Google Body: What if?

In late 2009 I wrote I’m a physician and not a surgeon because I’m an introvert and not an extrovert [1]. In September 2010 I wrote that another reason’s I’m not fantastically dextrous [2]. But there’s a third reason: I hated studying anatomy. Actually I’ve always been, and I still am, curious about the human body’s structure. But in the early-mid 1960s when I was in the early years of my undergraduate medical course studying anatomy, it was taught in a didactic, dry and thus unappealing way. I thought so, anyway. So I learnt enough to pass the exams. But I didn’t master it. At least to the degree I needed to be a surgeon. This regret came flooding back to me this week when I read of Google Body [3, 4]. Google says it’s ‘a detailed 3D model of the human body. You can peel back anatomical layers, zoom in, and navigate to parts that interest you. Click to identify anatomy, or search for muscles, organs, bones and more’ [5]. Here’s the link [6]. In the left side-bar you choose a female or male figure. And you go from there. Left click and drag to rotate the image. Search via the box top right. For Google Body to work you’ll need a web browser that supports WebGL [7] (for 3D interactivity), e.g. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari 10.6 or higher. But not Internet Explorer. It’s a fantastic program. I wonder if it’d been around in the 1960s I’d be a surgeon today. I doubt it. But you never know. Ho hum.