Evolution for the win

I didn't know it but the theme of the conference was using evolution to teach A&P. I don't do a lot of that so there was a ton for me to learn. The first speaker was using evolution to prove we are actually built to run. The second (and the best) talked about the evolution of the larnyx and how infants are built more like chimps and as we age (within a year) the larnyx begins to lower nearly 3 vertebrae in our throat, freeing the tongue for speech but allowing us to choke more easily, it was fascinating. The third speaker looked at the muscles of facial expression and how certain genetic disorders like the trisomies, retain the muscles of chimps that develop in all fetuses but disappear before we're born in 'normal' births and the last spoke about premies. I knew about the lung issues that are life long but I didn't know about the full extent of the brain issues. They use lambs to study and even with as little as three days of intubation the premie lambs can't even walk a simple maze and refuse to look at the mirror (showing severe anti social behavior).

The vendors are SO out of my league this year. Two of them have virtual dissecting tables (like 70 grand each) but the best part was that you can now buy the plastized humans like in the Bodies exhibit. i snatched a catalog. Yes I know I can't afford it. I wanted it any how. They have a serial sliced human head for brain anatomy and I want it so much.


I did get to the Mormon tabernacle choir rehearsal. I'm glad I got to go, in spite of it being a rehearsal which meant a lot of correction by their director (not that I could hear any of the issues he did). They were lovely.