  The thermal modeling of biological systems has increasing importance in
developing more advanced, more precise techniques such as ultrasound surgery.
One of the primary barriers is the complexity of biological materials: the
geometrical, structural, and material properties vary in a wide range, and they
depend on many factors. Despite these difficulties, there is a tremendous
effort to develop a reliable and implementable thermal model. In the present
paper, we focus on the continuum modeling of heterogeneous materials with
biological origin. There are numerous examples in the literature for
non-Fourier thermal models. However, as we realized, they are associated with a
few common misconceptions. Therefore, we first aim to clarify the basic
concepts of non-Fourier thermal models. These concepts are demonstrated by
revisiting two experiments from the literature in which the Cattaneo-Vernotte
and the dual phase lag models are utilized. Our investigation revealed that
using these non-Fourier models is based on misinterpretations of the measured
data, and the seeming deviation from Fourier's law originates in the source
terms and boundary conditions.
