WILTIMS #64: Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal

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Me: This block is going to get pretty interesting...

Mal: Define interesting.

Wash: [Deadpan] Oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die?

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I'll start this new block of medical school with a quote from our professor and course director for physiology: “Weekends are a concept, not a reality."

Having moved away from anatomy, we are no longer taught by MDs but rather PhDs. I sometimes wonder if these folks are gluttons for pain. During undergrad, I always felt bad for scientific researchers teaching premed classes because, not only are premeds inherently incredibly annoying students, but the professors always seemed disappointed that we weren't choosing to go into their field. But the professors that we met today, both in physiology and biochemistry, have truly embraced the medical field and found ways of finding clinical correlations for even the most basic (or acidic) material.(Thank you, thank you, I'm here every night)

TIL: There are 20 standard amino acids that make up nearly every piece of every protein in all of life. There are only two exceptions which take the form of "non-canonical" amino acids. One, pyrrolysine, is only found in certain single-celled organisms. The other, selenocysteine (pictured on the left), is used in only 25 of the 10⁵-10⁷ proteins that the human genome encodes.

Homeostatic variables are physiological features that our body is trying to keep within a narrow range, like temperature, pH and blood pressure. Heart rate is not a  homeostatic variable because the body wants the HR to change depending on the circumstances, usually to manage one of the other true homeostatic variables.

Whereas feedback regulation is the body's response to a perceived change, feedforward regulation is the preemptive response to a predicted stimulus. Metaphorically, feedforward regulation is looking up the weather forecast and deciding to bring an umbrella; feedback regulation is walking outside, noticing it's raining, and then going back to get the umbrella.