A Southern California high school has banned frog dissections in biology classrooms, using software instead
A Southern California high school has banned frog dissections in biology classrooms, switching to software instead.
Next, virtual surgeries on humans: you just make believe the doctor operates on you. It is certainly more humane than forcing someone to actually use a scalpel on a real body!
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A Southern California high school has banned frog dissections in biology classrooms, switching to software instead.
Next, virtual surgeries on humans: you just make believe the doctor operates on you. It is certainly more humane than forcing someone to actually use a scalpel on a real body!
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
When I took high school biology the highlight of the year were the dissections: a frog and the biggest damn earthworm I’ve ever seen. It was neat to actually see and put hands on the things we’ed only previously seen on books. Software, no matter how fancy, isn’t going to be any more ‘real’ than illustrations in a book. I wonder if the software lets students put electricity to the nerve and make the leg jump.
My favorite quote from the article: “Proponents of virtual dissection programs say they are more humane and safer than touching animals preserved with formaldehyde”
More humane than what? The animal’s already dead.
When I was in medical school we had gross anatomy lab with donated human cadavers (one for every two students). We also had what was called “dog lab” where old hound dogs, that would have been euthanized, were surgically prepped and anesthetized and had their chests opened in order for us to study a living circulatory system and the effect of drugs on it. (The canine circulatory system is very similiar to ours). Students had a choice to opt out of the dog lab but not out of the human agross amatomy course. PETA was protesting this type of course at the time and it was controversial.
Persoanally, I went to the dog lab and found it very helpful but somewhat disturbing and upsetting, as I am a dog owner/lover. While vivisection has been invaluable in the past to further medical science’s understanding of the human condition, it was more a lesson in getting greasy and covered in formalyn (formmaldehyde), which is considered a possible carcinogen. I spent hours with a scalpel digging through human fat trying to find a particular artery or nerve and smelling of it for days. It was more a lesson in fine eye hand coordination and that time could better have been spent with my face in a book. Also, a preserved human body is very different in color, texture and elasticity from a living body and while the anatomy is right, unless on is going into surgery, it is not that iimportant for a first year medical student.