Watching Bacteria Explode

Good evening, everyone! I have just entered the femoral vein of Meghan, a 26 year old female who is working toward her doctorate in microbiology while working with Mad Science, where she teaches science in a fun and exciting way to elementary school children.

Wait a second – we're getting an alert – it seems that there is bacteria that has made its way into the right lung. We're heading that way now.

Right now, on your left, you can see the femur bone, but you can see that it's encased in skeletal muscle, tendons, and ligaments that help Meghan move. Without the skeletal muscles, tendons, and ligaments, we wouldn't be able to walk, sit, work, or even get up out of bed (Thibodeau, 2008).

We're now entering the external iliac vein, as we work through the external iliac and the common iliac veins, we will be passing by Meghan's hip bone, which will be on your left, and her bladder, uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries on the right. We're also passing by the intestines; I can turn the sub to where you can see them, too (Thibodeau, 2008).

After leaving the common iliac, we start through the main hepatic vein. The hepatic veins are a group of veins that take blood away from the digestive area. The main hepatic vein works its way up through the abdomen and into the heart. As we pass them, you'll be able to see the stomach and spleen on your left, and the pancreas and liver on the left. As you can see, they're surrounded and protected by the rib cage. The stomach is what works our food down enough for our small intestines to be able to digest what we need from the food. The spleen helps filter the blood, and it also recycles red blood cells and acts like a storage unit for white blood cells. The pancreas helps monitor blood sugar and releases chemicals to aid digestion. The liver cleans the toxins out of our body (Thibodeau, 2008).

We then enter the heart through the vena cava. We are taken into the atrium. We pass the AV valve before being pushed into the right...