Why PigPen Is A Peaced-out Brainiac

Om  = mc ^2

If you are reading this, you must be using some kind of device like a computer, tablet, or phone. Therefore, I know that you aren't doing what this brief article will hopefully rouse you to do, which is to...

                       DIG IN THE DIRT.

A recent study found that a certain bacterium living in soil,  Mycobacterium Vaccae, increases serotonin levels and neurological growth when inhaled or injested.  
More serotonin = less anxiety and fear
 as well as increased mental capabilities (namely, learning).  

Well, what do you know? Looks like we have evolved to benefit from messing around in fresh soil and sunlight!

For MORE about the health benefits of dirt, CLICK HERE

An Apple A Day

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to New York & New Jersey. I  enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and attending an Anatomy Trains workshop. Here are a couple cool pictures that I snapped at my favorite store, Evolution. 

Here is a human skull that has been disarticulated and displayed under this shiny glass dome. Notice how the upper palate of your mouth, the maxilla, is a fusion of two bones and that your brain is sitting on boney pockets of air.  If we know that the human body is basically just a sack of sea water walking around and that living bone is flexible and spongey, do you think that there is any movement among the sutures of a living skull? That which isn't flexible breaks easily under pressure, right?

As a burgeoning anatomist, have I died and gone to heaven? Here is a collection of actual human skeletons--from a tiny baby up to a full grown adult. (Too bad there isn't a scoliotic 80+ skeleton.) Notice the head/body size ratio in the baby vs. the adult. Can you tell the sex of a body, just by studying its skeleton?

The human structure is an artistic, engineering marvel!