• Question: Have you ever disected a human body part?

    Asked by lion123 to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by Emily, drstilesjlstermerrygold98, mrmumble.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @lion123
      I have only ever done dissection in science lessons in school. We did sheeps eyes and once we did a lung I think. I remember they smelt GROSS. But I’m more interested in what brains make us do while we’re alive so I don’t look at them!

    • Photo: Simon Bennett

      Simon Bennett answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hello,

      I have never had anything to do with human tissue, but it does it used to research. For example human brains which have been donated after a persons death can be used to compare healthy brains against diseased brains to found out what causes a disease.

    • Photo: Rachael Ward

      Rachael Ward answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Yes, I have! When I was an undergraduate we dissected a whole human brain! We were all really excited about it and it was even more interesting than we thought it was going to be as we found a huge tumor inside it about the size of an egg but the person hadnt died of that and had no idea they had it!

      We dont know who the person was but we know it came from someone who donated their body to science so was willing for us to look at their brain after they’d died. It was a real privilege and really motivated us and I’m very grateful they allowed us to do it.

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I’ve never, ever dissected anything. In fact, I’ve never, ever even had a biology lesson! Not one. Does it surprise you that I can still be a scientist? You can be a scientist about anything that has experiments and numbers attached, whether or not you do it in a lab with a white coat on!

Comments

  • Photo: tiny

    tiny commented on :

    @rachel how could they not know that they had a tumor?! wouldnt they have had migrains and fits (like sam kelly off waterloo road) x

  • Photo: Rachael

    Rachael commented on :

    Hi @tiny

    Really good question and exactly what we asked.

    You’re right, you would definitely have expected them to experience some problems like the ones you mention. However, because the persons identity and medical records were kept a secret from us (this is routine, to protect and respect them), we couldnt find out the answer.

    All we know is that they had not be diagnosed with any brain related problems as they only gave us a brain that was considered “healthy”. Its possible that they were experiencing headaches or other symptoms but told the doctor and then had passed away of something unrelated, we just dont know.