Google Body

   Google is BY FAR my favorite company. From google books to google news and even google search, Google, as a company, has never failed to please me. However, one novelty concocted in the minds of Google's computer scientists has surpassed my previous appreciation of Google. I am referring to Google Body!

   Google body is an interactive web application that allows users to see various parts of the body: skeleton, nervous system, circulatory system, and everything else.


   A cool and helpful feature is that the side controls of Google Body allow users to make certain body systems transparent. Thus, if you wanted to eliminate the integumentary system, you simply slide a bar and it disappears, which enables you to see the muscle system and other internal systems of the body. Although I have never taken anatomy, I can't help but think that this would be a useful tool for studying human physiology.






Moreover, Google Body's application has labeling system for each part of the body. For example if one wanted to know where the femur is located, all he (or she) would have to do is click the appropiate box and the application would label the bones.



   While I think it is undeniable that Google has once again entered terrain that will galvanize interest in a rather esoteric field, I find it interesting to contemplate how Google body could be coupled with other imaging technology, to allow physicians to gain a more accurate view of human pathology. What if one day the image rendering technology of Google Body--which, when evaluated by the standards of medical imaging today, is outstanding--was modified to generate realtime images of the internal organs during ailments? Doctors would be able to clearly see damaged organs and could avoid straining their eyes to read those terrible CT scans and X rays, which, from the perspective of a premed, seem entirely inscrutable. That would be phenomenal!