VJOURNAL SMART BOOK · Volume I · How the human body works
Biology
Seven chapters with a living 3D model beside the text: the body, bones, brain, neurons, heart, lungs and the cell.
Start readingAnatomy is hard to learn from flat pictures, because the body is not flat. In this book a living 3D model sits beside the text. When a paragraph talks about the skin, you see the skin; when it moves on to the muscles, the skin lifts away and the muscles appear. You can turn the model, pause it, and go back to any moment.
Each chapter has five moments and a sandbox under the picture. Take the body apart layer by layer, pick a bone, tap a lobe of the brain, change how hard a nerve is stimulated, speed up the heart, deepen your breathing or type a strand of DNA. The facts are well established, estimates are marked as estimates, and popular myths are named as myths.
Contents
- 01The body, layer by layerAnatomy: skin, muscles, bones, organs and nervesYour body is built in layers, like a very clever sandwich. Skin covers you, muscles move you, 206 bones hold you up, and the organs inside keep you alive.
- 02The skeleton: 206 bonesBones, joints and what lives inside themYour skeleton has 206 bones. The skull guards your brain, the spine holds you upright, the ribs shield your heart and lungs, and inside bones a soft marrow makes blood.
- 03Neurons and nerve impulsesHow a nerve cell fires and talks to the next oneA neuron is a nerve cell that passes messages as tiny electrical pulses. When it fires, the pulse races along its long fibre, then a chemical carries the message to the next cell.
- 04The heart and circulationCardiology: four chambers, two circuits, one pumpYour heart is a muscle about the size of your fist. It beats around 100,000 times a day to push blood through your lungs and your whole body.
- 05The lungs and breathingRespiration: diaphragm, airways and alveoliWhen you breathe in, a muscle called the diaphragm pulls down and air fills your lungs. Tiny air sacs pass oxygen into your blood and take carbon dioxide out.
- 06Cells and DNACell biology: organelles, the double helix and divisionYour body is built from trillions of tiny cells. Each one holds a long instruction book called DNA, written with just four letters.
VITON13 LAB
Keep studying on the LAB table
Open the chapter's experiment, timeline or map on VITON13 LAB, with your notes as a document beside it.
Open VITON13 LABAbout this book
How does the animated biology textbook work?
Every chapter pairs a text with a 3D model of the human body. The text is split into blocks, and each block belongs to one moment of the animation. Scroll to a block or press its play button and the model shows that moment. You can pause, rotate, scrub the timeline and use the sandbox to try your own settings.
Is this a medical guide?
No. It is a school textbook about how a healthy body is built and how it works. It gives general healthy habits such as exercise, sleep and not smoking, but it cannot diagnose anything or replace a doctor. If you are worried about your health, talk to a doctor or a nurse.
Who is the book for?
It is written for readers from about twelve years old: schoolchildren meeting anatomy for the first time, students who want a picture to go with the words, and adults who always wondered what is happening inside them. Every chapter also has a short version for younger readers.
Are the numbers and names accurate?
Yes. The book uses well-established figures such as 206 bones in an adult and about 86 billion neurons in the brain. Where scientists only have estimates, the text says 'about' or 'an estimate'. Every chapter lists the sources behind its facts, and the anatomy model uses Z-Anatomy data under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.