2025 A&P News Roundup [359]
Special Issue of The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates
End-of-Year Thank-You Message
A Note of Thanks as We Wrap Up 2025
As we close out another year of teaching, learning, and exploring this amazing field, I want to thank you for being part of this community. Whether you read every issue, skim for the gems, or dip in when you can, you make this space worth showing up for. A&P faculty carry a heavy load, yet here you are—staying curious, staying reflective, and supporting each other in big and small ways.
This newsletter started as a small experiment, but it has grown into something that connects hundreds of colleagues across campuses, states, and countries. Your comments, emails, shares, and quiet encouragement keep me going. Thank you for that.
Here’s to a new year of wonder, discovery, compassion, and maybe even a little mischief. I’m grateful you’re here.
—kevin
P.S. I’ll try to squeeze in one or two more regular issues before the end of the year.
Following are the most thought-provoking A&P stories of 2025 — discoveries, surprises, and teaching insights that shaped our year. These are the pieces your colleagues clicked on, shared, or told me changed how they think about the body and about teaching it.
Mind After Midnight
Research shows our brains shift into a different operating mode after midnight. Attention becomes threat-biased. Impulse control weakens. Reward circuits change. This may explain why late-night hours carry higher risks of substance misuse, accidents, and self-harm. It also reminds us how tightly mental health and circadian biology are linked.
A&P teaching tip:
Ask students to predict which hormone changes help explain risky late-night decisions. Then connect it to lab safety and study habits after dark.
Fat Is an Organ That Talks Back
New research clarifies that body fat—especially visceral fat—is more than storage. It is a signaling organ. Adipose tissue releases hormones and inflammatory mediators and even communicates via neural pathways. These messages affect bone, appetite, immune tone, and mood. Fat behaves differently depending on location and metabolic state.
A&P teaching tip:
Reframe adipose tissue as a dynamic communication hub. Ask students to concept-map its “conversations” with other systems.
Microbes and the 100-Year Life
Centenarians often share a gut microbiome that looks surprisingly youthful. High diversity. Stability. Plenty of beneficial bacteria that help regulate inflammation. Studies suggest that supporting the microbiome may be a key driver of healthy aging and lower frailty.
A&P teaching tip:
Tie this to digestive and immune topics. Show how microbial diversity influences inflammation, resilience, and long-term health.
“Butt Breathing” in Humans?
Inspired by fish that absorb oxygen through their guts, researchers tested rectal delivery of oxygen-rich fluids in adult volunteers. It was tolerable and delivered measurable oxygen. One day, it may serve as emergency support when ventilation is impossible.
A&P teaching tip:
Use this quirky story to spark discussion about gas exchange surfaces, evolution, and the role of physiology in medical innovation.
Humor Makes Better Scientists
A scientist shared how embracing her playful side strengthened her resilience and made her more creative in tough moments. Humor turned out to be a tool for problem solving and mentoring. Not a distraction.
A&P teaching tip:
Invite students or colleagues to reflect on how emotional authenticity helps learning and thinking.
Fascia: The Body’s Overlooked Web
Fascia is a continuous, responsive, and sensory-rich network. It shapes posture and movement and adapts to stress. Movement variety keeps fascia healthy. Inactivity shrinks its potential range. It’s not filler. It’s a system.
A&P teaching tip:
Have students trace how fascial restrictions in one area can affect movement in far-off regions.
Human Anatomy Is Less Standard Than We Thought
Researchers found dramatic differences in digestive anatomy among healthy donors. Cecum size varies widely. Small intestine length differs between sexes. Even organ shape and relationships shift. “Normal” is a range, not a model.
A&P teaching tip:
Use this during early lab sessions to emphasize anatomical variation and personalized medicine. Anatomic variation is a core concept that’s often overlooked in our teaching.
Hidden Smell Loss After COVID
Objective testing shows that many people underestimate or never notice their ongoing smell deficits. This matters because olfaction shapes safety, appetite, and cognition. Smell turns out to be a broader health marker than expected.
A&P teaching tip:
Add a quick smell-ID activity to your flipped-lecture active-learning time. Connect findings to olfactory epithelium recovery and neural pathways.
Rare Brain Cells Link Stress to Blood Flow and Dementia Risk
A rare neuron type—type-one nNOS—helps regulate blood flow and neural signaling. Chronic stress damages these cells, weakening neurovascular coupling. This may form a direct bridge between psychological stress and cognitive decline.
A&P teaching tip:
Use this to show how small populations of cells can influence large-scale brain health.
Pearls-on-a-String: A New Look at Axons
High-resolution imaging revealed axons that bulge and narrow in repeating segments. These shapes may optimize conduction and energy use. It challenges classic ideas of axon uniformity and brings fresh questions about neural architecture.
A&P teaching tip:
Add this to neuron-structure lessons to show how imaging reshapes “basic facts” found in textbooks.
A Whole New World of Tiny Beings
A global effort revealed vast new groups of ultra-small organisms. They blur boundaries between known microbial categories. Their metabolic quirks may shift how we think about early life and present-day ecosystems.
A&P teaching tip:
Use this to explore the limits of current organism-classification models and challenge our scientific humility.
Are the Internet and AI Changing Our Memory?
Studies show that when we rely heavily on AI during learning, brain connectivity during tasks decreases and recall suffers. But when people think first—then use AI—engagement stays high. The issue is not AI itself. It is how we use it.
A&P teaching tip:
Have students compare retention with and without AI support. It opens a valuable metacognition discussion.
Nobody Knows How to Teach AI (Yet)
Universities are racing to define “AI literacy,” but there is no shared definition or evidence base yet. Experts warn that premature policies may repeat earlier missteps in tech education. Students need critical thinking more than dashboards.
A&P teaching tip:
Use this to model uncertainty. Ask students what information they would need before trusting any new system.
Honorable Mentions
Histology Coloring Book
A free digital coloring tool that helps students review tissues in a low-pressure, high-engagement way.
A&P teaching tip:
Offer a brief coloring task before lab practicals to strengthen recognition. Because anxiety is probably the most significant factor in lab-practical performance, a short coloring session may calm nerves, too!
Organ Donation Near-Miss
A serious error was narrowly avoided when clinicians discovered a patient was misidentified as brain-dead. It highlights how system safeguards prevent tragedy.
A&P teaching tip:
Use this when discussing medical ethics and clinical decision-making—especially regarding the fundamental problems in definitively determining the point of death.
Share This With a Colleague
If you know someone who teaches A&P — full-time, part-time, adjunct, lab instructor, or anything in between — consider forwarding this roundup to them. A single share from you helps this community grow in meaningful ways. Many readers tell me they first discovered this newsletter because a colleague passed it along.
Your share might give someone a new idea, a teaching spark, or simply a reminder that they’re not alone in this work.
Forward it along. Spread the wonder. Help another A&P educator feel connected!
Source Issues for This 2025 Roundup
Items in this year-end collection were originally featured across several 2025 installments of The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates, including:
Issues 331, 336, 340, 355, 356, 357, and 358.
These issues offered the full reporting, images, commentary, and teaching tips that shaped this year’s most-read and most-shared stories.