Physiologists (pronounced “fizzy-aw-low-jists”) try to answer questions about how cells and tissues work in the body both when we are healthy and when we are sick. They also explore what happens to the body in different environments and how different animals adapt to different environments. Birds can fly at high altitudes for long distances, yet mountain climbers cannot easily climb at these heights without carrying oxygen with them. A whale can dive deep into the ocean, far deeper than we could without special equipment. When planning a shuttle mission, physiologists must consider not only how to provide adequate air and pressure for the astronauts, but consider the effects of weightlessness on their bodies.
Physiologists ask questions like . . .
- Why does blood clot in a wound but not while it is flowing through blood vessels?
- What happens to people’s bones and muscles during space flights or confinement to bed?
- Are there limits to how fast or strong human athletes can be? What limits them?
- How does the brain create memories and know how to “find” them when we want to remember something. Why can we remember something that happened years ago (long-term memory) but can’t remember where we put our backpacks 10 minutes ago (short-term memory)?
- How do people’s genes (alleles) make them more or less likely to get certain diseases later in life?
- Does whether you’re a male or female affect your response to stress? If so, how?
- Can the heart and other organs repair themselves after damage due to stroke, heart attack, or other injury?
If you think these questions are interesting, maybe you’d like to become a physiologist, too!
See the links below and to the left to find out more about being a physiologist.