Body Browser – a virtual biology book made by Google

Google is again launching a creative product, namely the Body Browser; a 3D animation program that learns you everything about the human body. This educational tool makes it able to explorer the human body in every ‘layer’. There is for example a view in which only the bones are visible, but also a view that enables you to see all the muscles. Next to that, it labels the names of every body-component.

Different layers in Body Browser

The nice thing of this virtual biology book is that you can look the body from every perspective. You can take a ‘tour’ through the human body, walk around it and stop at every moment. You can use a slide (on the left, see pictures) to make layers more or less visible smoothly, zoom in and out, and move the body in x and y directions. It works in your internet browser, and it is available for everyone (if you are willing to install Google chrome (beta) ;-)). This also means that eventually it could be used through your mobile phone. How cool is that! Although it could maybe use some improvements on for example adding the Latin names of body components (I mean, we did not chose Latin in the medical world for nothing) and maybe some more detail on bone protrusions when you zoom in.

It could (for example) be used as reference work, to look something up easily (for example by physical therapists, I know mine sometimes forgets the names of a bone), but also by students, to obtain new knowledge in the field. Though it might need some ‘scaffolds’ for the latter. It’s important for students to regulate their learning process through different guidance (scaffolding) techniques. So, here is a challenge for teachers and educational scientists!  

Look from different perspectives (left)
and select a muscle to see what it is called (right)