Open Body Book

Step-through models of the human body, one structure at a time. A free educational project. Pick an organ.

• The circulatory system

  The heart, the arteries, the veins and how the blood moves through them. It follows the blood from the heart to the lungs, around the body and back, and also covers the circulation before birth and how Harvey proved in 1628 that the blood circulates.

• The nervous system

  The brain, the spinal cord and the nerves of the body. Pages cover the regions of the brain, reflexes, the nerves of the limbs and head, the autonomic system and how a nerve cell signals. The last pages tell of the experiments of Galvani, Broca, Golgi and Cajal.

• The lymphatic system

  The lymphatic system collects fluid from the tissues, filters it through the lymph nodes and returns it to the blood. This story covers the lymph vessels and nodes, the spleen, thymus and bone marrow, the tonsils, and what happens when drainage fails.

• The digestive system

  How the body breaks down food and absorbs it, from the mouth to the rectum. It covers the teeth, swallowing, the stomach, the liver, gallbladder and pancreas, and the small and large intestines, and ends with the experiments of Beaumont and Pavlov.