TED Talk Reflection

The TED Talk for my 20 Time project went well. I stayed within the time limit and go through the main points I needed to hit. I think certain phrases could be worded better in order for the presentation to flow better. If I had more time to present i would have gone into depth on specific pictures I was particularly proud of and why. In the time allotted I could have explained why I chose those pictures of people. I related my project to my past experience of how my mom took pictures of my entire childhood and how I want to continue telling stories through pictures.
In the preparation for the talk I finally realized that I have pride in some of my photos. I went through all my photos I took for the project, some of which I had not posted, and chose the ones I thought would be the best to exemplify the entirety of my work. Through the presentation and reflecting on the photos I realized that even if I do not have an complete end product, because a story does not end, I can still be proud of the progress I make along the way. I was really inspired by the talks about nutrition to eat healthier and monitor my food intake.

Photography 20 Time Project

I wanted to this project because I have found that pictures can carry a story and change the way people think and view the world. I wanted to focus on the beauty in Saratoga and share it with people via the internet. My initial plan was to write captions for my pictures and go around Saratoga and to get people to focus on the nature around them. The process started out with a series of failures. Instagram was not functional on the computer I have. Then I made a Facebook account. This account was a separate account named Sara Toga. This was the height of my success. I was posting fairly regularly (for a week) and continued gaining followers. I sent out around 2000 friend requests and about half responded with at least 5 replying each day. This is when a second experiment came into my 20 time. In addition to inspiring people with photography, I wanted to see how far away I could get with a facebook account. After a few days, FB began recommending friends from different countries I continued sending requests to them. Many people blindly friended me and only a few asked who I was. Many people I did not have any mutual friends with and they still friended me. This surprised me because I have always heard about people trusting too much on the internet, but it was not until I saw it for myself that I realized how people hide behind a screen and can trust complete strangers. The page grew quickly, but the security at FB quickly noticed my unusual friending patterns and shut down my account in a week or so. I was discouraged when FB shut me down, but it did give me some hope in humanity in the sense that there is security for fake people on the internet. Coming off of this I was quite frustrated with my project. I had no way to share my pictures and I felt like I had failed the project. When I regained my motivation to continue, I created a page connected to my facebook. This challenged me because I did not want my name to be publicized on the internet. At first, only a few of my friends had seen the page. This page is much less successful than the other page because I cannot send requests to strangers. Then what I was afraid of happened: a stranger started messaging me. I dealt with this by not replying. After I leave this class I will probably discontinue my FB page, but continue to take photos. Toward the end of my project, I turned the focus from the nature in Saratoga to the Saratoga Community. I took photos at events at the High School and elementary school. This is when the story of photos came through to me. I saw how a photo can be a snapshot in time for that person and the community. In the end, I don't think I can ever 'finish' this project; new experiences and moments are happening all the time. This project introduced me to photography and I think I will continue. Looking back at photos of my childhood I see how a series of photos gives you a fuller story that lasts and I hope one day I can make a story of photos to leave behind.
The end of this project I have some photos to show for my success, but not a cohesive page of my photos. This project tried my patience and perseverance. I think I deserve an A because I challenged my comfort zone by putting pictures on the internet linked to my name. I also went out in public to take pictures which also challenged my comfort zone. I could have rebounded from my setbacks faster, but I did still come back from the FB and Instagram failures.
Here are some of the pictures I am the proudest of.
Here is the facebook page.
Ted talk outline
1. Starting goal: take photos of the community to explore beauty around us
2. FB Problems and power
3. Power of a photo

Best Photos

River Clean Up

At the clean up we went down a trail parallel to the San Thomas Aquino River. On this trail, we picked up trash. The most common type of trash we found was chip bags and wrappers. There was a pile of garbage bags and trash caught in the bushes. In this project, I learned the power of community. An individual would have taken much longer to clean up the area, and would only be able to clean up that area. But when a community comes together this river and many others can be cleaned. The coordinator of the event said over 60 creeks are being cleaned today. This cannot be done effectively by one person, but when people unite they become more powerful and can actually make a difference. 

Unit 8 Reflection

This unit we explored the anatomy and physiology of the muscular system. The muscular system includes muscles and tendons and it works closely with the skeletal system for to achieve support and movement. The muscles are made of bundles that are also made of bundles of muscle fibers. This allows the muscle to stretch and contract. The epimysium bundles the outside of the muscle, the perimysium separates the bundles, and the endomysium contains individual muscle fibers. Fascia is throughout the muscle to help bind the fibers together. A tendon is connected to the end of the entire muscle as connects it to a bone. This allows it to move the bone. There are many different ways to move. Below is a video of the types of movements.

The movements are able to be performed due to the different types of synovial joints. The planar joint allows the bones to slide past one another, such as the carpals. The hinge joint has one bone inserted into the other and moves like a hinge. The elbow is a hinge joint. The Pivot joint has a ligament ring holding the bone in the dent, like the ulna and radius. The saddle joint has an indent like a saddle. This is found in the metacarpal of the thumb. A condyloid has an oval face that fits together and is found in the wrist. The ball and socket joint moves in many directions and is found in the hip or shoulder. The muscles that help to move our joint are named by the shape, location, movement, origin, size, and direction of fibers.

In order to contract the myosin must grab onto the actin and hold to hold the contraction. This happens when a nerve impulse comes through and Acetylcholine is released. This triggers a release of calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum into the cytoplasm. Ca2+ then binds with the troponin and opens up the binding sites also changing the troponin to tropomyosin. Then the power stroke of the myosin begins. ATP binds, then divides to ADP +P and releases energy that is used to swing the myosin head forward. P comes off and the myosin is attached to the Actin until the ADP comes off and the myosin detaches. Many heads on each myosin crawl up the until the nerve signal stops and stops the entire chain reaction.

The structure of a muscle by its bundles. Going down drawn of a smaller level. 

The different types of muscle fibers depend on the pathways that they use for energy. Fast oxidative fibers are used for short exercise. They do not have as effective blood vessels and rely on glycogen stores.  slow oxidative are used for long distance. They are red in color due to the blood vessels and fatigue slowly. 

fast glycolytic are used for quick sprints. They have few blood vessels and high glycogen. They fatigue quickly. 

In regards to my new year's goals, I have kept up on the relate and reviews and have not been running.

This video explains what happens after death. Muscles help us in ways we often do not realize. The earliest effects are seen when the muscles of the heart no longer pumps blood. The circulatory system relies on cardiac muscles and the skeletal muscles pumping the blood through the body. The first 1-2 minutes explain what the lack of muscles works; the second half explains more of the decomposition side of death. 

Rigor mortis happens when the myosin cannot detach from the actin due to the stop of flow of ATP. Eventually, the muscles go limp after the beginnings of decay of the fibers. 

Facebook: Pay or Get Lost

I learned that Facebook is not a very good way to spread a page if you are not willing to pay. I cannot send requests to people like a normal page can so I do not get many views. This is probably why FB does not allow companies to make an account and only permit pages. Friends are easy to get, but views are not something that can be earned for free. Now I understand how facebook can make money and not just off of adds.
Over the last few weeks, I have made a facebook group and posted my pictures to it. I have been able to write captions on a few of my pictures. The challenge I have been facing has been not having many people seeing the page. I have changed my expectations to not needing the page to grow very quickly. For the remainder of the project, I plan to take one more set of pictures and post it on FB. The final goal of this project is to spread images of nature and beauty that is around us. I hope that the people who see my photos are inspired to look around and get outside to look at the nature around us.

Why We Stretch

"The proprioceptors detect any changes in physical displacement"(1).
To detect the location of limbs the body senses changes in the location of limbs. If you stimulated the muscles with an electrical signal and the person could not see, would you have a proprioception confusion?
"[stretching] helps to realign any disorganized fibers"(1)
This can help in recovery from an injury or just daily work. Daily stretching can help to keep the muscles in line and straightened out. I wonder if this would help prevent or treat knots or tightness in the muscles.
 In "What Happens When You Stretch" the benefits and physiology of stretching is discussed. A stretch needs to be kept for a longer period of time to get the complete stretch. Stretching helps to align the muscles and extend the muscle fibers. The lengthening reaction takes time to happen. Stretching first extend the muscle fibers then the connective tissue. The middle part of the muscle stretches first then the edges begin to stretch when the stretch is held.

Dislocated Elbow

X-ray of a dislocated elbow. This dislocation was caused by a fall from a horse. No fractures occurred. (Photo credit: Hailey Scola)

This paper discusses the causes and possible solutions for a dislocated elbow. Dislocated elbows are common in car crashes and falls when the person lands on an arm trying to catch themselves. The first section discusses the anatomy of the elbow and how a dislocated elbow can happen. The ulna can push past the humerus and the hinge joint is unable to work properly. Additionally a possible redesign of the elbow to prevent dislocation, so the ulna can be stopped by the humerus instead of sliding past. Prevention techniques are given to prevent a dislocation in daily life. This paper is to inform about the causes and prevention of a dislocated elbow.  

The anatomy of the elbow joint (915 Elbow Joint)

Nerves and arteries in the arm. In car crashes, when the dislocation is possibly paired with fractures, these may be damaged and cause permanent damage or loss of the arm.  

The elbow is where the humerus meets the radius and ulna. I will be focusing on the humeroulnar dislocation.  In a dislocation, one of the bones comes out of alignment with the humerus. This often happens when an impact to the hand of an arm that is straightened, coming from a fall or a car crash where the person puts their arms out to catch themselves. This sends a force up through the forearm that can shift the bones in the elbow. The elbow is wrapped in ligaments to help support it and keep the bones bound together. The ligaments can be damaged in a dislocation, but not always. The humeroulnar joint is a synovial hinge joint; the humerus fits into an indentation in the ulna and bends like a hinge. The synovial capsule allows the elbow to have free movement.  The arm has three main nerves running down it and past the elbow: the ulnar nerve, median nerve, and the radial nerve. In some dislocations the nerves can be damaged; although, this is often paired with breaks of the arm due to severe trauma. The arm has one main artery running down it that branches into two arteries. In a severe dislocation, the blood vessels in the arm can be damaged. In these severe cases, the arm has a low chance of full recovery. The arm has the triceps and biceps brachii that extend and contract the arm respectively, the brachialis, the brachioradialis, and the Anconeus. These muscles all move the elbow and support it.

Redesigned elbow 

My redesign would switch the ends of the humerus and the ulna. The radius would go into the dent that I make on the humerus. This would help to prevent the force on the hand pushing the ulna out from under the radius. Now the ulna will be pushed and caught by the humerus in the dented end that makes up the part of the joint inserted into. This will prevent an impact from pushing the ulna past the humerus; instead, it will be caught by the indent in the humerus. I will leave the same muscles in the arm. It will still be a hinge joint and move the same way: the ulna bends and the radius rotates. The muscles help to move these bones in their normal ways of moving. Since the muscles are the same no additional blood vessels are needed. I will also keep the ligaments connecting the bones in the elbow and the radius and ulna together. The ligaments in the elbow help to connect and stabilize the joint and prevent easy dislocation. I did not increase the number of ligaments as this might interfere with the free movement of the elbow. This is an essential joint for daily life so I was not willing to sacrifice mobility for security. Ligaments still connect the radius and ulna as it gives some movement between them. Completely fusing the the two bones would limit some of the rotating movement. A problem that might arise from the new design is if the ulna is unable to push past the humerus, it might fracture the epiphysis of either bone or the shaft of the ulna. The force would go up the ulna and impact the epiphysis of the humerus. If the bones are unable to shift past one another, the impact could cause a fracture. It would probably take a larger impact to fracture the bones, but it would result in a possibly more harmful condition.

The dislocation of the ulna is usually caused by an impact to the hand from a fall or a car crash. To prevent dislocated elbows we must focus on the main cause of falling and how to prevent the fall in the first place. Even strong, coordinated people fall sometimes, so knowing how to fall properly is very important. Tucking in your arms and learning to fall and roll takes the impact off of the arms. People often try to catch the fall with their hands, but this puts the person falling at higher risk for fracturing an arm bone or dislocating an elbow. A short or gentle fall is not likely to result in a dislocation, but a hard fall or a fall from a height might dislocate the elbow. Tucking into a fall is a crucial skill because it will protect the arms, legs and the head and neck area from some damage. Many sports, such as gymnastics or football, teach athletes to fall properly to prevent injuries. Balance can be strengthened by strengthening core and leg muscles, to prevent falls too. A strong base of support keeps the person steadier and better able to stay upright. Other suggestions for prevention of a fall are to clean up spills that may cause a falling hazard. Slippery mats on tile or wood floors can slip out from under a person, causing them to fall. For older people having a seated shower or a bar to balance on in the shower is important for safety as the shower can be very slippery with the water on the tile. In addition to safe falling preventing car accidents is also an important part in preventing dislocated elbows. Safe driving and following the rules of the road. The number one cause of car accidents is from distracted driving. Distracted driving causes slower reaction times which can cause harm or death to the person distracted, the passengers or the other driver. Not all falls or car accidents can be prevented, but knowing what can contribute and result from them is important to the prevention of dislocated elbows.    

A dislocated elbow must be reset by a doctor. The arm is stretched so not to fracture off any part of the bone then the humerus is placed back in the dent in the ulna. Often the arm makes a full recovery; although, physical therapy is sometimes needed to aid in the healing process and regaining full range of motion.

Works Cited

“Elbow Dislocation.” AAOS, 2007. AAOS, orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00029. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

Gray, Henry. Gray1235. 1917. Wiki Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gray1235.png. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

915 Elbow Joint. 13 Dec. 2013. Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:915_Elbow_Joint.jpg. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

“Top 25 Causes of Car Accidents.” The Law Office of Michael Pines, seriousaccidents.com/legal-advice/top-causes-of-car-accidents/. Accessed 8 May 2017.

Tortora, Gerard J. Introduction to the Human Body. New York, Wiley, 2006.

 

Chicken Dissection

In the drumstick of the chicken are the tibia and fibula. The tibia has tendons attached to the end of it that are then attached to the muscles of the leg. When a muscle contracts, it pulls on the tendons that then move the bone. The bone is used to support the structure of the leg and aid in movement. The muscle facilitates this movement and the tendon connects the two so the muscle can move the bone. A ligament, on the other hand, connects two bones together and is used for supporting the skeleton. At the end of the bone, at the ankle, there was a cartilage cap covering it. This is to allow smooth, painless movement between bones.
The origin is where the muscle starts with a tendon and is immobile. The insertion is the end of the muscle and is the end that moves. In the chicken's upper wing the biceps brachii originates from the shoulder and moves the lower arm. It inserts and moves the lower wing.
On the back, the latissimus dorsi pulls the shoulders back. In Chickens and birds this aids in wing movement and flight. In humans, this would help in swimming or pull ups. Another similarity is the pectoralis major. The birds have un-proportionally large pecs, but they both aid in pushing the arms. Once again this aids in wing movement. Finally, the trapezius is similar between the two species. In birds, this is used for recovering and moving the wings in flight. In humans, it helps to shrug the shoulders.

Pectoralis minor (medial)- attached to the shoulder and aids in wing movement for recovery of stroke in flight
Pectoralis major(superficial)- Power flight by pulling wings

dorsal side
Trapezius (superior)- attached to shoulder and pull shoulder back and shrugs shoulders
Latissimus dorsi (inferior)- connects the back to the arm. Extend the arm

drumstick (top to bottom of picture)
Gastrocnemius - extend foot, flex lower leg
peroneus longus- extend foot
Tibialis anterior- flex foot

top- biceps brachii- flex
bottom- triceps humeralis- extend wing
forearm
below- brachioradialis- retraction

proximal to 'thumb' claw- flexor carpi ulnaris- flex hand
proximal to that- Deltoid- raise wing

Thigh (Top to bottom of picture)
quadriceps - extend thigh
semitendinosus- extend thigh
semimembranosus-  extend thigh
biceps femoris- flex leg
Iliotibialis- extend thigh and flex leg
sartorius- flex thigh and cross legs

Unit 7 Review

In this unit we covered the skeletal system. At first glance, the skeletal system seems to just be dead bones, but it also includes the various structures that support the bones. The Bones are constantly being remodeled by the osteoclasts and osteoblasts. The osteoblasts build up the bone and the osteoclasts destroy the old bone tissue.
The skeletal system can have problems in the curvature of the spine. When this curve is lateral it is called scoliosis. Kyphosis is when the cervical vertebrae are too humped over. Lordosis it too much lumbar arch. Vitamin D is closely linked to calcium and building strong bones. Rickets is when the bones are too weak due to a vitamin D deficiency leading to too little calcium. Osteoporosis is when the when the bones become too porous. This can come with age and a dysfunction of the osteoblasts and osteoclasts in bone remodeling.

Long bone anatomy 

Joints are classified by the materials making up the joint and the movement of the joint. A fibrous joint is made of sutures or ligaments. The cartilaginous joint is made of cartilage. The synovial joints are always diarthrosis. They have a bursar that cushions the joint. These are the joints that we think of as joints, like the elbow, knee or shoulder. Classification by the movement is the synarthritic joints, without movement, the amphiarthrotic joints, with some movement, and diarthrotic, with free range.

Joint anatomy 

When a bone is fractured it first forms a blood clot. it then must rebuild the damaged tissue. It does this by sending osteoblasts to rebuild the bone. They begin to lay down new bone and soon a callus forms. Eventually, the fracture site is bridged. With bone remodeling, the scar is remade and becomes less prominent.  

I have kept up with the notes this unit. In 20 time I learned that I can be proud of something even if I did not enjoy the process. There still can be elements of pride involved.

Starting Over

On this topic, I have learned that there are beautiful parts of nature all around us. I've seen how children enjoy whatever is around them, but often the adults

Something else I learned about in the perspective of people is that they are very trusting. While on Facebook under the name Sara Toga, I started friend requesting anyone in our community or who they know, which led me to various other places. I was accepted by many people.This part really surprised me; they had no idea who I was and yet I was their Facebook friend now. It took 3 days for someone to ask who I was, but even that was after they accepted the request. I find this accidental discovery something interesting and maybe I could take this further to see what people would do online versus in real life. We hear about this with bullying all the time about how we shouldn't "hide behind the screen" but we do this for bullying and for friending strangers across the world.

I constantly got messages from FB telling me to only friend people I know. Eventually, I was stopped from friending at all. 

Since the last post, my facebook account grew to nearly 600 friends spreading from Saratoga all the way to Morocco. I did not get a chance to write anything on the posts as Facebook shut down my page. My next step will be to make the same page as a Facebook group.
I can apply what I learned by being careful online. I now realise how far and fake the wed can be. 

Owl Pellet Lab

In this lab we took apart an owl pellet to identify by the bones what animals the owl ate. Owls swallow their prey whole then regurgitate a pellet of indigestible materials: hair and bones. The owl pellet contained a vole skeleton. Our owl pellet contained 3 skulls, all from a vole. We can tell this by the shape of the skull. Also the humerus has a  distinct shape for a vole; it has a point on one of the edges that distinguishes it form other rodents.
The femur in the pellet resembled a human bone. The epiphysis had two distinct knobs on each end and a long diaphysis between. The radius and ulna were connected too. In humans, they lie next to one another with a small gap between. The scapula also is similar between the 2 species. It is flat and triangular.
The skulls of humans and the vole are very different. The vole has a longer head with eyes on the side and long arching teeth in the front. The tibia and fibula also look different. Although the fibula is smaller in both, in the vole it arcs and does not travel the full length. The humerus also appears different. In the vole it has a large point on the diaphysis; in humans this is very subtle and called the deltoid tuberosity.

The skull. It is a vole due to the shape and size. 

The mandible 

The humerus. This was also very helpful in identifying the vole because of the distinct bump on it. 

Reflex Lab

In this lab, we tested different reflexes of the human body. Many of these reflexes are needed for survival or protection so they go from the sensory neurons to the spinal cord and the orders are formed and sent.  The pupil shrinks in the light because it needs to make sure there is not too much light coming in. In the lab, we see when there is more light the eye adjusts to there is less coming in because there is more.
The knee-jerk helps to keep you upright. When you start to lean it triggers the contraction of the muscles, recentering us. After the squats, the response was reduced because the muscles were tired and less able to contract.
Blinking when something is thrown at your face is because if that thing were to hit you it might injure your eyeball. The eyelid serves as extra protection to the eye.

The reflex times in the ruler drop were significantly increased when texting. This is because our attention is diverted to something other than grabbing the ruler. this is why texting while driving is dangerous; our attention is on something other than the road. Then our attention finally comes back to the road and it is too late.

Unit 6 Review

In this unit we went over the nervous system, senses, and brain.
Senses allow us to experience the world in many different ways. The way this works is the different receptors in different areas relay the information through a nerve to the brain. This is called sensation. Once it reaches and is processed by the brain it sends signals in response to the stimulus. This is called perception. Pain, hearing, sight, touch, smell, taste, sight, temperature, balance,  pressure and limb perception are all different types of senses that allow us to experience the world how we do. When one of these senses do not communicate to the brain. When this signal becomes interrupted in the brain sometimes the brain can rewire itself to regain some of the sense back. With medical treatment the brain can make new connections to experience the same sense in different ways. This concept of changing is called brain plasticity.  The homunculus is a diagram of the relative proportions of the different areas of the body and how many touch receptors they have on it; the lips and fingers have a high density of touch receptors.
Many things can go wrong in the nervous system. In the CNS most of the disorders lead to major life impacts. These can lead to a shortened and severely altered lifestyle. In the PNS diseases, they are often centrally located and do not have as big of an impact on the person's life. Addiction is a disease when the person becomes dependent on a substance and their neurons start relying on it in the neurotransmitters. The person eventually becomes out of control over whether or not they use.
I want to look more into neurotransmitters and how that impacts who we are.

The brain can change and mold to our environments.

 Pain is thought to be negative, but this is what happens without pain. Pain is used as an evolutionary advantage to prevent us from getting hurt. 

My new year's goals were to run and stay organized. I have been keeping up with the running and walking daily, but I have not stayed organized. All except 2 notes I wrote R&R for immediately. I needed to glue in the notes faster. This next unit I just hope to do the homework on time. 

Loss of Inspiration

So far I have gone to places I am familiar with around my house and wildwood park. I have learned that I overthink things a lot. Most of this project I have been obsessing over how to make a change in our community. I have not always come up with the answer and it resulted in a strong spite for people, the community, and school in general. It's not that I despise exploring and learning but more the deception of this project. In my past experience, I have found just showing people what I am interested in has impacted them. But this project, which wants people to find internal motivation is essentially going against itself by shoving ideas down other people's throats instead of hearing about them and deciding for themselves. So that has been an obstacle of mine: the thinking of the ulterior motives for this project and why we really are trying to change the world. Another setback has been not wanting to do the project which has resulted in me turning to the external motivation of failure if I do not do it.
These past couple weeks I figured out how to make a facebook account for sharing my pictures. This took a while because I could not figure out how to post on Instagram then I went to facebook. My next step is to get the message out to my peers and to add writings about the community and life to my pictures.

Brain Dissection

The myelin makes the signal go faster down the neuron and keeps it insulated. 

Color	Structure	Function
Yellow	Cerebrum	Higher thinking and function
Green	Cerebellum	Balance and coordination
Grey	Brain stem	Breathing, heartbeat, and consciousness

Color	Structure	Function
Yellow	Thalamus	Motor function, emotions, relaying signals to rest of brain, perceive pain
Green	Optic nerve	Bring signals and info from the eyes
White	Medulla oblongata	Autonomic functions, relay signals to other areas of brain
Grey	Pons	Autonomic functions and sleep cycles
Blue	Midbrain	path way between fore and hind brain
Red	Corpus callosum	Connect the 2 hemispheres and send info between
Black	Hypothalamus	Hormone secretion

In this dissection we looked at the different parts of the brain and sorted out the different functions they have. The dissection also relates to what we learned in the distinctions between grey and white matter. We learned that myelin coats neurons which they have to send a signal fast. In the brain stem I noticed there is hardly any grey matter as this is the area that has lots of information coming in that must be quickly sorted. Once it branches off it is still white matter then it turns to grey matter. The branches of white matter are obvious in the cerebrum and the cerebellum. They continually get smaller until it turns to grey matter to communicate and process the information. In the cerebellum the small bumps were clearly seen and able to be separated showing how the brain specializes. Two hemispheres also became apparent in this dissection as they are only connected by the corpus callosum and the meninges holds them together (not attaches) by being in the enclosed area together.

Eye Dissection

When light enters the sheep's eye it passes through the cornea, then through the pupil, that the ciliary bodies adjust the amount of light allowed by adjusting the iris around the pupil. Then it enters the aqueous humor that flowed out when we opened up the eye and directly into the lens, which was yellow, hard, and clouded due to cataracts, then it enters the vitreous humor, which not only holds the shape of the eye it has the light travel through it. Then the light hits the retina which turns the light into electrical impulses that travel through the optic nerve and out to the brain to be turned into a picture.

The eye before being dissected. The cornea is the dark circle. Surrounding it is fat that covers the sclera, the white of the eye. 

This is the lens detached from the vitreous humor and the ciliary bodies. The black lines are the ciliary bodies that have not been removed. The lens feels hard like a ball of dried wax.  

The retina peels off of the back half of the eye to reveal the tapedum lucidium. This is used to reflect light and allow the animal to see better at night. This is why cat's eyes glow in the dark when light is shone on them.

Brain Plasticity

In "A Woman Perpetually Falling" by Norman Doidge, different techniques are used to help repair brains that have been damaged. One woman has her cerebellum damaged and cannot stay upright due to a dysfunction in her balance in her brain. Another man cannot see. The scientists hook electrodes up to the people's brains and they communicate for the damaged tissue, helping the brain function normal at least temporarily. The woman can stand for longer after each treatment. The brain is able to set those connections for the electrodes and has a residual effect on the woman.
"But our brains also reconstruct themselves in response from the simplest tools, such a blind man's cane"(26).  This means that our brains are rewiring themselves as we live just based off of our environment.
"we see with our brains, not our eyes"(15). I have always associated the eyes with sight and forgot about the brain, but there are other ways to see instead of using eyes.
"Even zig-zags on the carpet topple her, by initiating a burst of false messages that make her think she's standing crookedly when she's not"(5). I have newer thought about the visual element of balance. This made me think about how when patterns make even normal balance people. I wonder if this has something to do with motion sickness.

Clay Brain Model

In this lab, we modeled the different parts of the brain with clay, both from an exterior and interior view. We labeled different structures, such as the cerebellum, thalamus, pineal gland, and the various lobes of the cerebral cortex, among others.

Upper: the view of the brain from the left hemisphere along the sagittal plane (inside).

Lower: The view of the right cerebral hemisphere (outside).