Fat and Skeletons

This is just a random picture from last Spring...yep.

It seems like yesterday that I was writing the last post. Life plugs on as it usually does (thank goodness; I'd rather have it plug on instead of stopping all together). The excitement of the week consisted of Ultimate Frisbee, figuring out the molecular formulas for Butane, Methane, and Propane in my chemistry lab, church, and, of course, going over more of the human skeleton in my Anatomy and Physiology lab.
The trochlea of the humerus is connected to the, trochlear notch of the ulna (convenient), the trochlear notch is connected to the, olecranon process of the ulna...Yessir, this week in A&P lab, we covered the spine (each vertebra), the sacrum, the ribcage (complete with sternum), the shoulder girdle (sternum, clavicle (collar bone), scapula (shoulder blade)), and the appendage commonly known as the arm, from the tip of the fingers to the shoulder. Now I can tell you things like where your deltoid tuberosity is, or where exactly the hamate bone is in your wrist- isn't that great? I could even locate the lateral epicondyle, or the coracoid process of the scapula, or...well, I could be here for a while and I think you all get the picture. Next lab we will finish off the human skeleton by essentially learning about the waist-down.
In lecture we learned about something very fascinating. I notice that I usually talk about the little tidbits from that class, but I assure you, I'm learning quite a bit. This little factoid is about something called brown fat (as opposed to white fat, which is the picture above). Hopefully everyone knows that a fat cell is a specialized cell that stores a bunch of fat and gets all big and bloated and such. Brown fat cells have lots of these little organelles (structures within the cell) called mitochondria which causes them to burn the fat stored inside the cell. Well research has been done on a mouse that was obese and even had diabetes. They figured out how to stimulate fat cells to become brown fat and, therefore, burn more fat without the subject even trying. After stimulating its fat cells to become brown fat, the mouse lost weight at a rapid pace and was even cured of its diabetes. Just like that. Imagine if they started doing that for people. I don't know if they'll come out with anything soon for us, but that is a very encouraging bit of news for diabetics and people who struggle with obesity or even just being generally overweight. We'll have to see what the future holds.
Moving on...
Church was great, per usual. We had Ward Conference so the Stake Presidency was there. I ended up filling in for the executive secretary (being one of the assistant exec. secs.) for Ward Council. Pretty much the whole meeting was the Stake Presidency getting to know us and the Stake President, Pres. Baron, teaching us about Lehi's Vision in 1 Nephi 8 and why he didn't throw the fruit to Laman and Lemuel in his dream. It all tied into leadership. If you want to know more, I could expound at a later time, so you'll probably have to contact me outside the blog or something.
Well anyway, there's still much for me to do and I haven't even begun on ward sports. Well, to make a long story short (you're welcome), it's important to get out, run around, and just have fun without worrying about school matters. Done and done.
Anywho, I'm out-