6.4 Gas Exchange
The first half of Crash Course:
Essential Biology 6.4 Gas Exchange (Core)
Stress-busting breathing exercises, from Health and Yoga. Yup, we’re IBDP and we need it.
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Resources
Gas Exchange animation from McGraw Hill- Breathing mechanism animation from Footprints Science
- Alveoli animation from Footprints Science
- Get Body Smart – Respiratory System tutorials
- KFU Respiratory system animation
- Respiratory system animation from http://teachhealthk-12.uthscsa.edu/
- NHS UK: Asthma animation
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Check out this amazing TEDMED Talk in which Shaf Keshavjee brings a breathing lung onto stage and explains how the process of transplantation works.
Early in the talk he refers to Charity Tilleman-Dick, an opera singer who can sing again after a double lung transplant!
i-Biology 
Hi Stephen,
Just found out that the mark scheme for a question about features of alveoli that adapt them to gas exchange says : “thin walls (do not accept membranes)”.
Thanks again for your useful resources.
Cristina
Thanks for the message, Cristina. Was that a recent paper?
Is it to distinguish between the ‘wall’ of the alveolus and the ‘membrane’ of the cells that make up the wall of the alveolus? Gas exchange would occur across the membranes of the cells that make up the wall. The membranes themselves would be of standard thickness, but the wall made up of the epithelial cells is thin because it is only one layer?
Thanks again,
Stephen