Biology Forums - Study Force

Briefly discuss the Visible Human Project.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

The Visible Human Project is a computerized library of human anatomy at the National Library of Medicine. It began in 1986 and is an ongoing project. It has created complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the male and female human body. The images are accessible over the Internet. Hundreds of people have used these images on computer screens where they can be rotated and flipped, taken apart, and put back together. Structures can be enlarged and highlighted. The images, also available on CD-ROM, have been used by students of anatomy, researchers, surgeons, and dentists who discovered a new face muscle. The Visible Human is available for both teaching and research. Some of the projects using data from the Visible Human include several three-dimensional views of the human body and images of magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography scans. ADAM, a program that is used to teach anatomy, uses data from the Visible Human.
The National Library of Medicine is moving the project From Data to Knowledge. Some current aspects of the Visible Human will allow users to see and feel anatomic flythroughs on the Web and to see surrounding structures. Students can use a wand to create three-dimensional structures from two-dimensional structures or from segmented slices. Students will be able to build and palpate organs. An Explorable Virtual Human is being developed. It will include authoring tools that engineers can use to build anatomical models that will allow students to experience how real anatomical structures feel, appear, and sound. One goal of the Visible Human was to allow the use of three-dimensional anatomical models in education.