about the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is that there is Byzantine and then there is the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

... and now I'm creeped out by the thought that wherever I go, one of those corpses is right there with me.

"The first was a sidis inversis, all the organs reversed left to right, a one-in-a-million mutation."

If memory serves, I believe it's "situs inversus". Also known as dextrocardia(actually a hallmark of situs inversus) or immotile cilia syndrome(50% of people with immotile cilia syndrome have situs inversus), it occurs in the womb when we're not much more than a clump of cells. Cilia, the tiny little, constantly waving hairs that clear stuff from our lungs, are responsible for moving our forming organs to their proper places and orientations within our bodies.

Internal organs in the chest and abdomen are reversed from their normal orientations.

Ankh

Well, you may have divined what he would be thinking now if he could think now, but as I don't think he can, I'm only confirmed in my thinking that it's a good idea to leave your body to science. It doesn't help one find a soul, were such a thing to exist, but it does help educate those who really are dedicated to saving lives in this world. It also expands the understanding and perspective of those who are awed by the accomplishments of nature through Darwinian evolution.

The "nested doll" analogy does not end with the last visible doll, nor the last microscopic doll. We can explain how the heart generates its own electricity, and we can explain the factors that make it stop, but can we explain the fact that the heart starts beating in the first place? Someday we will. Someday we will crack the code of consciousness. This article-- beautifully written-- should alert every one of us that the human body, with all its mysteries, contains more meaning than any cosmetic, designer dress, nose job, perfume or hair dye we could put on it, as well as the eloquence of any philosopher, cadaver labs notwithstanding. I've been there,too.

Just a technical note on the writing style, since JC is a writer -- it's flabbier than it need be. Two examples out of many:

> and it's all vastly more complicated than it really should be.

> The class actually spent its first few days ...

What's wrong with:

> and it's vastly more complicated than it should be.

and

> The class spent its first few days ...

Maybe this is why you're broke?

Helm

is Carl Zimmer's "Soul Made Flesh--the Discovery of the Brain and How it Changed the World", which I happen to have just read recently. An accomplished and accessible science writer, he gives an entertaining discussion of the history of where people have believed the soul to reside and chronicles the discovery of the function of the brain. (Zimmer also has written an essay on a parasitic wasp that performs brain surgery on its cockroach host--truly fascinating) He's got a ScienceBlog called The Loom:

http://scienceblogs.com/loom/