Building the Body
This is the study of body structures we can see with our eyes, without a microscope.
What is gross anatomy?
This term describes the body's tendency to keep internal conditions stable
What is homeostasis?
In standard anatomical position, the body stands upright with the palms facing this direction.
What is forward (anterior)?
This scientist discovered X-rays in 1895 and first used them to image his wife's hand.
Who is Wilhelm Roentgen?
A 4-year-old has swallowed a coin; this quick, inexpensive test can locate the metal object.
What is an X-ray?
Going from atom to organism, this level of organization comes immediately after "tissue."
What is an organ?
This is the more common type of feedback loop, in which the response reverses the original stimulus.
What is negative feedback?
This directional term means "toward the midline of the body" — the opposite of lateral
What is medial?
This imaging modality uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves, involves no ionizing radiation, and excels at soft-tissue contrast.
What is MRI?
A doctor can already see a tumor on a CT scan and now wants to know how metabolically active it is and whether it has spread elsewhere.
What is a PET scan?
This organ system protects and supports the body, provides attachment points for muscles, forms blood cells, and stores minerals.
What is the skeletal system?
In this type of feedback loop, the response amplifies the original stimulus instead of reversing it.
What is positive feedback?
This body plane divides the body into anterior (front) and posterior (back) portions.
What is the coronal (frontal) plane?
This modality combines rotating X-ray beams with computer processing to create cross-sectional "slices" of the body.
What is a CT scan (computed tomography)?
Compared to a standard X-ray, this modality takes longer, costs more, and uses more radiation — but produces far more detailed cross-sectional images.
What is a CT scan?
This organ system uses hormones to regulate growth, reproduction, and metabolism.
What is the endocrine system?
During labor, oxytocin causes stronger contractions, which trigger the release of even more oxytocin — a real-life example of this type of loop.
What is positive feedback?
The cranial cavity and spinal cavity are both subdivisions of this larger body cavity.
What is the dorsal cavity?
This modality uses high-frequency sound waves and a gel-coated transducer, and is commonly used in obstetrics.
What is ultrasound (sonography)?
This modality carries no radiation risk, making it the safest choice for viewing fetal development during pregnancy.
What is ultrasound?
This organ system returns leaked fluid to the bloodstream, cleanses the blood, and houses white blood cells involved in immunity.
What is the lymphatic system?
When body temperature rises, the hypothalamus activates sweat glands to cool the body back to its set point — an example of this type of loop.
What is negative feedback?
This cavity, part of the ventral cavity, contains the paired pleural cavities (lungs) and the pericardial cavity (heart).
What is the thoracic cavity?
This modality injects a radioactive tracer — often attached to a glucose-like molecule — to reveal metabolic activity rather than structure.
What is a PET scan (positron emission tomography)?
A 17-year-old has severe lower-right abdominal pain, fever, and tenderness, and the doctor suspects appendicitis; this modality gives the detailed abdominal imaging needed.
What is a CT scan?