The Digestive Organs

Six parts on the organs around the gut rather than the tube itself. It opens on the whole digestive system in one figure, so every later part has somewhere to sit. Then the liver, which does several hundred jobs and is the only organ that regrows, with a zoom into one lobule to see the repeating unit it is built from. Two parts take the pancreas from the front and in cross-section, an organ leading a double life: it makes the enzymes that break food down and the hormones that control what happens to the sugar afterwards. The last is the gallbladder, which makes nothing at all and simply stores bile until a meal with fat in it arrives.

46 min to complete
Beginner level
6 Parts

CodePLU Goal

Upgrading Human Mental Models

Learn how to think in Workflows

Follow a mouthful of food on its journey through nine metres of tube — chewed, swallowed, churned, absorbed and finally sent out — and meet every organ that works on it along the way
Beginner 8 min Part 1

What Are the Main Parts of Your Digestive System?

Your digestive system is a long tube, plus helper organs, that turns food into fuel your body can absorb. Label the mouth, esophagus, stomach, liver, small intestine and large intestine, and follow food's journey from the first bite to the end — in an interactive playground.

Meet the body's biggest internal organ and its little green sidekick — the chemical factory that cleans your blood, the store of bile beside it, and the two blood supplies that feed it
Beginner 8 min Part 2

What Are the Parts of Your Liver and Gallbladder?

The liver is the body's largest internal organ and busiest chemical factory. Label the liver, gallbladder, bile duct, portal vein and hepatic artery, and learn how the liver makes bile, cleans your blood, and uniquely gets blood from two sources — in an interactive playground.

Zoom in past the whole organ to a single tiny liver unit — a lobule — and watch blood trickle past rows of worker cells that clean it and make bile as it flows through
Beginner 8 min Part 3

How Does the Liver Work, Up Close?

The liver is built from thousands of tiny repeating units called lobules. Zoom into one and label the liver cells, sinusoid, central vein, portal vein, hepatic artery and bile duct, and see how blood flows slowly past the worker cells to be cleaned — in an interactive playground.

Meet the quiet organ behind your stomach that does two completely different jobs at once — making the juice that digests your food, and the insulin that controls your blood sugar
Beginner 8 min Part 4

What Are the Parts of Your Pancreas?

The pancreas is a soft gland behind the stomach that both digests your food and controls your blood sugar. Label its head, body, tail, pancreatic duct and lobules, and learn how this two-in-one gland works — in an interactive playground.

Trace the branching pipework inside the pancreas that gathers digestive juice from the whole gland and pipes it to the gut — meeting the liver's bile duct at a single, fateful exit
Beginner 7 min Part 5

How Does the Pancreas Deliver Its Juice?

The pancreas collects its digestive juice through a branching duct, like a river gathering tributaries, and pipes it to the gut — where it meets the bile duct. Label the pancreatic duct, a branch, the bile duct, the head and the tail, and see how the juice is delivered, in an interactive playground.

Meet the little pear-shaped bag under your liver that stores bile between meals and squeezes it out when you eat — and see where gallstones cause their trouble
Beginner 7 min Part 6

What Are the Parts of Your Gallbladder?

The gallbladder is a small pear-shaped sac that stores and concentrates the liver's bile. Label its fundus, body, neck and cystic duct, and learn how it holds bile between meals and releases it when you eat — and why gallstones cause pain — in an interactive playground.