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Map of the Human Heart Originally appeared on the NOVA Web site Cut to the Heart. Let's get straight to the heart of the matter--the heart's job is to move blood. Day and night, the muscles of your heart contract and relax to pump blood throughout your body. When blood returns to the heart, it follows a complicated pathway. If you were in the bloodstream, you would follow the steps below one by one.
 Do right and left seem backward? That's because you're looking at an illustration of somebody else's heart. To think about how your own heart works, imagine wearing this illustration on your chest. Did you know that your heart beats over 100,000 times a day? Get "heart smart" by checking out these amazing heart facts. Map of the Human Heart | Amazing Heart Facts The Artificial Human | Pioneering Surgeon | Operation: Heart Transplant Resources | Transcript | Site Map | Electric Heart Home Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule About NOVA | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Jobs | Search | To print PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH © | Updated November 2000 |
Oxygen-poor blood (shown in
blue) flows from the body into the right atrium.
Blood flows through the right atrium into the right
ventricle.
The right ventricle pumps
the blood to the lungs, where the blood releases waste gases and
picks up oxygen.
The newly oxygen-rich blood
(shown in red) returns to the heart and enters the left
atrium.
Blood flows through the left
atrium into the left ventricle.
The left ventricle pumps the
oxygen-rich blood to all parts of the
body.