the.com/endocrine system
Your body's wifi network, broadcasting hormones instead of memes, slower but way more dramatic.
means The network of glands — thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, pituitary, and others — that release hormones straight into your bloodstream to regulate things like growth, metabolism, mood, and reproduction.
from Built from Greek 'endo-' (within) and 'krinein' (to separate or secrete) — literally 'secreting inward,' coined to distinguish these glands from ones like sweat or salivary glands that dump their output outward through ducts ('exocrine'). The term took shape in the early 20th century as scientists mapped how glands could release substances directly into blood rather than through a tube, right around the time 'hormone' itself was coined from Greek for 'to set in motion.'
- speed
- signals take minutes to hours, not milliseconds like nerves
- key glands
- pituitary gland bosses the other glands around
- range
- one gland's hormone can affect cells body-wide
- chaos factor
- puberty is this system hitting puberty itself