h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>>Krebbs cycle is good.<<

Just finished reading the following tome (851 pages)- Human Physiology:
Foundations & Frontiers, Moffett et al, 2nd Edn, 1993.

It was quite a challenge compared to other books mainly because of
the density of facts and the numerous labels. Would you have
read/seen this book Effers or anyone else? I suppose when you
covered physiology you would have had plastic models to play with,
organs to prod from formaldehyde jars, plus dissection classes ...
The book covers the Krebbs cycle but in a rather dry and forgetful
manner (no cascades were mentioned which might have helped), but is
okay in other areas.


Anyway to contribute to this thread, there are really far too many
amazing processes that occur in the human body but I'll pick three
at random:

1) little rocks in the head that are used in sensing gravity and
acceleration (otoliths in the vestibular system).

2) The process in which the undifferentiated human embryo
differentiates into two separate human forms (after about 6 weeks).
So it appears that we are all default female until that lil' section
on the y chromosome kicks in. It's interesting that protostructures
(Wolffian/Mullerian ducts) exists in both forms in the
undifferentiated embryo.

3) Production of B memory cells within the body which generates
different DNA sequences (part of the bodies antibody defence
system). I used to think that all soma cells had identical DNA
arrangements - but evidently not. I wonder if a parallel process
exists when a stem cell differentiates into a specialised tissue
cell.