Recently finished is a small study of the internal heart wall – specifically the trabeculae carneae formations that run rampid in both ventricles.  Their function?  Opinions seem to vary, but they probably aid in contraction and the prevention of too much suction, besides offering a lovely visual surprise when you first dissect a real heart.

For anyone interested in other unique views of the heart, a priceless collection of videos is available via a University of Minnesota project: http://www.vhlab.umn.edu/atlas/index.shtml Not only can you look at internal structures from a myriad of angles, but you can also choose from a range of different hearts, which really underscores how common variations in structrues can be.

Available for purchase on etsy.

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Happy thanksgiving all! Below is a poster about body tissues you probably weren’t using much today – skeletal muscle!

There was a final crit earlier this week on histology posters – I delved into the sarcomere and myofibril, the fun little network of contractile proteins within the muscle cell responsible for movement.  There are still adjustments to be done (color balance, too many warms), but all in all, is nearly done.

Projects like this always serve as a good lesson for everything that is not yet known about the human body. Actin and Myosin? Their stories have been told very well, but the Z disk and M line? not nearly as easy to research. There are always more proteins and elements than you originally assume, which if nothing else, certainly keep things interesting.

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I’m working on a poster about sarcomere and myofibril architecture and function.  To that end, I’ve been finding out all sorts of fun facts about specific lengths and compositions of different myofibers.

With a significant amount of pdb data, here’s round 1, more revisions and updates coming. Click for a larger view, lots of proteins that can’t be seen in the small version below.

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I was playing with making lipoprotein phospholipid membranes this morning — the top is a whole and cut view of an HDL particle. Eventually these will be filled with cholesterol, triglycerides, and coated in apoproteins, and lit better.  The bottom is VLDL – notice how much larger it is!

Rendered with caustics and some subsurface scattering.

whole and cut views of phospholipids that make up HDL

half of the phospholipids that encase VLDL particles

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I revisited a piece from last December — issues that had not stood out to me at the time suddenly seemed really obvious. Saturation was upped, wet lights put in, color reflections added, and the terrible masking job was softened.  Disregard the labels on the first one, they’re not important for this, unless of course you’re terribly curious about the anatomy of one of the cutest organs.

Click for a larger view of the after – on the default view I thought it only fair to give the two versions equal size.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

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