I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts  of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
That’s a great question, convictions.
Scientists argue about this all the time.
Some say the skin, and some say the liver…
Some people argue that the skin isn’t an organ, that it’s part of the integumentary system, and that it’s not actually inside the human body…
The skin is often known as “the largest organ of the human body”. This applies to exterior surface, as it covers the body, appearing to have the largest surface area of all the organs. Moreover, it applies to weight, as it weighs more than any single internal organ, accounting for about 15 percent of body weight. For the average adult human, the skin has a surface area of between 1.5-2.0 square meters, most of it is between 2-3 mm thick. The average square inch of skin holds 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes, and more than a thousand nerve endings.
The largest internal organ is the liver. It is also the heaviest organ, with an average of 1.6 kilograms.
What do you think? Team skin or team liver?
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Yeah, most people agree with skin as the answer.
Just to make things more complex, if we’re talk about surface area though, and we accept everything in your digestive (gastrointestinal) tract as one long “organ”, then we have another contender! 😉
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Hi convictions,
@ Hannah yes this is an interesting debate- I think ‘team liver’ for the largest an actual organ.
@Yashar, not so as the digestive system is made up of several distinct organs! The esophagus, stomach and pancreas are very different and the small intestine is actually made up of three distinct areas ‘ the duodenum jejunum and ileum’ – each with distinct cell populations which accomplish different tasks in digestion!
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