The laryngeal nerve's haphazard course through the body
A favourite example, ever since it was pointed out to me by Professor J. D. Currey when he tutored me as an undergraduate, is the recurrent laryngeal nerve.* It is a branch of one of the cranial nerves, those nerves that lead directly from the brain rather than from the spinal cord. One of the cranial nerves, the vagus (the name means 'wandering' and it is apt), has various branches, two of which go to the heart, and two on each side to the larynx (voice box in mammals). On each side of the neck, one of the branches of the laryngeal nerve goes straight to the larynx, following a direct route such as a designer might have chosen. The other one goes to the larynx via an astonishing detour. It dives right down into the chest, loops around one of the main arteries leaving the heart (a different artery on the left and right sides, but the principle is the same), and then heads back up the neck to its destination.
Notes:
Another example of poor biological design.
Folksonomies: evolution intelligent design
Taxonomies:
/health and fitness/disease (0.576510)
/health and fitness/disease/cancer (0.502117)
/style and fashion/fashion designers (0.376413)
Keywords:
laryngeal nerve (0.990627 (negative:-0.731805)), recurrent laryngeal nerve.* (0.938551 (negative:-0.321402)), J. D. Currey (0.870704 (neutral:0.000000)), poor biological design (0.840223 (negative:-0.924498)), cranial nerves (0.757867 (negative:-0.515652)), haphazard course (0.680544 (negative:-0.924498)), favourite example (0.668812 (positive:0.616436)), larynx (0.663444 (negative:-0.287754)), spinal cord (0.630340 (negative:-0.683801)), various branches (0.625333 (neutral:0.000000)), main arteries (0.616339 (negative:-0.319666)), different artery (0.615574 (neutral:0.000000)), voice box (0.604220 (neutral:0.000000)), right sides (0.597570 (neutral:0.000000)), neck (0.505391 (negative:-0.464187)), heart (0.466830 (negative:-0.319666)), chest (0.447120 (neutral:0.000000)), principle (0.443599 (neutral:0.000000)), mammals (0.443465 (neutral:0.000000)), destination (0.441920 (negative:-0.536330)), body (0.440773 (negative:-0.924498)), Professor (0.440037 (neutral:0.000000)), route (0.438114 (neutral:0.000000)), undergraduate (0.437562 (neutral:0.000000))
Entities:
recurrent laryngeal nerve.*:Anatomy (0.938918 (negative:-0.321402)), Professor J. D. Currey:Person (0.871737 (neutral:0.000000)), spinal cord:FieldTerminology (0.524457 (negative:-0.683801))
Concepts:
Cranial nerves (0.955865): dbpedia | opencyc
Vagus nerve (0.635176): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Nerve (0.621579): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Heart (0.615123): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Artery (0.542129): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Nucleus ambiguus (0.534600): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Solitary nucleus (0.502023): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Accessory nerve (0.461529): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
