Saturday, November 9, 2013

Liver Trivia

All vertebrates have a liver.  Technically you might not be able to call someone “lily-livered” if they are spineless – check for the presence of a liver first. Don’t call them gutless until you are sure they have a digestive tract. Or just stick with “coward.”
The liver regenerates. This means that your liver is making new cells. I don’t know why that feature was overlooked on my face. It seems entirely reasonable that a new liver would like to have matching eyelids.
A mere quarter of a liver can grow to a full size liver, a process known as compensatory growth. If all organs could do this, then things might have been better for John Wayne Bobbitt if Lorena had left 25% of John’s famous lost member intact.
The liver does not have any nerve endings. This means you could get stabbed in the liver and your liver would not complain about it while you are dying.
Humans cannot live without a liver, so no liver, no liver.
The liver is not trivial.

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