Engineering

Boosting the 'brains' of computers with less wasted energy

Many internal components used in today's computers reach temperatures that are hot enough to cook a Thanksgiving meal. The heat produced by the computations can easily burn human skin and tissue – and much of the heat is ...

Computer Sciences

Recognizing disease using less data

As artificial intelligence systems learn to better recognize and classify images, they are becoming highly-reliable at diagnosing diseases, such as skin cancer, from medical images. But as good as they are at detecting patterns, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Skin patch biomarker sensor that doesn't need batteries

An international team of researchers has developed a skin patch that serves as a biomarker sensor—one that does not need batteries. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances,, the group describes the new ...

Robotics

Electronic glove gives robots a sense of touch

Stanford engineers have developed an electronic glove containing sensors that could one day give robotic hands the sort of dexterity that humans take for granted.

Engineering

Electronic skin points the way north

While birds naturally perceive the Earth's magnetic field and use it for orientation, humans do not share this ability—at least, until now. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany have ...

Engineering

Skin hardness to estimate better human thermal status

Under the same temperature and humidity, human thermal status may vary due to individual body constitution and climatic environment. A KAIST research team previously developed a wearable sweat rate sensor for human thermal ...

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Skin

The skin is the outer covering of the body. In humans, it is the largest organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of mesodermal tissues, and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. Skin of a different nature exists in amphibians, reptiles, birds. Human skin is not unlike that of most other mammals except that it is not protected by a pelt and appears hairless though in fact nearly all human skin is covered with hair follicles. The adjective cutaneous literally means "of the skin" (from Latin cutis, skin).

Because it interfaces with the environment, skin plays a key role in protecting (the body) against pathogens and excessive water loss. Its other functions are insulation, temperature regulation, sensation, synthesis of vitamin D, and the protection of vitamin B folates. Severely damaged skin will try to heal by forming scar tissue. This is often discolored and depigmented.

In humans, skin pigmentation varies among populations, and skin type can range from dry to oily. Such skin variety provides a rich and diverse habit for bacteria which number roughly a 1000 species from 19 phyla.

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA