Google Labs' Project "Body Browser" To Be Retired, Open Sourced

As it prepares for the closure of Google Labs, Google is shuttering, off-loading, and graduating the experimental projects housed there. These projects include a number of interesting educational apps: NGram Viewer, for example, and Android App Inventor (whose fate I chronicled here)

Another awesome educational project, Google Body Browser, had its fate revealed today. Google is retiring the project, but as with App Inventor, it is open-sourcing the code so that others will be able to create and run a searchable 3D viewer.

According to the Google Labs site, Google is "also working with our partner, Zygote Media Group, on an application called Zygote Body. This application will be free, available on the web and on Android, and will enable students, teachers, and others using Google Body to continue to have access to a human anatomy browser."

When I first wrote about Body Browser last year, I described it as "Google Earth for the human body." A tool that showcased the power of WebGL technology, Body Browser was a fabulous way to explore a 3D model of human anatomy, including the skeleton, muscular, circulatory, digestive and nervous systems.

There is at least one other education-related project in Google Labs whose fate is still unclear, namely Art Project. Another tool I've covered here, the fractal generator Julia Map will also be open sourced as Google Labs shuts its doors.