Science Helpdesk

The chemistry of life: the human body.You are what you eat. But do you remember munching some molybdenum or snacking on selenium? Some 60 chemical elements are found in the body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown.

Basics of Biochemistry.The biomolecules and their roles in an easy-to-understand language.

Cells and Life processes.To understand the structure of plant and animal cells and their life processes. You can print the lesson text and read a glossary. Interactive lesson at Skoool.co.uk. (N.B.: In case your browser freezes, use Firefox and click on "Block Script" when asked).

Cell games.Excellent and easy to follow visual activity to learn the basics on animal, plant and bacterial cells.

Plant cells and animal cells.Great interactive animation showing the parts and organelles of both plant and animal cells.

Typical animal cell.Interactive activity to identify the parts of an animal cell and read about the function of its organelles.

Inside a cell.Take an interactive look inside an animal and a plant cell.

Cell size and scale.Awesome zoomable visualization to help you get an idea of the actual sizes of cells and their components.

Cells, tissues, organs and organ systems.Great presentation on cells, their parts, their types, their sizes and how they specialise in animals and plants forming tissues and organs.

Cell structure.To learn everything you need about the parts and the organelles of a cell in an easy-to-understand language.

Cellular organization.Lots of info and images on the cells and their organelles.

List of distinct cell types in the adult human body.Article at Wikipedia containing a list of links to the corresponding articles of a great number of types of human cells.

Regrowth mystery reborn.Debunking the idea that our bodies are renewed every seven years: learn what is the real life span of several types of human cells.

Cells, tissues and membranes.Particularly interesting is that it includes a good overall view on the main human tissues, with text and images.

Animal cells and tissues.Lots of info and images on the animal tissues.

Google body.On Zygote Body (old Google Body) you can view the underlying anatomical layers one by one using a slider, switch on labels to identify each body part, use the search box as a search engine for any body part (muscles, organs, bones etc), and what's more, you can also share the exact scene you are viewing by copying and pasting the URL. As of writing this, the website will only work in Firefox and Chrome browsers.

DirectAnatomy.DirectAnatomy.com comes with an interactive interface with four angles of view allowing you to browse through more than 1,200 annotated anatomy images. A clickable menu on the left displays the specific body part on the right. The human body tour also gives you an insight into the physiological and pathological makeup of our bodies.

The virtual body.The Virtual Body takes you on four tours: The Human Brain, Skeleton, Human Heart, and Digestive Tract. Then there are some cool standalone tours within each.

Human body & mind.The BBC's webpage is a resource rich place to discover and play interactive games while learning all about the human body. The games include Senses challenge, Organs Game, Skeleton Game, Muscle Game and Nervous System Game. The games are superbly designed and mostly involve dropping a body part onto a human figure.

Artificial anatomy.This one is not a fully fledged anatomical course, but a cool and short 10 question quiz on different body parts. It is a Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History resource. With a mouse rollover you have to match the thumbnail with its location on the skeletal structure named 'Jerome'. You can also turn Jerome around for another view.

Online examination of human anatomy and physiology.Visually learn about the human body using interactive flash animations.

The ultimate human body quiz.Not that much, but a set of ten not-so-easy questions to test your knowledge on the human body.

Zoom into hair.View the inner structure of a hair, progressively magnified.

Zoom into a tooth.View the inner structure of a tooth, progressively magnified.

Anatomy of the human body.The Bartleby.com edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body features 1,247 vibrant engravings—many in color—from the classic 1918 publication, as well as a subject index with 13,000 entries.