The Interminable Bone Chronicle

The skeletal system build the framework of the body, protects our internal organs, and helps us move around. Our skeleton is always regrowing and rebuilding itself. We have a new skeleton about every ten years. Osteoclasts are cells that break down the bone matrix crested by osteoids. Osteoblasts create ossification centers that create bone from other tissues.
Hormonal controls in the body decide when you start and stop growing.  When bones grow, they form cartilage on the ends of the bones that harden and become bone over time. If something is messed up in the hormone signal then you would grow forever or stop growing too soon.  Wolff's Law states that bones grow or remodel in response to forces or demands placed upon it.  For example, bones would grow differently in space than they do under the strain of Earth's gravity.  Bones will form to match the duties they perform, so if you are in space and unable to walk around you'll lose bone mass.
But what happens when bones break?  Bone fractures are classified by the completeness of the break, the position of the bone after the fracture, and the orientation of the bone to the long axis.  Cominuted breaks are fragmented breaks.  The break of the bone looks kind of frayed and splintered.  Compression breaks are usually found in the vertebra.  The bones are kind of smashed together looking, compressed on top of each other.  Spiral breaks happen when the bone has been twisted, this usually happens in contact sports.  epiphyseal breaks are breaks in the cartilage and take the longest time to heal.  A depressed break is a break that has been pressed inward.  Greenstick breaks don't go completely through the whole bone and are usually only seen in children.  When a bone breaks the torn blood vessels hemorage and blood clots around the break, causing the area to swell.  This is called hematoma formation.  The bone needs to be set when the fibrocarilaginous callus forms, osteoblasts and fibroblasts move to the area of the fracture and begin reconstructing the bone.  The bone must be set so that it can be properly reconstruted.  Capillaries grow into the tissue and start cleaning out any debris inside the break.  Finally, the callus begins to harden and creates a firm union between the two ends of the bone.  The whole process takes 2-3 months.
In class we had a wee contest for the skeletal structure.  We split into groups of five and began memorizing bones.  I took the thoracic and pelvic region of the skeleton.  In the race I correctly placed 55 labels on my area of the skeleton.  I didn't get to place two of my labels but that's only because 4 minutes isn't enough time to figure out how to place labels comfortable and securely on the rib cage of a plastic skeleton.  Altogether my team placed 181 labels, meaning we totally pwned the other groups.  The race was fun and we gained eternal glory!
And that concludes the skelly-ton!