We're not going to run out of new anatomy anytime soon
Human anatomy is far less “finished” than many assume, with evidence that major structures, variations, and functions remain poorly mapped or even undiscovered. Commenters highlight how limited funding, siloed medical roles, and historical biases—especially around female anatomy—have left big gaps in basic knowledge, despite astonishing biological complexity that can’t be reduced to DNA alone. Several suggest that new imaging technologies, large-scale digital atlases, and better-funded, systematic anatomical surveys could reveal far more about how bodies are actually built and vary from person to person.
DNA, Cell Context, and Developmental Information
- Multiple commenters question the idea that “it’s all encoded in DNA,” stressing:
- The zygote’s pre-existing structure, maternal environment, and epigenetic factors.
- Maternal-effect molecules (mRNA, proteins) in the egg affecting early development.
- Cell-level “navigation” guided by bioelectric fields or chemical gradients.
- Some argue you cannot “clean build” a human from DNA alone:
- Need an existing cell as “compiler” and maternal physiology as part of the “program.”
- DNA may describe transformations of existing cellular structures, not how to build them from scratch.
- Others compare DNA to compressed code, package manifests, or bindings to shared protein “libraries,” not a full blueprint.
Anatomical Knowledge Gaps and Incentives
- Surprise that essentially no one has a full-time job “just discovering anatomy.”
- Structural discovery is often a byproduct of surgery, imaging, or pathology, not a central goal.
- Funding and career incentives reward work that fits into existing frameworks, not “we found a weird new thing with unknown function.”
- Complaints that big-budget physics gets funding, while paleontology, anatomy, and fossil prep are chronically underfunded.
Bias, Neglected Regions, and Historical Oversights
- Several note prudishness/sexism and historical religious pressures as reasons for neglected female anatomy and reproductive structures.
- Examples: late appreciation of clitoral complexity, debate over the G-spot, reevaluation of “vestigial” organs like the appendix and thymus.
- Others caution that current perspectives are also biased; “bias” itself isn’t inherently bad but shapes what gets studied.
Variability and the Scale of the Problem
- Reports that major nerves (e.g., vagus) show extreme individual variability in branching and routing.
- Suggestion that gross anatomy is far from “finished” and clinical use requires detailed variation mapping across many individuals.
Tools, Imaging, and AI
- Suggestions that better tools, not just more surgeons/cadavers, are needed:
- High-resolution whole-body imaging datasets shared openly.
- Cheap, open ultrasound hardware and improved in vivo imaging.
- Knife-edge scanning microscopes and whole-organism 3D atlases.
- Hopes that AI could help integrate and interpret massive anatomical datasets, though details remain unclear.