Thursday, December 8, 2011

norepinephrine.

I don't need to see anyone about this, I just grew up with Star Wars on the brain.


dorsal ramus.


If you know your ancient Roman history, you'll cringe at how I butchered it. It was Remus, not Ramus, and both suckled at their wolf-mother's teetsies. And Raemus didn't have Egyptian eye-shadow. Not exactly sure where that came from.

nerve plexus.


Separate ventral rami continue to provide sensory innervation and motor control to each part of the compound muscle. As they converge, the ventral rami of adjacent spinal nerves blend their fibers, producing a series of compound nerve trunks. Such a complex interwoven network of nerves is called a nerve plexus.

excuses.

Excuses.

Friday, December 2, 2011

temporal summation.


Temporal summation is the addition of stimuli occurring in rapid succession in a single synapse that is active repeatedly.

excitatory postsynaptic potential.


An excitatory postsynaptic potential, or EPSP, is a graded depolarization caused by the arrival of a neurotransmitter at the postsynaptic membrane.

membrane potential.


Compounds that have direct effects on membrane potential open or close gated ion channels.

Tell me this isn't what you see too. I'm not smart enough to make this stuff up. It's just what I see.


opioids.


As you can tell, Eledolphin is a complete dork. Half-dolphin, half-elephant it sucks at swimming and walking on land, as it usually doesn't know it's on land most of the time anyway. It has sonar, but doesn't know how to use it.
Counterintuitively, it turns out that when you combine one of the most intelligent sea creatures with a land mammal that has excellent memory, you end up with a super-dumb animal. Basically a big hairless sheep that loves water.

*There is no term "Eledolphin" that applies to science in any way. Only science-fiction.

AChE.


For someone who hasn't gone to a club in a long, long time I sure draw them as illustrations often. I guess I just find them to be good examples for how the body works -- not exactly sure why.
Anyway, if you stick out the next paragraph you see why this was entirely appropriate.

The neurotransmitter's effects (the alcohol) on the postsynaptic membrane are temporary (making this dude crazy) because the synaptic cleft and the postsynaptic membrane (the entrance and the club itself) contain the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AchE, or "da bouncer").

cholinergic synapses.


I feel like my tummy hurts from too much information occasionally. Sometimes it only takes one word like "acetylcholine".

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

action potential.


Sometimes my eyes get red.

repolarization.


Trips to government buildings aren't what they used to be, thanks to the "Occupy" movement.

transmembrane potential.


When you think about depolarization and repolarization in terms of television -- it still doesn't help. Learning this stuff just straight up sucks.

refractory period.


The membrane does not respond to additional depolarizing stimuli from the time an action potential begins until the normal resting potential has stabilized.
The refractory period is like a baby who's finally asleep and ain't gettin' any sleepier.

repolarization.


I don't do well drawing televisions.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

vertebra components.



And the answer is the lobster. Because it has an exoskeleton and the vertebra does not. If your vertebra does have an exoskeleton, you are dead.

spinal curves.


Anyone reading this who gets it is old enough that it's appropriate. Anyone reading this who is too young and who could be offended by it is also not old enough to understand why it's not appropriate. I'm bored of this conversation now.

head growth.


I've known a lot of big-headed small children. Reading this fact helped me.

orbital complex.


Reading the word "complex" made me think of city complexes... and this is the unfortunate, decidedly un-funny result.

Friday, November 18, 2011

osteoclasts.


Buzzkill.

osteoclast.


Sometimes the answer is right under our nose and we see it. Other times little people point it out to us because it's closer to their eye level.

There are altogether too many words in this post. Boring.

phalanx.

I think we all know who wins this. As Plato wrote: "the finger is mightier than the sword. Especially if that finger is a scary pink one." Which is why I drew it pink.

vellus hairs.

Some of us just never graduated to having big boy faces.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Arrector pili.

Arrector pili are a bundle of smooth muscle cells that extend from the papillary layer of the dermis to the connective tissue sheath surrounding the hair follicle. When stimulated, the arrector pili muscle contracts, pulling on the follicle and forcing the hair to stand erect.
WHEN YOU GET SCARED YOUR ARRECTOR PILIS DO THEIR JOB AND MAKE YOUR HAIR STAND ON END.

hair matrix.

The weird thing is I didn't even have to really draw it. I just traced a picture of a real hair cross-section. I know, right?

liposuction.

Sometimes it doesn't matter what's being said, it matters who's saying it.

skin receptors.


May or may not have been reaching on this one.

cholecalciferol.


The only truly universal language is love. And guns.

adrenocorticotrophic hormone.


I was never this guy, I just know of people like this. Read about them and stuff.

dermal papillae.

Usually the ones who don't get it are the loudest, most verbal of the group.

integumentary system.


The black and white was my own personal rebellion since my wife won't let me join the "occupy" movement. "When you can tell me what the whole occupy thing means, you can go" she said, being completely unreasonable. Pay no attention to the fact that "cutaneous" is misspelled.

keratinocytes.


Made the annoying part up, that isn't in the textbook. It's implied though.