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the kidney. functions in waste removal and water/salt balance the funtional unit is the nephron there are about 1 million nephrons in each kidney each nephron has it's own blood supply (to pick up wastes and water) and its own twisted tubule to release the wastes
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the kidney functions in waste removal and water/salt balance the funtional unit is the nephron there are about 1 million nephrons in each kidney each nephron has it's own blood supply (to pick up wastes and water) and its own twisted tubule to release the wastes all 1 million of these tubules dump "urine" into collecting ducts, which lead into the ureter, which carries the waste to the bladder for release http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/
kidney structure from: K. Schmidt-Nielsen Animal Physiology (1997).
the kidney functions in waste removal and water/salt balance the funtional unit is the nephron there are about 1 million nephrons in each kidney each nephron has it's own blood supply (to pick up wastes and water) and its own twisted tubule to release the wastes all 1 million of these tubules dump "urine" into collecting ducts, which lead into the ureter, which carries the waste to the bladder for release http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/
every day, about 200 quarts of blood pass through the human kidneys the average human adult has about 5 quarts of blood therefore, our entire blood supply passes through the kidneys about 40 times per day http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/
proper functioning of the kidney depends on osmosis, diffusion and active transport diffusion: movement of molecules from high concentration to low concentration to establish equilibrium (e.g. blue color dye in water) osmosis: a special case of diffusion where a molecule is prevented from crossing a barrier (like a cell membrane), so the water crosses the other way to dilute the molecule active transport: a molecule moves from low concentration to high concentration. does this cost energy? John R. McCandless, Jr.
active transport and diffusion/osmosis ("passive transport") in the human nephron Campbell & Reece (2002) Biology, 6th ed. Fig. 44.23
there are three main ways that we lose water... 1. peeing 2. sweating 3. breathing http://www.asahi.com/sports/ soccer/wcup/record/ranking.html www.waywest.de/muleshoe/ mule-shoe.htm
1. the human kidney can only get rid of a certain amount of salt. If you ate 20 bags of salty potato chips per day, then where would that salt end up and why? 1,082.5 lbs www.state.oh.us/agr/MKTS-aboutchips-2003.htm
2. if the concentration of salt in the blood gets too high, that leads to high blood pressure. Why? www.hypertensionhelp.com/
3. what are the water problems that marine mammals have to deal with by living in salt water? www.borneodiverskl.com/images/background/killer-whale.jpg
4. why is this elephant seal not losing all it's water? Dale Bewley
http://eco.goo.ne.jp/wnn-z/files/data/sea/image/sirokuji.jpg http://www.ecoceanos.cl/ballenas/cachalote.jpg http://e-info.org.tw/topic/whale/images-kuo/Tursiops-truncatus.jpg http://www.fslmmc.org/species_txt.html Daniel P. Costa, UCSC http://personal5.iddeo.es/erimar/focas.htm