What it’s like to dissect a cadaver

I took a cadaver lab as part of a functional biomechanics class during grad school. It was focused around, well, biomechanics -- how the body moves, how joints work, the mechanisms behind various injuries, that kind of thing. It was cross-listed between the engineering department and med school, so there were a good mix of people there. It was also only one component in an _extremely_ intensive course (I think we averaged something like 9-10hrs/week total on just that single course), but still IIRC (this was 2012ish) we spent around 1.5hrs with the cadaver every week for the whole semester. I also worked for a little while as an EMT, so I've dealt with patients while they're still alive, and I've done some (though just a little) work on the theoretical side of things, doing some research into various prostheses, osseointegration, and so forth, as part of my grad school coursework, plus some simulation work -- FEA, muscle activation models, that kind of things. It was very much a breadth search, and (for lack of a better word) I "enjoyed" every minute of it. Or maybe "rewarding" would be better here, I don't know. At least for me, it was a very unique headspace -- though one that I ultimately left, for reasons that aren't relevant here.

I think it's okay to find the biological systems behind your own body fascinating, even to the point of excitement. There's a very good talk by John Cleese about the difference between seriousness and solemnity, and I see some very strong parallels here. It's also worth mentioning that western attitudes towards death are both historically a very new thing and also, well, weird. If you grew up in the west, it's likely all you're used to, but these days we live in a world that has dramatically less death in it than even 50 years prior. I mean, entire industries have sprung up around this almost... deification, this sanctification of death. And to be perfectly honest, I think it's unhealthy to think of something so deeply integral to the natural world as something to be so shy about. But perspective is always important to have; for me, I think often about the idea of death. To really internalize what it means, that this thing was once moving and breathing and thinking, with a rich inner existence, just like me. And yet I have a (sometimes extremely) dark sense of humor. Comes with the territory, I think.

In the last day of our cadaver lab, we had some extra time, and we basically had, well, free reign. To be clear, at that point, the cadaver was in pretty rough shape. Turns out that pretty much everywhere on the body has muscle, bone, and connective tissue -- the exact things you're interested in from a biomechanics perspective. So pretty much the only two things left were inside the thoracic cavity, or the brain. There were other cadavers we could look at (but not dissect), so pretty much any of the end states we could just walk a few meters away and see. But looking at a diseased lung from an already-dissected cadaver still isn't the same as opening up the chest cavity yourself, so that's what we did. And it was deeply fascinating, even though it wasn't directly relevant to the class. That sense of... excited fascination... is something I can really relate to in the OP's article. I think that's okay, maybe even healthy, and I can imagine it being a powerful driver for people who decide to do, for example, biomechanics research. But again, perspective is important -- don't forget that you're standing there, dissecting, and the cadaver, well, can't do that anymore. So while I can absolutely emphasize with the fascination of it, the discovery of it...

...never in a million years would I consider bringing a _date_ to a cadaver lab.

The HN algorithm picks posts from the new pool and puts them on the front page for a short time to see if it gets traction. This has been explained somewhere but I don't have the link.

My sister (a doctor) told us of a few rather unsavory incidents that happened with body parts during her time at medical school.

Its pretty common tbh.