The human body, in clickable form

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Attention curious patients, competitive medical students and general admirers of the human machine: The body is online in G-rated, if precise, detail like never before.

The average American -- i.e. those still confused about the exact placement of the thyroid gland, what that popping sound might have been during Saturday’s pickup game, or the significance of the liver’s falciform ligament -- can start with a site designed with them in mind. Human Anatomy Online divides the body into systems -- skeletal, urinary, lymphatic and the like -- allowing users to click on ‘diamond spots’ for more information. The falciform ligament, by the way, divides the liver into two lobes and, while it’s possible to work a mention of that into party conversation, we can’t guarantee it will impress.

For those who are impressed by such knowledge, there’s Winking Skull, a new site designed for medical students (or anyone else fascinated by the minutiae of human anatomy) that lets participants test their knowledge of the more arcane points of the human body. Quick! Find the depressor anguli oris muscle! Time yourself! Compare scores! (Because learning human anatomy isn’t stressful enough.)

And of course for traditionalists, there’s Gray’s (note the ‘a,’ not an ‘e’) Anatomy of the Human Body. Not interactive perhaps, but always a classic.

-- Tami Dennis