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MEAN BODY MACHINE
SUFFERING SCIENTISTS
HALL OF FAME: John Hunter
Lived: 1728–1793
Nationality: Scottish
Claim to Fame: Pioneering anatomical research – founder of the Hunterian Museum
Don’t mention: Arguing.
John Hunter, one of the leading surgeons of the 18th century, began as a troublesome, rebellious boy, with no interest in his education, went on to become a skilled surgeon, established a medical school, and made many important discoveries to do with anatomy. He is also known as the founder of the Hunterian Museum, which now belongs to the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and contains over 50,000 specimens – including an impressive array of stuffed animals, pickled embryos, mutated bodies and other anatomical oddities. Among these is the skeleton of Charles O’Brien, ‘The Irish Giant’, who stood 8 feet and 4 inches tall, and whose body Hunter was determined to lay hands on, to dissect after his death. O’Brien was not keen, and did everything he could to prevent this from happening.
O’Brien was hugely popular on the entertainment circuit, not just because of his extaordinary size, but also for his charm as a storyteller. He made enough money to be able to pay some fishermen £500 – a fortune in those days – to tip his coffin, weighted with lead, into the sea, to prevent Hunter from getting at him.
Hunter’s interest in the giant turned into an obsession, and for years, he stalked the unfortunate man. Legend has it that he even paid a boy to follow O’Brien around with a special pot, which would be used to boil the flesh off the big man’s bones the minute he had taken his last breath. But it may well be that the story has been exagggerated over the years, as he would have needed to be pretty big or strong to carry around a pot that big
In those days, there was a shortage of people offering their bodies for research and medical training – one reason being that in the 18th century, many believed that in order to go to heaven, the body must remain intact after death – and only the corpses of criminals and people who had committed suicide were allowed to be used. Since it wasn’t easy to find volunteers to do themselves in for the sake of research, there was plenty of work for body snatchers, and John Hunter was a regular client. Even though this was illegal, the authorities usually turned a blind eye to it, or gave lenient sentences to people who were caught. O’Brien failed in his wish, Hunter’s snatchers got him in the end, and his massive skeleton can still be seen in the high-ceilinged museum
John Hunter was a passionate man, notorious for using strong language, whatever the company he was in, and not afraid to put himself in danger. On one occasion he wrestled with a bull, and another time, he bravely led a pair of leopards back to their den, after they had got loose.
He had suffered from lung trouble for many years – as a result of the putrid air he breated in the dissecting rooms – and his life came to an abrupt end, when, during an argument, he had a fit and died.
HALL OF FAME: Aron Ralston
Lived: 1975 – present
Nationality: American
Claim to Fame: Amputating his own arm – without an anaesthetic
Don’t mention: Arms
Aron Ralston is a scientist who can definintely be said to have suffered. In fact, he suffered more than he was a scientist, since he gave up mechanical engineering (in which he won a double major at Carnegie Mellon University in America) for a life in the great outdoors. And it was there that he definitely suffered the most.
His story is a disarming one. While climbing in Bluejohn Canyon in Utah, USA, an 800lb boulder trapped his hand, pinning him to the rock face. After six days of struggling to get free, with no food, and nothing but his own urine to drink, Aron decided that he had to take drastic action. He snapped the bones in his lower arm, then used the blade of a multitool (a kind of penknife with extra tools such as pliers and screwdrivers) to cut through the soft tissue in his wrist. He finished off by tearing away the tendons with the pliers. Ow!
Aron’s decision was brave, but he knew that it offered his only chance of survival. By the time he got to work, there was no sensation left in his hand. That’s all right then, you might think? Wrong. His wrist was extremely painful where the boulder was resting on it. Really painful. He described it like this: ‘When I amputated, I felt every bit of it. It hurt to break the bone, and it certainly hurt to cut the nerve. But cutting the muscle was not as bad. Overall, it was a hundred times worse than any pain I’ve felt before. It recalibrated what I’d understood pain to be. At the same time, it was also the most beautiful thing I've ever felt.’ He also said about climbing: ‘Never go out alone without telling someone where you are going.’
He could have added: ‘But if you do, make sure you bring a bone saw and a sewing kit.’
HALL OF FAME
Abu al-Qasim
Lived: 936 –1013
Nationality: Spanish-Ansari
Claim to fame: Islam’s greatest mediaeval surgeon
Don’t mention: the different names he is known by – Abulcases, Albucasis, Bulcasis, Bulcasim, Bulcari, Alzahawi, Ezzahrawi, Zahravius, Alcarani, Alsarani, Aicaravi, Alcaravius, Alsahrawi
Also known in the West as Abulcasis – as well as quite a few other names besides – Abu al-Quasim is famous to this day for his pioneering work in advancing surgery and general medicine, including compiling a 30-volume medical encyclopaedia, called Al-Tasrif. Ezzahrawi (or Zahravius or Alcaravius) continued to influence medical scholars for 500 years after his death, and was referred to as: ‘without doubt the chief of all surgeons’ (another name to add to the list – apparently, it used to take his mum nearly 10 minutes just to call him in for his tea.) (Enough funny name jokes. Ed). An expert in dentistry, he carried out pioneering research in techniques for straightening crooked teeth, and for making and fitting false teeth.
Descended from the Ansar Arab tribe, al-Qasim was born in which at that time was part of the great Islamic empire. Not much personal information is known about him, since El Zahrawi, the city near Cordoba in Spain where he is believed to have been born, was destroyed in a war. But with that much work to do, he probabably didn’t have much time for a private life anyway.
In those days, there were large numbers of quacks and fake doctors taking advantage of sick people, and profiting from people’s ignorance. (We can only hope that when the quacks’ turn came to be ill, they were on the receiving end of dodgy advice too!) Abu al-Qasim was firmly against these kinds of practices, and was determined that doctors should follow strict rules. Unusually for those times, he also showed great compassion towards his patients and students – whom he referred to as ‘my children’, and believed that doctors should treat all patients with equal respect, no matter how important or rich they were.
In those times, when anaesthetics were limited, and the link between cleanliness and infection was unknown, El Zahrawi laid the foundations for the medical practices that make life so much easier for people in the developed world today.
WEIRD AND WACKY
COMPETITIVE EATING
One of the world’s more unusual sports is competitive eating. It began as as bit of a laugh in 1916, and has become very popular in recent times – especially in countries where food is not scarce.
The competitors – often referred to as ‘gurgitators’ – regard themselves as athletes, and undergo training in much the same way as other kinds of sports people. But instead of using food in their work-outs, the ‘athletes’ drink large amounts of water to get their stomachs get used to stretching when needed and going back to normal size the rest of the time – rather like a pelican’s beak. Surpridingly, most competitive eaters are not obese. This is because extra fat around the waist acts as a kind of corset, and restricts the stomach’s elasticity.
Contestants are not disqualified if they vomit – just as long as none of the puke leaves the mouth…
Takeru Kobayashi is a legend among competitive eaters. In 12 minutes flat, the 28-year-old from Japan managed to stuff down 533/4 hot dogs at the 2006 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest – the highlight of the competitive eating calendar, which takes place on Coney Island, New Yor k, every 4th of July. This brought Takeru his sixth victory, and another record to add to his impressive list. In the same year, he also broke the world hamurger eating record, when he demolished 97 – with buns, of course. In fact, Takeru has won so many records, for speed and volume, that it would be simpler just to mention the times that he has been beaten – just once, as it happens, when he was out-noshed by a Kodiak bear. Takeru, who weighs under 10 stone, is noted for the style and grace with which he puts away his food.
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A popular figure in the competitive eating world is Crazy Legs Conti, who is more noted for his personality than for winning competitions. Conti launched a documentary about himself by eating his way out of an eight-foot box of popcorn, earning himself the nickname ‘The Houdini of Cusini’.
PEARL DIVERS
Until the 1970s, pearl divers in the Tuamotu islands in French Polynesia, were able to plunge to 150 feet, and hold their breath for as much as three minutes, to bring back the precious minerals from the ocean bed.
But the work was dangerous and poorly paid, and since the invention of scuba breathing equipment, not many people are still doing it. If you go to Japan’s Mikimoto Pearl Island, though, you can still see a group of women still breath-hold diving trade, as a tourist attraction. Many of these, known as ama, are survivors from the old days of pearl diving, including a woman of over 80. Don’t tell your granny about this – it might give her ideas
You might keep her away from free diving too. This is an extreme sport that involves holding your breath and shooting down under the water on a kind of T-shaped sledge, loaded with heavy lead weights, and coming up again a few minutes later with the aid of special air bags. During the dive, the intense pressure of the water squeezes the diver’s lungs to the size of small potatoes.
The legendary Cuban free diver Francisco Ferreras Rodriguez, known as ‘Pipin’, knows all about that. He broke the 2003 world free diving record in Los Cabos Bay, in Mexico, when he shot down to 558 feet – the length of three football fields – and was back in two minutes and 40 seconds.
Unfortunately, things did not go so well for Pipin’s wife, Audrey Mestre, who lost her life while attempting to reach 561 feet near the Dominican Republic, in October 2002. When her lift balloon failed to work properly, she was forced to stay under for more than eight and a half minutes.
Free diving is not something you should attempt at home. Holding your breath is dangerous, and holding someone else’s is unhygeinic.
ARCTIC SWIMMERS
As soon as Lewis Gordon Pugh even thinks about diving into cold water, his body temperature rises so fast and so dramatically that he can survive in salt water at 0°C (32F). That’s freezing point in fresh water.
This amazing ability is known as anticipatory thermogenesis. Most healthy humans can get used to swimming in cold water if they take time over it. Those crazy old people you sometimes see bobbing about in the sea during the winter will have become accustomed to it by going in each day in the summer, and not giving it up as the water gradually gets colder. This way the body only needs to adjust by small amounts. Because the system knows what to expect, it automatically prepares for the cold by warming up. So if you fell into cold water when you weren’t ready, it would feel colder at first than if you knew what was coming.
What makes Lewis Gordon Pugh miraculous is that he was born with the ability to heat up massively in an instant. It has enabled him to complete long-distance swims in every ocean in the world, wearing nothing more than a swimming costume, a cap and goggles.
According to Pugh, the worst thing that has happened in this challenge has not been the cold, but losing his electronic shark shield over the side of his companion boat when swimming in Australia. Luckily, there were no sharks around – or maybe the water was just too nippy for them.
FIRE WALKING
Scientists do not often admit to being baffled. But fire walking is one thing that seems to have them beat.
No-one has properly proved how it happens, but there is no doubt that ordinary people – not fakirs or quacks – who have never done anything of the sort before, often make their way across a bed of hot coals and come away completely unharmed. Meanwhile, there are others who try it, and end up in hospital.
Coal beds range in heat between 1,200°F and 1,500°F, and occasionally get up to as much as 2,200°F. If you were exposed to this kind of heat in any other situation, even for a moment, you would expect third-degree burns and charring through every layer of the skin. This has often happened when people have accidentally stepped on glowing coals. Yet many people, doing it deliberately, come away with no injury at allOne theory about how this happens is that if the walkers believe strongly enough, the power of the mind over the body can prevent their feet from getting burned. Evidence for this is that when people have accidentally stepped on glowing coals, their injuries have been severe enough to need skin grafts..
A more practical idea is that coal is a poor conductor of heat, so that even though the coals are burning, they do not transfer heat as well as a metal such as steel. To try out this theory, a physicist by the name of Bernard Leikind strapped a large steak to each of his feet and walked across a bed of hot coals without any damage to the steaks. He then placed a metal grill in the coals, let it heat up, and placed the steaks on the grill. They were vey quickly seared, which neatly proved his theory – or so he thought, until a group of onlookers walked across the grill together. Their combined weight bent the softened metal, but none of them was harmed. Leikind went back to the drawing board. He also went in search of new forms of fancy footwear.
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FAST FOOD
The morning before Australian Mathew Henshaw tackled the world sword-swallowing record, he was careful not to eat any breakfast. But with 14 swords about to go down his throat, each measuring 60cm (2ft) long and weighing 41/2 kilos together, he needed all the space he could spare. According to Henshaw: ‘If you do something dangerous and survive they call you a hero. But if you do something dangerous and get hurt they call you a stupid idiot.’ Henshaw’s record-breaker took only three and a half seconds, but he admitted it didn’t feel great. ‘Swallowing four-and-a-half kilos of solid steel is not something I plan to do on a regular basis,’ he said. ‘It’s quite a strain and I have reached the limit of insanity. Thirty years before, a circus performer in America was not so lucky. In an attempt to down 13 swords at once, he choked to death.
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HIGHER CAR
Englishman John Evans knows all about holding up cars – with his head. Evans, who is two metres tall (6’6”), and has a neck measurement of 21cm (24”) holds a number of world records – 30 in all – for balancing things on his head. These include a number of heavy things, including bricks, wheelie bins, boats, milk crates, people and a Mini car, which weighed 159.6 kg (352 lb), and which he managed to balance on his head for 33 seconds.
ARTICLES:
Smart Materials
Mean Body Machine
Nuclear Nasties
Partwork series for Eaglemoss Publications Ltd
NUCLEAR NASTIES
SPLITTING THE ATOM
FACT FILE:
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
MIGHTY ATOMS
All matter is made up of particles called atoms.
Atoms are made of three smaller types of particles: electrons, protons and neutrons.
A diagram of an atom looks rather like an egg. The electrons orbit round the outside, making the shell, with the protons and neutrons inside, like the yolk – called the ‘nucleus’ of the atom.
All atoms have an equal number of protons and electrons, and their oppposite charges make them attract one another and hold the atom together.
Electrons have a negative electrical charge (-), and the protons have a positive charge (+). Neutrons, have no charge of any kind.
The presence of neutrons holds the nucleus together. If they were not there, the protons, being of the same charge, would repel one another – like when you try to put the opposite poles of a magnet together.
Protons, being of the same charge, would repel one another if the neutrons were not there to bind the nucleus.
The atoms of different types of elements – pure, unmixed chemicals – have different numbers of protons. This is what makes one element different from another.
Hydrogen is the lightest element, with atoms containing only one proton.
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ENERGY MATTERS.
e = mc2
Albert Einstein is regarded by everyone who knows what’s what as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. In 1905, he wrote a paper known as his Special Theory of Relativity, which completely changed the way in which physics was viewed, and suggested that time is as much a part of matter as the physical particles are.
He spent a lot of time working things out, and came to the conclusion that everything in the universe is made from energy, and that matter and energy are actually the same thing. He worked out a formula to describe this, and boiled it down from pages and pages of calculations to the following formula: e = mc2. This is, without doubt, the most famous formula in the universe. Doesn’t look like much to show for after such complicated sums, though, does it?
This is what it actually means:
e stands for Energy.
= means that it is equal to
m stands for mass, which means the amount of
something.
SHOCKING SCIENCE
NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION
BODY COPY
One of the most pressing problems in the modern world is how to generate energy for transport and industry. Burning ‘hydrocarbons’ such as oil and coal has done well for us for nearly 200 years, but they cause serious pollution, and supplies will not last for ever.
So, in the race to find cheaper and cleaner ways to produce energy that won’t run out, nuclear power has been in the front line for some time. It has a lot going for it in many ways, and it also has its bad points.
GOOD AND BAD THINGS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER
Many people are strongly against nuclear power, while others think it’s a good solution to some of our energy problems. Obviously, both sides can’t be wrong, but both sides can’t be right either. So here are some facts:
GOOD THINGS
Nuclear energy is clean, and doesn’t belch out toxic fumes, or fill the atmosphere with greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide or nitrogen oxides, which cause global warming and damage the planet.
The cost of fuel is low and it generates large amounts of power.
Nuclear fuel is compact and efficient, so a little goes a long way – when powering ships and submarines, energy is not wasted in carrying heavy tanks.
BAD THINGS
Nuclear power produces dangerous radioactive waste material that remains live for thousands of years.
Building power stations, mining, transportation and waste storage use large amounts of oil and coal, so, although nuclear power itself does not contribute to global warning, the processes around it do.
So far there is no really safe way to store nuclear waste for ever. In some power stations it is kept in tanks that have to be cooled continuously, and in others it is kept underground. But it takes thousands of years before the waste material stops being radioactive, so although it may be safe in our lifetime, we could be leaving a problem for future generations.
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FUSION AND FISSION
There are two ways to generate electricity by nuclear reaction: fission and fusion.
FISSION
A nuclear reactor is powered by uranium cakes, which are loaded into long carborundum rods – the same stuff that we call the ‘lead’ in pencils. This is to contain the reaction so that it does not explode freely, or it would become an atomic bomb, and there would be nobody left to create electricity for.
The word fission means splitting, and this is what happens to the atoms inside a reactor. Spliting atoms generates a huge amount of heat, which is used to boil water, and the steam from this is used to drive electricity generators. Much of the nuclear generating process works the same way as steam power – it’s the energy that heats the water that is different.
FUSION
The other way to create a nuclear reaction is by ‘fusion’, which means joining. This process involves squeezing smaller particles so that they melt together to form larger ones, and in doing so, give off a large amount of light and heat. The sun’s energy comes from fusing atoms of hydrogen to form helium.
Scientists have not yet found a way to control the process of nuclear fusion, so it has not yet been used to generate power. But it is thought that when this can be done, it will be a much cleaner and safer method than fission.
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Fast-developing countries, including India and China, need to generate increasing amounts of electricity, and so far, the nuclear option is still in the front line. At the moment, there are 440 nuclear power stations in the world, but by 2015, there are expected to be another 250 – 103 in America alone.
URANIUM
The main ingredient in the making of nuclear power is uranium. This is an element – a pure chemical that is not mixed with anything – that was formed in stars that exploded millions of years ago.
Lumps of uranium are known as yellowcake. Guess, if you can, why they are called this… Yes, you’ve got it! They look like round yellow cakes. If you should ever find yourself working on a nuclear-powered ship, be careful not to mistake one of these for a piece of real yellow cake. It will not taste good – but it will raise your energy levels. A lump of uranium the size of a tennis ball contains as much energy as 1 million gallons of petrol – enough to fill a 50-foot cube-shaped tank.
BET YOU NEVER KNEW!
Uranium was discovered by German chemist by the name of Martin Klaproth, in a mineral called pitchblende. It was named in celebration of the discovery the planet Uranus eight years before Uranium is not found in Uranus – but we won’t make any jokes about that, if you don’t mind.
Uranium is present in very small quantities in most rocks on Earth, and is even found in seawater.
The heat inside the Earth is caused mainly by the slow breakdown of uranium particles, in a process known as radioactive decay.
Because uranium is very dense and heavy, it is sometimes used as ballast in the keels of yachts, as a small amount weighs a lot.
Uranium melts at 1132°C – 1,132°C times the melting temperature of ice. (An especially useless fact)
DANGEROUS AND DEADLY
An accident at Chernobyl power station in the Ukraine, in 1986, released 100 times more radiation than both of the atom bombs that were dropped on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Many people are still suffering the effects of it, mostly in the form of various cancers.
The radioactive cloud that came from the explosion floated over 25 countries in Europe, and it will be many years before the real damage can be properly estimated.
It may be a relief to know that thanks to more modern processes and equipment, another accident of this type will not happen again.
SMART MATERIALS
SUPERGLUE
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Superglue, one of the world’s most successful and effective adhesives, was actually discovered by accident. During World War II, scientists working for Kodak were trying to make a synthetic thread to replace spider silk in gun sights. They were experimenting with a group of chemicals known as cyanoacrylates (pronounced sigh-er-no-ack-ri-lates), but found that they were too sticky to work with, so they abandoned that idea and moved on to other things.
In 1951, however, one of the team, Dr Harry Coover, working for Kodak in Kingsport, Tennessee, was researching suitable polymers to use in jet engines. He and the team were impressed by how well the cyanoacrylates stuck at low temperatures. It began to be sold it as a glue in 1948, under the not very exciting name, ‘Eastman 910’. It was later repackaged as Super Glue, and everyone was much happier about that.
Cyanoacrylate is an acrylic resin, which in liquid form, is made up of monomers. These are small molecules that, when they come into contact with water, they combine with it it to form long, strong molecules called polymers. If you look at these molecules under a microscope at this stage, you can see that they have formed into a tiny plastic mesh, which is very firmly bonded.
Since there is water in the air, almost everything has at least a tiny amount of water on its surface to help the glue do its work. This means that when the chemicals in the glue join up with the water molecules on both surfaces to be stuck, everything joins together. It also works incredibly fast, which is why it’s best to avoid getting it on your skin, which contains a lot of moisture.
SURGICAL DRESSINGS
During the Vietnam War, doctors had discovered that cyanoacrylates could be useful in surgery, and made a spray, which, when applied to open wounds would stop bleeding quickly and act as a temporary dressing until proper treatment could be carried out.
With most glues, any moisture on the surface creates a barrier between the glue and the things that are to be stuck, which means that everything has to be dry before the glue will work. Cyanoacrylate glue actually needs the surface moisture in order to bond, so it is ideal for working with wounds. The dressings are also waterproof, because the glue has used as much water as it needs in order to set, as coming into contact with any more has no effect on it.
This is now in commercial use, in products such as Dermabond, which can be used as a dressing to cover cuts and grazes, or to holding the edges of the wound together, instead of using stitches. As the wound heals, the dermabond is shed along with the skin. It is therefore very low-maintenance.
It is usually applied in two layers, and takes about a minute to harden, and a further minute to reach full strength.
As the skin is replaced by new cells from underneath, the cells on the surface are shed, and anything that is stuck to them comes off with them. By the time the Dermabond is shed, the wound underneath has had plenty of time to heal.
So when you come apart, your doctor can literally stick you back together.
It is not used around the eyes!
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STICKY FINGERS
If you ever get your fingers stuck together with Super Glue, there are three ways that you can deal with this. The first is to wait several days for the top layers of skin to shed, and lift the glue. This is not the best way, though, as it is not only inconvenient, but also embarrassing. An even less efficient way would be to put your hand in a freezer for several hours. THis is because the structure of the glue’s molecules become weak at low temperatures. We would definitely not recommend this. What you can do instead is to apply a little acetone, or nail varnish remover, which reacts with the glue and dissolves it.
However, if you are unlucky enough – or dumb enough – to get some stuck to your eyelids, do not even think of using acetone. Get to the hospital – and quick. What they will do is put a gauze patch over the eye, and after about four days, the eyelid will gradually open of its own accord. Then you need not tell your friends how it happened – you can tell them you were involved in a duel or something. Even if the glue does get on to your eyeball, it wilL only stay stuck for a few hours. In fact, there have been no cases ever recorded in which someone’s eye has been permanently damaged by contact with one of these adhesives. All the same, unless this you’re stuck in the desert or the Antarctic when this happens to you, best get to hospital, we feel…
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KEEPING DABS ON THE BAD GUYS
Super Glue is cleverly used in criminal investigations to find invisible fingerprints. The object that is to be tested the prints is put into an airtight container with some Super Glue, then heated until the glue evaporates. It is gently blown by a fan all around the inside of the container. When the glue comes into contact with the hidden prints, it sticks to them and reacts with the chemicals – such as amino acids and glucose – which turns them into visible solids.
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BET YOU NEVER KNEW
A patch of Super Glue measuring an area of one inch can hold a ton weight. This makes it very useful for sticking elephants together.
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REMEMBER THIS
The formula for methyl-2-cyanoacrylate, or Super Glue is C5H5NO2.. Remember that. You never know when you might be asked for it.
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DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME
You should not use ordinary Super Glue for medical purposes, as the ingredients are slightly different from the type that has been developed for dressings, and it could cause irritation. The polymerization process can also make it get very hot, and may even burn the skin if used over large areas. Best to stick to the doctor.
