Introduction to the Skeleton

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An illustrated introduction to the human skeleton. The skeleton provides the structural framework for the body, enabling movement, storing minerals, protecting our organs, bearing our body weight, and distributing forces appropriately—it is ‘twice as tough as granite for withstanding compression forces, 4 times more resilient than concrete in standing up to stretching, about 5 times as light as steel' (Werth 2004)! Within its spongy interiors it contains the mechanisms for storing and creating blood cells, and it is continually breaking down and renewing itself.