What fascinates you?

Published

Specializes in critical care.

I'm amazed by the human body and could probably make lists and lists of the things that amaze me about it. I'll narrow it to the top three though:

1. Conception actually being possible

The players involved in this process are TINY. After every hormone comes together and perfectly synchronizes, these itty bitty half cells are actually capable of not only finding each other, but knowing exactly what to do. Sperm! It's amazing! (Forgive me if my enthusiasm is coming across inappropriately!)

2. The ability of a breast to actually produce food

No, really, boobs. They certainly don't look like things with tangible superpowers, and yet, food! Such a complex ability!

3. The heart - it's just amazing in his complex it is and I'm blown away by it

First you have mechanical stuff. Then you also have chemical stuff. Electricity, too?! And if you look at the electricity, you can see if something is wrong. (Well, usually.) Some people aren't cardiology people, and I can see why. It goes beyond thinking 3-dimensionally. I'm a firm believer in evolution and it gets me so dorkishly giddy to imagine all that had to happen to create something as beautiful as the heart. Sure it has its weaknesses, but it's amazing!

So what about the body amazes you? (Feel free to be silly if fits the question. :) )

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in L&D, infusion, urology.

Conception, and how often everything goes RIGHT, blows my mind. I think that's part of why I want to pursue that area of nursing. The fact that two cells can come together, and everything just knows how to become the right parts to make a whole human being from just that, just, wow.

Neurons are pretty amazing, too. I know logically how it all works, with electrical impulses and blah blah blah, but to be able to coordinate movements and have reasonably complex and abstract thinking is pretty incredible!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.
Conception, and how often everything goes RIGHT, blows my mind. I think that's part of why I want to pursue that area of nursing. The fact that two cells can come together, and everything just knows how to become the right parts to make a whole human being from just that, just, wow.

Neurons are pretty amazing, too. I know logically how it all works, with electrical impulses and blah blah blah, but to be able to coordinate movements and have reasonably complex and abstract thinking is pretty incredible!

Yes!!! A lump of tissues plus neurotransmitters, and suddenly you have consciousness??? But.... How! Amazing!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am absolutely fascinated by the brain and the heart. It is amazing to me that when I was in nursing school we were taught that infants born with a septal defect never get beyond childhood. Yet, when I was doing cardiac testing in the late 90's we saw septal defects with ECHO Doppler studies on adults---like in their 30's!! And did you know that the heart also can re-model itself just like the brain can develop new pathways around a stroke area, the heart can re=model. I think that is just amazing!!! The human body is a miraculous thing!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care.
I am absolutely fascinated by the brain and the heart. It is amazing to me that when I was in nursing school we were taught that infants born with a septal defect never get beyond childhood. Yet, when I was doing cardiac testing in the late 90's we saw septal defects with ECHO Doppler studies on adults---like in their 30's!! And did you know that the heart also can re-model itself just like the brain can develop new pathways around a stroke area, the heart can re=model. I think that is just amazing!!! The human body is a miraculous thing!!!

I love that!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency.

Shiny objects. And the brain. But mostly shiny objects.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

What fascinates me? The ability of the human liver to regenerate captivates me. I learned this tidbit a few years before I entered nursing school.

My mother had end-stage liver disease and needed a liver transplantation to survive. That's when I learned that a person could donate a portion of his or her liver to someone in need.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC.

Positive/negative feedback mechanisms. I remember in nursing school being utterly amazed that we are even alive! So many things can go wrong. However, the positive/negative feedback "machine" is constantly tweaking this and that at the molecular level to ensure life continues. Truly mind blowing stuff to me.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac, Home Health, Primary Care.

The heart for all of the reasons already stated. Something that can work without the brain??? Awesome. Something with multiple back-ups (pacemakers)??? Awesome.

And how babies are made (no, not THAT)....I mean actually in the womb. How a lump of cells can differentiate and make eyes, ears, heart tissue, lung tissue, kidneys, bones....and it winds up in the right spot in the body. Seems like we should all just be random blobs of all of this tissue but somehow it all gets put together right.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

The brain. 'Nuff said. :yes:

The eye, so small yet with all its complexities to capture images, allow for the correct amount of light to enter, its ability to detect color and black/white... My dad is an amazing photographer, and once I was complaining to him about no matter how many different settings I try on my camera, I couldn't get this one shot of my kids to look true-to-life. In all his non-medical wisdom, he said "No matter how good the camera is or how good a photographer you are, the camera just doesn't have the perception abilities that the human eye has."

And then the cranial nerves, with which the pupils can't react, the eyes can't move; and the brain without which the "pictures" can't be interpreted.

The clotting process.

Actually, the interconnectedness of the entire body blows my mind, how perfectly designed to work together. We have so many complex parts from organ systems down to individual cells, and if any part in the chain doesn't work, the systems don't work and in most cases the body can't live.

For example... well again, the clotting process.

Blood, vessels, heart, intrinsic conduction/pacemakers, baroreceptors to control BP, lungs for gas exchange.

The breast, the hormones involved in lactation, the milk itself perfectly designed for the human infant, the baby's suckling instinct and ability to know exactly what to do with this appendage on his mother's body.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

What amazes me about the human body is how much it can endure. I remember watching my first TKA surgery in nursing school. I was fascinated that the human body can endure all of that "hammering" and what not. The OR nurses were all saying to me "isn't the human body amazing!?" It really is.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency room, Neurosurgery ICU.

I am fascinated by how well and quickly the body can heal itself. As in burns, I did my preceptorship many moons ago on a burn unit...I was utterly fascinated shift by shift at the stages/degrees of healing of human skin. (This probably contributed to me going into ER after passing NCLEX... blood, brains, bones, burns, breathing...It all amazes me!)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion