The human body is fascinating and the Essential Anatomy series of apps are excellent 3D tools for educators, students and general medical enthusiasts to explore the body without actually butchering one to pieces.

The closest thing to dissection

Essential Anatomy 4 has been released specifically for iOS and OS X to improved integration with iCloud and support for Yosemite. Compared to the previous version, it also adds more detail and ease of use to the app.

Essential Anatomy 3 isn't a revolution in the series of Essential Anatomy apps but it adds more detail and ease of use to the app. The most impressive thing about Essential Anatomy 3 is the level of detail and the 3D models that you can manipulate and explore. Essential Anatomy 3 leaves no organ or tendon uncovered - the level of detail is as good as anything you'd find in a medical Encyclopedia.

For medical student in particular, Essential Anatomy is a superb reference tool. The 3D models allow you to view and examine parts of the human body from any angle giving incredible detail that you'd normally only be able to experience via dissection.

If you need to find a specific bone, organ or muscle, you can simply search by body part and Essential Anatomy will highlight exactly where they are with helpful descriptions of each part does. The only thing lacking are animations of the organs and muscles in action.

Easy to examine the body in detail

Essential Anatomy is very easy to use. The Search function is what you'll need the most if you're studying although you can have a lot of fun simply exploring and rotating the body. You can strip away layers of muscle and tissue to reveal what's under, which gives you a much better idea of how the body works rather than just reading it in a book.

Other than that, there's a Bookmark tool if you just want to save specific parts you want to return to later and you can isolate the body view by part type (e.g. muscle, arteries, veins etc).

A brilliant learning aid

Essential Anatomy is the closest thing you'll get to dissection - an essential tool for medical students and an engaging way to learn about how the body works.