line up with tryna become a nurse! -nervous sweat-

[redsixwing]

It was fun!

*squee* Ohhh microbiology is going to be cool! (At least I assume so!)

[amarie24]

Oh yeah, I'm more than certain that it will be! :D :D