Bone
Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue. Bones come in a variety of shapes and have a complex internal and external structure, are lightweight yet strong and hard, and serve multiple functions. One of the types of tissue that makes up bone is the mineralized osseous tissue, also called bone tissue, that gives it rigidity and a coral-like three-dimensional internal structure. Other types of tissue found in bones include marrow, endosteum, periosteum, nerves, blood vessels and cartilage. At birth, there are over 270 bones in an infant human's body, but many of these fuse together as the child grows, leaving a total of 206 separate bones in an adult. The largest bone in the human body is the femur and the smallest bones are auditory ossicles.
Read more about Bone: Mechanical Properties, Cellular Structure, Types, Formation, Remodeling, Paracrine Cell Signalling, Disorders, Osteology, Alternatives To Bony Endoskeletons, Exposed Bone, Uses, Terminology
Famous quotes containing the word bone:
“We as women know that there are no disembodied processes; that all history originates in human flesh; that all oppression is inflicted by the body of one against the body of another; that all social change is built on the bone and muscle, and out of the flesh and blood, of human creators.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)
“You must be wise, in order to sniff out and weigh these mighty books, and swift in the hunt and brave in the battle; then, by careful reading and frequent reflection, crack open the bone and suck out the substantific marrow.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“Sang a bone upon the shore;
“A child found all a child can lack,
Whether of pleasure or of rest,
Upon the abundance of my breast”:
A bone wave-whitened and dried in the wind.
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—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)