Professor Dave Explains
The Sensorimotor System and Human Reflexes
We just learned all about how sensory information from the surroundings makes it to the brain, but once it's there, the brain has to then tell the body what to do to respond to its surroundings. This happens thanks to the sensorimotor...
Professor Dave Explains
Processing Auditory, Somatosensory, Olfactory, and Gustatory Information
We just looked at the process by which visual information makes its way from your eyes to your brain, and what happens when it gets there. So what about the other four senses? Those are pretty important too, so let's take a look!
Professor Dave Explains
Microorganisms and Humans Commensal and Pathogenic Flora
Did you know that there are more microbes inside of you than there are cells that belong to your own body? There are tons of those critters all over the place! But don't freak out, most of them are actually helping you. They protect you...
Professor Dave Explains
Information Storage and the Brain Learning and Memory
Everyone has memories. But how does that work in the brain? How does your brain store information for you to recall later? And how do we learn various skills, like playing an instrument, or riding a bike? As incredible as it may sound,...
Neuro Transmissions
Do You Only Use 10% Of Your Brain?
Do we only use 10% of our brains? That seems like a very low number. What if we could tap into that extra potential? Humans are obsessed with augmenting and improving ourselves. Just look at Iron Man, Lucy, and Limitless. In this...
Professor Dave Explains
Neuronal Pools and Neural Processing
Ok, so we now have a pretty solid understanding of neuronal structure, as well as the action potential and synapses, so we understand how information gets from one neuron to the next. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. How are...
Professor Dave Explains
Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) Mycobacterium tuberculosis
What is tuberculosis? Just like the rest of these diseases, it's caused by a bacterium, specifically Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This one is tricky because there are strains that are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, so...
Professor Dave Explains
Bacterial Infections in Humans
Now we know about a wide variety of bacteria, as well as precisely how they can harm us. So how do they get spread around? How do communicable diseases get from host to host? Let's learn all about this process now.
Professor Dave Explains
Taxonomy of Bacteria Identification and Classification
We've been looking at bacteria for a few centuries now, so how do we categorize them? We love to classify things and put them in groups, so how does that work for bacteria? Well let's learn about Gram-staining, antigens, other phenotypic...
Professor Dave Explains
The Brain and Language
The way that humans communicate is very complex. We have an innate ability to understand and formulate language. As one might imagine, the accompanying brain activity is also quite complex, involving several different regions with very...
Professor Dave Explains
Pharmacokinetics How Drugs Move Through the Body
We just learned about drug administration, or the ways that drugs can enter the body. What happens next? How do drugs move around the body to get to where they need to go? The study of this is called pharmacokinetics. Let's get into the...
Professor Dave Explains
Influenza (The Flu)
We've all heard of the flu, and probably know that it is associated with a particular virus. What is the structure of this virus? How is it transmitted? What steps do we have in place in terms of treatment and prevention? The flu is...
Professor Dave Explains
Whooping Cough Bordetella pertussis
Whooping cough, caused by Bordetella pertussis, is a baby killer. It goes all the way back to the middle ages, so let's get a closer look at this bacterium now.
Professor Dave Explains
Bacterial Pathogenesis How Bacteria Cause Damage
So we know that there are unbelievable numbers of bacteria inside of us, and some of them are good. So what about the bad ones? What do those do? How do they harm us, exactly? What defenses do we have against them? Let's take a look!
Professor Dave Explains
The Chemistry of Air Purification
It's amazing to think that we've gone from having no idea what air is, to knowing its composition intimately, and even having the ability to filter what's in it. We have produced machines that can remove both pathogens as well as harmful...
Professor Dave Explains
Anthrax Bacillus anthracis
Most of us know about anthrax either because of the terrorism involving sending anthrax in the mail, or because of the metal band by the same name. But let's get a closer look at the actual bacterium, Bacillus anthracis.
Professor Dave Explains
Gene Linkage and Genetic Maps
We just learned about X-linked genes, but what about gene linkage in general? If two genes are on the same chromosome, we can say that they are linked. Are they always inherited together? Can the alleles rearrange in some way? Well don't...
Professor Dave Explains
Methods of Drug Administration
When a patient must be administered a drug in a medical setting, how does this occur? Well there are lots of ways. Pills or tablets can be ingested orally. There are topical creams, tubes, injections, and more. How does each one work,...
Professor Dave Explains
Gel Electrophoresis
How exactly do molecular biologists figure out all this stuff we have been learning? How do they do science with huge molecules like DNA and proteins? How can we gather empirical data about such molecules? Let's take a look at one...
Professor Dave Explains
Introduction to the History of Drugs
A drug is a substance that, when introduced to the body, produces some non-nutritional physiological effect. This includes medicinal drugs as well as recreational drugs, and they take many forms. Focusing predominately on medicinal...
Professor Dave Explains
The Biopsychology of Sleeping and Dreaming
Why do we sleep? Most people would say that it's because our bodies need to rest. And that's part of it, but is that the whole truth? What about dreaming? What is that, why do we do it, and what do they mean? Let's get a closer look at...
Professor Dave Explains
Categorizing Drugs Classes, Names, and Schedules
How do we categorize drugs? How do we name them? This is quite a bit trickier than one might think, because there are different ways we might want to categorize them, each of which has its own application. Any drug also has multiple...
Professor Dave Explains
The Structure and Physiology of the Human Brain
Let's do a quick review of the human brain, introduce a couple new things, and be right on our way learning about brain function and behavior!
Professor Dave Explains
Visual Processing and the Visual Cortex
We learned about the structure of the eye in the Anatomy and Physiology series. But how do we process visual information? Light hits the retina at the back of the eye, and then what happens? Well quite a lot, to be honest! We have to go...