It’s a-maze-ing! Your brain looks like a grey, spongy maze. It may look a bit weird, but it’s actually more complicated than the most powerful computer. The brain is the most important part of your nervous system. It controls your breathing, heart rate and digestion. It is also the area where we do our thinking, […]
Eyes
Have you ever looked at your eyes in the mirror? They look like squidgy white balls, but they’re a lot more complicated than that. They work a lot like a video camera – taking in colours and shapes and then turning them into information that your brain can understand. The most noticeable part of your […]
Nose
What allows us to smell? Our nose of course! When you breathe in the smells in the air enter your nose and help you to taste things. The air is sucked up by the mucus (snot!) inside your nose. Nerve endings in the back of your nose that work like smell detectors take in the […]
Tonsils
Your tonsils are like soldiers. They guard the opening into your throat and help to fight dangerous bacteria that enters into your mouth by air and food. Tonsils are on both sides of your throat, at the back of your mouth, and are easy to see. When you’re very young, your tonsils will grow, because […]
Tongue
Stick your tongue out and look at it in the mirror. Have you ever noticed all the tiny bumps that it is covered in? These are called taste buds and they tell you whether your food is sour, sweet, salty or bitter. That’s because there are taste buds in different parts of your tongue that […]
Lungs
Breathe deeply. Then you’ll really feel your lungs at work – they’re like two plastic bags that fill up with air when we breathe in. The air has oxygen in it that we need to stay alive. The lungs help you to breath in new air, and get rid of old air when we breathe […]
Heart
Your heart is actually a fist-sized muscle, like your arm or leg muscles, but it does a very different job. It doesn’t make you move, but it does move blood around your body. It has an important job because blood carries oxygen and nutrients around your body. The heart works like a car engine, taking […]
Liver
Your liver is one of the biggest and busiest organ in your body. It has hundreds of different jobs to do. For example, it makes a substance called bile, which is important because it helps to break the food down in your body. It also helps to work out what your body needs from food […]
Digestive system
Ever wanted to know what happens to your food when you pop it in your mouth? Your body needs the food to give you energy and to help you grow. To do this it first needs to break the food down in a process called digestion. When food enters your mouth your teeth break it […]
Kidneys
Kidneys are shaped like beans and work in pairs but you can live (survive) with just the one. They’re hidden away at the side of your body, just behind your rib cage. Their job is to keep your blood clean, taking out any nasty waste, that is turned into a liquid called urine. Urine stays […]