Anatomy, The Easy Map (Part 2)

[C] Cranium | Your skull is made of 22 bones fused together like nature's helmet. Babies are born with soft spots between these bones, making them briefly shape-shifters during birth.

[A] Larynx | Your larynx contains vocal cords that vibrate 100-1000 times per second when you speak. Men's are typically longer, which is why Dad's karaoke hits different notes.

[C] Esophagus | Your esophagus can push food to your stomach even if you're upside down. Astronauts eat in zero gravity thanks to this muscular tube's determination.

[C] Thigh | The femoral artery is so large you can feel your pulse through your jeans. It's your leg's main supply line, delivering blood faster than Amazon Prime.

[B] Gallbladder | Your liver produces about a quart of bile daily to break down fats. Think of bile as dish soap for your intestines, cutting through grease like a champ.

[D] 24 | You have 12 pairs of ribs protecting your organs like a biological cage. The bottom two pairs "float" because they're too cool to attach to your sternum.

[B] Temporomandibular joint | The TMJ is the only joint in your body that must work as a pair. When it acts up, even yawning becomes an extreme sport.

[B] Diaphragm | Your diaphragm moves about an inch with each breath, traveling roughly 12 miles up and down throughout your lifetime. It's the marathon runner you never knew you had.

[D] Veins | Veins have one-way valves to prevent blood from flowing backward. When these fail, you get varicose veins, nature's way of showing plumbing problems.

[A] Renal capsule | This protective wrapper keeps your kidney's shape while it filters 180 liters of blood daily. It's like shrink wrap for your body's washing machines.

[B] Dendrites | Dendrites look like tree branches because they're literally reaching for connections. Your brain has trillions of these tiny antennas picking up chemical text messages.

[C] Lungs | If you stretched out all your alveoli, they'd cover half a tennis court. That's a lot of real estate dedicated to keeping you from suffocating.

[A] Femur | Your kneecap slides in a groove on your femur like a biological pulley system. It increases your quadriceps' leverage by 30%, making stairs possible.

[D] Left ventricle | The left ventricle's walls are three times thicker than the right's. It's basically the bodybuilder of heart chambers, pumping blood through 60,000 miles of vessels.

[D] Spleen | Your spleen is like a bouncer for your blood, removing old red cells and catching infections. You can live without it, but your immune system loses its best security guard.

[A] Mandible | Your mandible is the only skull bone that moves. Without it, eating would be like trying to cut steak with just the top blade of scissors.

[C] Facial nerve | The facial nerve controls 43 muscles in your face. When it's damaged, half your face stops cooperating, making smiling a lopsided adventure.

[C] Synovial fluid | Synovial fluid is slipperier than ice on ice. It reduces friction in joints better than any human-made lubricant, which is why engineers study it.

[B] Epididymis | The epididymis is a 20-foot tube coiled into a space the size of a walnut. Sperm spend weeks here learning to swim properly.

[A] Spleen | Your spleen can expand up to three times its size when fighting infection. It's basically the Hulk of your immune system, getting bigger when angry.

[C] Pia mater | The pia mater is so thin you can see through it, yet it carries the blood vessels that feed your brain. It's like gift wrap for the most important present.

[A] Cochlea | Your cochlea is shaped like a snail shell and filled with 30,000 hair cells. Loud music kills these cells, and unlike your actual hair, they never grow back.

[B] Sagittal | The sagittal plane splits you like a hotdog bun. Medical students remember this because "sagittal" sounds like "sandwich-al" after enough study sessions.

[A] Pancreas | Your pancreas produces 8 cups of digestive juice daily. Without its bicarbonate, your small intestine would get chemical burns from stomach acid.

[D] Scapula | Your scapula floats on your back, held only by muscles. It's basically crowd-surfing on your back muscles 24/7.

[B] Internal carotid | Your carotid arteries deliver 750ml of blood to your brain every minute. Block one for ten seconds, and you'll understand why giraffes don't do handstands.

[A] Gastrocnemius | The gastrocnemius can generate forces up to eight times your body weight when jumping. It's named after the Greek for "stomach of the leg" because apparently it looks well-fed.

[D] Urethra | The female urethra is about 1.5 inches while the male's is 8 inches long. This explains the eternal bathroom line inequality at concerts.

[D] Zygomatic bone | Your zygomatic bones determine whether you have "good cheekbones" for modeling. They're also the first to bruise when you walk into doors.

[B] Sella turcica | The pituitary sits in the sella turcica ("Turkish saddle"), a bony crater in your skull. Despite being pea-sized, it controls most of your other glands.