What is the difference between anatomy and physiology -- A and P as we like to
call them. And more importantly why should you care?
Here's the deal
yes they are very similar but they're also very very different and learning a
little bit more about them might give you different career ideas that you've
never thought of before. Because I hate to break it to you but it ain't all med
school folks. Roll that new intro.
what's up everybody my name is Patrick thank you for taking the time out of
your day to learn something we're talking about the difference between
anatomy and physiology so we start where we always do the big picture anatomy
asks what and where while physiology asks how and why Anatomy is form
physiology is function and while I usually get lumped together in reality
they're very different so we need to dissect them a little bit get it
dissect it's like like like dissecting all right so if we do the cliche
dictionary thing for a second Anatomy is a branch of morphology that deals with
the structure of organisms and the structural makeup especially of an
organism or any of its parts and that morphology piece is what I want to get
into a bit for example both sexually reproducing animals and flowers have
ovaries or pretty much how all vertebrates have the same general
skeletal plan a backbone a number of limbs a skull with an articulating jaw
that's what's called comparative morphology and that field of science
teaches us all kinds of things about evolution and how similar structures
work on different animals but morphology can also be applied to the structure of
nonliving things like architecture or robotics like just last summer I went to
the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry where they had an entire
exhibit about how engineers were taking inspiration from human and animal
anatomy to design robots and I thought it was so cool that the engineers who
worked on these machines probably collaborated with anatomist
not doctors the ones that we usually think of are the experts of anatomy
although I have no idea why and all of that is anatomy on a large scale but you
could also study the extremely tiny a branch of anatomy called histology or as
I like to call it coloring but with cells
so if Anatomy is the what is this thing aspect of studying the body then
physiology is that how does this thing work you could study the physiology of
only certain things like just plant or just human physiology or you could study
the physiology of certain events like exercise or sleep give you a hint there
you do more than just close your eyes you can even target your study based on
how you're gonna use the information like an evolutionary physiologist wants
to see how our body processes have changed over time or in applied
physiologist well at just a doctor so it's not surprising
that you're gonna get more physiology classes going forward just under
different names like pharmacology is the study of physiology of just drugs or
immunology is a study of the immune system physiology but here's what's so
awesome anatomy and physiology asked really
broad questions they should this squishy meat sack is really complicated but so
many questions about the body don't fit neatly into either of those two camps
like the bulk of my undergrad was kinesiology or how the body moves if you
like physics applied to the human skeleton highly recommend achenes class
or some doctors decided you know there's one particular piece of anatomy that's
just so weird we'll throw it into its own thing and call it neuroscience the
brain it is complicated and even then dude
humans behave in such weird ways like none of this makes sense and that's why
we have scientists like psychologists and behavioral scientists to answer that
other question why we do things with our body because of course learning about
the body itself is cool but it's also the tool that we use to experience the
universe with so if you are down to start your study of anatomy with me I'm
gonna recommend this video I did on directional terms it gives you kind of
an orientation that you're gonna need to navigate the body with also a big thank
you goes to my patrons on patreon Diana and Jessica y'all are making this series
of videos happen otherwise if you want to support the channel for free you can
always subscribe like the video leave a comment either way have fun be good
thanks for watching