The official student newspaper of The Hockaday School

The Fourcast

The official student newspaper of The Hockaday School

The Fourcast

The official student newspaper of The Hockaday School

The Fourcast

Fragments of beauty
In Focus
Fragments of beauty
Larkin Clouston and Elle Myers February 29, 2024

Opinion
February Staff Standoff: Valentine's Day
Alexa Muñoz and Danya Risam-Chandi February 27, 2024

Let Cupid Live - by Alexa Muñoz I have Valentine’s Day plans this year. And this is not the beginning of another malicious anti-Valentine’s...

Junior Jordan Lacsamana utilizes one of MBLs confocal lens microscopes as she observes squid embryos after staining them.
Features
Mastering marine biology
February 27, 2024

From dissections to monitoring fish tanks, the juniors and seniors who spent seven days at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woodshole,...

The DEI Divide
The DEI Divide
February 27, 2024
Lipstick and Ledgers
January 25, 2024

Don’t Go Dissecting My Heart

Dont+Go+Dissecting+My+Heart

In spirit of the celebration of love, what more conventional way to commemorate Valentine’s day than by dissecting a heart? Why open your heart to someone on this special day when you can open something else’s heart instead? Emotions are grand, but atria and ventricles are better. To better understand the anatomy of the human heart, the Fourcast asked Upper School anatomy teacher Brandi Finazzo to help guide a sheep heart dissection. Sheep and humans both have four-chambered hearts, making sheep hearts the prime models for a dissection.

Left Ventricle: The left ventricle is the thickest of the heart’s chambers and is responsible for pumping oxygenated blood to tissues all over the body. Just sounds like a lot of responsibility and hassle, like relationships.

Right Ventricle: By contrast, the right ventricle solely pumps blood to the lungs. Similar to accepting that you will die alone, much less time-consuming.

Interventricular septum: The stout wall that separates the lower chambers (ventricles). If only my emotional wall could be that thick…

Chordae tendineae: Cord-like tendons that connect the papillary muscles to the tricuspid valve and the mitral valve in the heart. They look really gross in pictures but I promise they’re not that bad in person, a fact I tell about all my Tinder matches.

Left Atrium: Receives blood returning to the heart from the lungs through the pulmonary veins and pumps it to the left ventricle. It’s like my give and take relationship with rom-coms; they give me nausea and take away two hours of my life.

Aorta: The main artery of the body, which provides oxygenated blood to the circulatory system. This is probably what Leona Lewis was referring to in her song “Bleeding Love,” emphasis on the bleeding.

Watch the video here.


Heidi Kim – Views Editor

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Fourcast Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *