I was inspired by a fellow blogger to do a little post on “dissections”.  I decided that I’d try my hand at becoming a biologist.  I once dissected a fish in my 8th grade science class, but now I’ve taken my skills to a whole different level.  To start out I searched around my house to find some specimens for the operation.  Today we will be looking at the skins and innards of a toy train, a My Little Pony, and toothpaste.  First up, the toy train:  Megan got this on a field trip at the Beijing, bullet train station.  It served it’s purpose as a toy and now it has become a perfect patient.

Next is a more “life like” specimen for our dissection. Of all the delicate instruments and tools I used during the process, a small paper razor was the most helpful. As expected, dissections are far from tidy. Sadly, it was my blood, not the pony’s, which was spilled when my razor accidentally slipped. However, for the advancement of Science I think little of it! Though my hypotheses completely missed the mark, I still enjoyed the dissection.

Finally comes the toothpaste, my personal favorite. It never occurred to me that I had, in fact, never seen the inside of a toothpaste tube before this experiment- it was quite an exciting experience. At the local grocery store I picked up the Chinese favorite, green-tea-flavored toothpaste, as well as the American classic, minty Crest. To avoid stickiness I froze them before dissection, however the green tea toothpaste was more gel-like in nature, which was hard to work with. However, I think as a whole it was a successful dissection!