Playing with Frogs and Virtual Dissections

In the latest edition of US News & World Report, Lucia Graves has an article dealing with virtual frog dissections. I’m familiar with froguts.com, and their CD offering. Graves pointed out several other products such as digitalfrog.com, tactustech.com, biolabsoftware.com, and animalearn.org.

Using software to virtually dissect frogs carries several advantages over cutting up a real one. For one thing, there is less mess, and less of an “Eww!” factor. Even better, Graves notes that repetition of certain tasks, such as where exactly one should slice in order to uncover certain organs, can be very nicely accommodated in virtual dissection programs. Also, virtual innards don’t decay like real innards do, allowing easier observation of the way things are supposed to appear under optimal circumstances.

Alas, some from the old school eschew virtual dissections in favor of the real thing. Jessica Mason, a “volunteer science teacher” is quoted as saying nothing beats the mess (and smell) of the real thing to really teach kids and show them how wonderful biology can be.

Meanwhile, Graves notes that a grad student over at Simon Fraser U., in Vancouver, has created the first haptic dissection program, with force feedback to simulate the feel of the blade cutting into frog flesh.

References
Graves, L. (2007, October 29). For frogs, a digital detour. US News & World Report, p.59.