Health and medicine: Where do our nails and hair come from?

Health and medicine

The medical world can be a confusing place. Patients, their families, and even students entering health fields might feel overwhelmed by the large vocabularies and complicated explanations. We hope to make understanding the medical world a bit easier. Look around! These videos do not provide medical advice and are for informational purposes only. The videos are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have read or seen in any Khan Academy video.

Integumentary system introduction

There is really more than meets the eye with skin. Yes, it does make us look nicer than a bag of bones, muscles, and organs. But it also serves other important purposes which range from guarding the body against infection to sensation to allowing for metabolism of vitamin D. We will explore the structure and function of skin from the macroscopic to the microscopic level in this tutorial.

Topic: Science

Learn about all the sciences, from physics, chemistry and biology, to cosmology and astronomy, across hundreds of videos, articles and practice questions.