Friday, January 30, 2009

anarchatomy

anatomy is pretty rad.
we've so far covered bone structure throughout the body and have now moved on to the muscles of basically the upper half of the body.
what strikes me about anatomy is the (forgive the cliche) "organized chaos" of it all.

so far, there seems to be four levels of seeming disorganization in the body. of course, it's not really disorganized at all, but i'm just speaking from my perspective. or possibly that of victor frankenstein. yes, let's go with that. i'm going to assume he shared similar feelings.

#1 "organized structure"--the majority of the skeleton.
the skeleton is made up of what seems to be bare necessity. that makes it organized to ensure that you don't go around having a spare femur chilling out in your leg because it simply isn't necessary. dr. frankenstein and i agree that the skeleton's simple design of plug-sockets and obvious function of support make it a delight to study because it feels more like your playing with a box of k'nex than doing research.

#2 "disorganized structure"--the skull.
the skull is where the skeleton gets a little crazy. it has so many wacky ridges and random crests and holes that it seems less like the skull was made alongside the brain, and more like the brain was put into a mold of some sort and the skull is the shaved down plaster casing we get from it. sure, we can see why a lot of the skull's elements are in place, but it still seems almost random at times... but not random in it's functions.


#3 "organized chaos"--the muscles of the face, neck, and torso.
these guys make sense. you can see the need for them and why they work. however, they still are reminiscent of a kid with a limited selection of legos trying to build a space ship. frankenstein would have been quick to note that many of the muscles look more like they were made and then placed where they could be put to use and less like they were each created for a specific need. so, random pieces, but together in a way that makes sense.


#4 "disorganized choas", or "the anarchatomy."--forearms and legs (but mostly forearms.)
how do the arms work? well, the doctor succeeded in recreating a functioning arm, but he still isn't even sure how he did it. the forearm has so many spiraling, overlapping, elongated muscles that it seems like a seventh grade science project. like a kid rigged up a bunch of pulleys and tried to get enough ropes connected in certain places to perform neat little functions. of course, he wouldn't have much success in his random trying, so what probably would happen is that he would try random combinations for a while until he found one that made it so he could control lots of cool little lifts and twists, so he stuck with that set up. that's what these muscles sort of seem like. like they were a great big trial and error operation. they work great, no doubt about it. but wow, they have one crazy set up.

so, yeah. the body is an amazing thing. i make this list purely from amateur observations, and it's meant to be anything but scientific.

it's more so i could feel like i'm in league with frankenstein.

1 comment:

  1. yeah, you are right by calling it anarchatomy....those hand muscles? yikes!

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