16 July 2012

A Brief History of 21 Exceptional Majors

1.) What is the purpose of these first three paragraphs?

2.) How does Bryson accomplish this purpose?

3.) What does this introduction do as far as ethos, pathos, and logos are concerned?





Now it’s your turn. Take 20 minutes.

You might start by brainstorming 25 interesting things about your area of interest (probably your major, but it could be a hobby too). Then choose one of these 25 and zoom in. Choose a purpose similar to Bryson’s purpose.

Try to do what he does here: make it interesting to a real human being—capture your reader’s imagination.

When the time runs out, post what you’ve written as a comment below. I also dare you to post it on Facebook or another social forum, or email it to some friends—try to get the feedback ratio tilted in your favor.

24 comments:

  1. No matter how hard you try you will never be able to fathom just how amazing, how unique, is the human body. It just isn’t possible.
    The human body is very delicate and can be damaged very easily, like the human eye. However, the body is very resilient, like the heart, that will beat over 2,500,000,000 times in the average lifespan without, usually, skipping a beat or taking any time off.
    There are over 50 specialties in medicine, each one taking years and years of education just to understand a minute spectrum of medicine and the human body. You could spend your whole life learning just one of these specialties and never come to understand it completely. Now imagine if you could at least fifty doctors in a room trying to help you understand each of these specialties and how each one connects and associates with the other forty-nine. Are you imagining? Well, I’m sure you are, but it isn’t possible.

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  2. No matter what field of health care you want to go into, exercise science is the best major at BYU to take you there. Now this might not be the most specific for your preferred field of study, but it is the best fit for almost all health care related graduate schools. The exercise science major includes all the core classes that medical schools require. It is also good for other graduate programs such as physical therapy, or dental school.
    The exercise science major has a wide variety of classes on the optional or “choose 14 credits from the following” list. This allows students to customize their education to the graduate program they want to attend, while still fulfilling the requirements for graduation in the exercise science undergraduate program.
    Not only are the variety of classes great, but the quality as well. These classes are a perfect mix of challenging, with fun and interesting. You won’t be bored while taking these classes, yet they are not overwhelmingly hard or unnecessarily time consuming, in or out of class.
    Finally, this is the best choice for a major because it is so relevant and important to all of us in our own personal lives. America has a serious obesity problem, and this major equips you with the tools you need to educate yourself, and others, on how to stay healthy. Exercise is one of the most important and looked over things in our society today. This may be because of a lack of motivation, but I feel that it is a lack of knowledge. If everyone understood the science behind exercise, this would give them the motivation to do what they needed to stay healthy. From nutrition classes, to understanding which level of intensities and for what durations are required to burn certain amounts of fat, the exercise science major has it all. Many of these classes are hands on and teach you first hand, how to stay fit. Isn’t that the most important thing we need to do? If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything. That is why this is the best major at BYU.

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  3. There is no feeling quite like it. Crossing the finish line and realizing that the pain that you just pushed through wasn’t all for nothing. There is a sense of accomplishment that pumps through your entire body, giving you the strength to smile and celebrate - even when your body says it’s done and tells you to stop moving.

    That is why I do it. The hours and hours of training all become worth it when you are in the middle of a race, pushing yourself harder than you thought you could. When you train hard, it is easy to run your race. You can trust that your training has given you the capability to perform at your highest level, and accomplish something that most people can’t. That’s huge – knowing that you are doing what most people won’t even attempt.
    The adrenaline on the starting line gets you off to a great start, and throughout the race you can remember those long runs, the hours and hours you spent training, and that gives you enough to push on and keep going.

    With only a couple of miles left, you begin to wonder if you are going to be able to make it. Your legs start to feel like extremely painful noodles, continuing to lose much of the strength that you had when you started the race. Wouldn’t it be alright to just walk for a minute or two? But then what was all the training for? Just make it one more mile for now, and then go from there. Mind over matter. That’s what running is for me.

    Anyone can do it, but there are few who are actually willing to do what it takes. There are not many people in the world who have enough will power and determination to do all that it takes to become a runner. They just don’t think that the hours of training (and all the pain that comes along with it) is worth the feeling of satisfaction that comes from crossing the finish line. During training, you’ll probably wonder why you are putting yourself through so much, and even contemplate giving up and forgetting about it. You’ll never know if the pain is worth it until you take on the challenge to become a runner, and doing something you thought was impossible.

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  4. You’ve probably heard that food goes in one end and out the other, but have you ever thought about what it goes through along the way? The trip through your digestive tract is not some relaxed walk in the park, but a breathtaking adventure that nothing can escape unscathed.
    Well before your food ever hits your stomach, the assault begins. Your teeth tear through the food and crush it with an average of 200 pounds of force, leaving it as an unrecognizable mess. Saliva gushes from your salivary glands, destroying living microorganisms and beginning the molecular breakdown of starches.
    Then you swallow. As the mess that was your food reaches the back of your throat, reflexes kick in, your tongue lifts, and your esophagus contracts. Little spit balls of food, known as boluses, make their way down the tube to your stomach as contracting muscles behind them propel them forward.
    Now we’re in the stomach, which has been preparing itself for digestion ever since you first smelled that pizza. Acid has been seeping out of the parietal cells, ready to denature any protein and further guarantee the destruction of any living thing. The only way your stomach is not digested by itself is because of the protective mucus lining its walls, secreted by the goblet cells. Be grateful for those goblet cells, or you could have some very painful ulcers.
    The stomach continues its job by churning harder than any butter maker. Three levels of muscles, all at different angles, contract and relax to make the stomach a rolling ocean of acid.
    Ready to move on to the next part? Not so fast. At the end of the stomach is a little sphincter--a circular muscle that controls exactly how much chyme (that’s what we call the stuff that used to be food) is allowed to escape. It responds to hormonal signals from the small intestine based on the content of your meal, that ensures that exactly the right amount is released for optimal digestion.
    Once food leaves the stomach, it’s not even halfway done. The small intestine stretches on for foot after foot. The first part of the small intestine is called the duodenum. Here pancreatic juice and bile from your gallbladder mix with the chyme. Enzymes complete the breakdown of proteins and starches, bile gathers all the fat into balls for packing and transport, and bicarbonate ensures that enzymes can function in their favorite working conditions pH.
    If you were to take all the surface area of your small intestine and lay it flat, it would be a big as a football field...

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    Replies
    1. This was Dallin, by the way. :)

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  5. Imagine that this is how many people view your profession: when you do your job right, people complain that you charge too much, and consequently they hate you. When you don’t do your job right, people die, you get sued, and again, they hate you.

    Wait this sounds like your job? Probably.

    Okay lets describe some more of this job. You are commissioned by taxpaying citizens of respectable communities to make their community livable. Forget that you make their life livable; they already hate you because you are paid by taxes. You don’t really earn your living; the taxpayers earn it for you.
    But they don’t think of you when they never get sick their entire life from drinking water you provide. They don’t notice when the creek by their house magically doesn’t have all of the cities’ foul human excrement flowing in it. They don’t notice when their house doesn’t fall down in an earthquake or in gale-force winds. They don’t notice when they still have water to drink even though this is the ‘worst drought in recorded history.’

    They only notice when it doesn’t work well.

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  6. The wrist should only bend to a certain degree. Any further and a trip to the hospital might be necessary. Of course, every person can bend their wrist a different amount. I a friend that can bend his hand so far, the back of his hand touches his wristwatch without him even flinching. And while I am flexible, I consider my wrist flexibility to be about average. No circus freak show for me. What causes these differences in flexibility? Well, it’s actually measured by stiffness rather than flexibility. You see, as your hand is in a comfortable position, and your wrist and hand are relaxed, you can move your arm back and forth a few times, causing your hand to flop about in the air. There is little stiffness in this case. As you flex your wrist, you eventually hit a maximum displacement where you can’t bend your wrist further. At this point there is large stiffness. Your wrist--or rather the rubber band like tendons connected between your bones and muscles--resist any further motion. Like a toddler resisting his vegetables, forcing the wrist to bend beyond this max point will inevitably result in tears and screaming.

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  8. Corbin was 4 years old and impossible to keep reverent. Had the child not learned anything? The entire first half of primary was teaching about reverence and how Heavenly Father wanted his children to act while in church. The teachers came up with these great analogies for the kids to relate to, “walk like a butterfly, not a polar bear.” Followed by a song that is sung globally, Reverently, Quietly… “Let’s have a race back to our seats. But listen carefully, the winner isn’t the one who gets there fastest, but most reverently.”

    In order for Corbin to be a good, reverent boy, the child is required to fold his arms, bow his head, and walk slowly throughout the halls. Why then, is Corbin still jumping out of his seat at random moments to do the Umpa Lumpa Dance? Or maybe a better question would be, why isn’t everyone jumping up to join him?

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  9. Bryce Cook

    Do you like surprises and emergencies? How about unpredicted catastrophes? Truth is, if you like to have a plan and an idea of what the future holds, let me introduce you to the future-telling math-wizard of this century: the actuary.

    How much are you worth? If there were some magical reimbursing organization that would pay your family what you had become in a monetary amount when you die, would they be able to buy a new home, tombstone, or just a chrome-painted paper weight? As an actuarial analyst, I will be able to tell you exactly what the answers to those questions are to the penny.

    Actuaries are the freaks of the business world, able to determine when and why your business or financial life will come crashing down and what you can do to avoid it. Do you have or plan on having children? How much are they going to cost, what kind of grades will they receive, and what kind of occupation do you believe they will have? Thanks to all of the statistical information and algorithms at the availability to the actuary’s fingertips, you can know the answers to these and many other questions with a certain degree of accuracy.

    Actuaries can even accurately predict one of the biggest questions in life: when you will die. Not only can they do that, they can go one step further and tell you why you will die at that time.

    These abilities (super-powers, if you will) are very valuable skills to have, which have the ability to predict the future so you can change now and avoid many of life’s uncertainties.

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  10. Math is beautiful. Don’t believe me? Look all around you. Look at how many shapes there are. The most beautiful things on Earth are comprised of multiple shapes. Shapes are everywhere! But that is not all that math is. Math is sometimes called the ‘Universal Language’. It truly is a language. And it is the only one on Earth that nearly every country and nationality can understand. For instance pick a number. Any number. Got it? Now think of oranges, and think of the same amount of oranges as your number. Guess what? If you want that number of oranges, you can get that many anywhere you want (plus shipping and handling for most places). It will be the same number anywhere you go. Of course this is all very simple.
    Let’s go just a bit deeper. Math is a changing and evolving science. Yes, 2+2 still equals 4, but if you go into another dimension, it might just equal 0, or even 1. Sounds a bit like a politician. And it is. It completely depends on what dimension you are in, just as a politician’s views depend on who his audience is. He might be 0 today, 1 tomorrow, or 529 on Thursdays. But he can never be 1 if he is not in that certain dimension. So while math is still concrete, there is lots of room for creativity. Why else do we have mathematicians today? Obviously there are still things to discover out there.
    Math can be fun! A soccer ball is merely a truncated icosahedron. A pinwheel has circular symmetry. You tell me your favorite hobby, I will tell you how math fits in. Math is all around, and math is beautiful.

    -Lexi Nielson

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  11. It would be easy to think of a CNA at the bottom of the health-care totem pole. Compared to the doctors and nurses of the world, their job is seemingly simple. However, given a second glance you will find that without the humble CNA, a convalescent hospital would cease to function for very long. Patients wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning, get showered and dressed, eat their breakfast and move around the facility, and there would certainly be a lot of dirty diapers. There are not enough nurses or doctors to do this work that never ends and you would soon find yourself in a hospital with filthy patients, undressed, and stuck in bed.

    -Nicole Krantz

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  12. Have you ever taken the time to think about how small our world has become? Think about it for a second. If I so desired I could be in China in around 15 hours, or instead I can send a message electronically to China, and it would arrive in a matter of nanoseconds. Have you ever thought of how short a nanosecond is? Let’s just put it this way, 100 nanoseconds go by faster than you can say, “Yankee Doodle went to town.” Heck, you probably couldn’t get the “yu” off in time. Technology blows my mind away. Computers these days have gotten so small that you can put them in your pocket, or throw them across a river if you desired. The main part of the computer, the processor, is now about the same size the your index finger’s nail. That processor contains millions of transistors; the first transistor was the size of thumb. Doesn’t it just blow your mind!
    Technology is the driving force of today’s world. Advances in technology have a greater impact on our world than anything else. We are all very blessed to have these new technologies. Wouldn’t you love to help advance it, be part of history? Wouldn’t you love to just stare at a computer screen for hours every day, trying to figure out how you can fit more transistors on an ever shrinking space. Wouldn’t you love to dedicate all your efforts to work with things so small, that you can’t see them and you just have to trust that the computer made it correctly? If you answered yes to the last two questions, you are crazy. There gets a point where thinking of small things, although it can be entertaining, just hurts your head and you will never be able to understand it.
    There is another way to help advance technology and be part of history: making the programs we use instead of the hardware! Are you able to comprehend Microsoft word, power point, and excel? Or what about world of warcraft or any of the countless video games on the market? Programming is a new found art. I say that it’s new because it’s only been around for some fifty years. They say art isn’t appreciated till much latter, and it seems that few appreciate the work that programmers do, instead they take it for granted.
    Programming is a form of art. Have you ever seen a painter pick up five vials of paint, and create a masterpiece? It’s wonderful isn’t it? Now have you ever seen a programmer sit at a computer and create a program that can do anything that you could ever want it to? Well, you probably didn’t see him do it, but they sure have done it. Programming reaches forward into the future, driving our imaginations to see just what we can do. The engineers who make better hardware do their work because the programmers demand better hardware, it’s not the other way around. There is nothing creative about making a better processor. But when you sit down at a computer and program, you have pieces small enough to do elegant things, yet they are big enough to hold all the power you desire. The best part about this art is you can express yourself in it, and have an influence. You can put your soul into it, but have power. No offense to the artists of the middle ages, but Bill Gates has had a much greater impact on our world through his art work, than any of them ever had or will.

    Stephen Kitto

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  13. Logan Williams

    Making The Idea of Public Transportation Interesting

    Everyday we get into our car and pull out of the driveway without much thought or worry of getting into an accident. “Sure, accidents do happen, but how likely is it that I get into an accident,” you may think to yourself. After all, you’re a pretty good driver, and so that should lower the risk right? Well, in contrast to what we may believe, the rate of getting into a traffic accident is actually much higher (fact/stat), and the risk is much greater. It doesn’t even matter if we’re really good drivers or not, in reality, we can only control half of the risk. The other half is left up to everyone else on the road, whether it be the group of friends driving back from a drinking party, or the guy that hasn’t slept in almost two days and doesn’t want to pull over to get some rest.
    Before you even have a chance to react, you could get t-boned by someone running a red light. From there not only could you be dead or almost dead, but anyone riding with you could also be in the same fatal, or near-fatal position. What if your kid(s) hadn’t put on their seat belt, or hadn’t put it on correctly? Your whole life can be turned upside down in the blink of an eye!
    Accidents happen a lot more often than we may think. (fact/stat). How can we avoid getting into these accidents? We have to travel from point A to point B to point C etc. We don’t have much of a choice; we can’t stay in our house all day everyday and avoid the streets entirely. The solution to this problem is a change of transportation systems. We currently have a more private transportation system, while a lot of other countries; especially those in Western Europe have a more public transportation system. What’s the difference? (fact/stat). By orienting our society to a more public type of transportation we can avoid a lot of the unnecessary deaths and injuries caused by traffic incidents.

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  14. Look around. Notice the man sitting near you at the bus stop, the rough-looking one with the Hell’s Angels t-shirt. Of course, the sleeves have been cut off. Now notice the business lady across the street. I know, she has a great relationship with her hairspray. Now look to the left, see the old lady with a plastic grocery bag attached to her cane. I’d assume she was bending over to tie her shoes if she weren’t so obviously frail and hunched. But wait, we’re going the wrong direction now. Look away from her and see the young mom on that park bench behind you. Stop looking at the mom and look down for a second; yes, at the baby girl. At this point you’ll have to close your eyes, even you, Clark Kent.
    Now imagine this: inside of that little bundle of joy lies the potential for thousands and thousands of children. Single cells, eggs to be precise, each imagining what sort of human being it would create if given the chance. When those eggs are fertilized later in life they will, with no mind of their own, begin their journey towards humanity. A single cell will divide in two, rest, and repeat the division. With each division the cells decide what they’re going to develop into. Once again, there is no slave driver with a whip telling them what to be, they just know. One will become the heart, and somehow everyone else knows not to. One will eventually develop into your right thumb, and it’s a good thing he knew the difference between a thumb and a pinky, or life could be slightly more difficult…

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  15. The moment illicit drugs like heroin hit your brain, a small but extremely important chemical called dopamine is released in specific areas of your brain. Dopamine activation causes intense feelings of euphoria and pleasure. Remember the last time you ate ice cream? Not only did it taste good, but it felt good in your brain and the rest of your body. This is because of dopamine release in a tiny area a little anterior to your ears deep in your brain called the Nucleus Accumbens. Heroin causes upwards of ten times as much dopamine release than eating or even sex. No wonder drugs are so addicting!
    The mechanism of addiction help us understand who we are. Somehow the arrangement of billions of neurons are responsible for our complex range of emotions. The anger you feel when the driver in front of you is going fifteen under the speed limit to the joy you feel when the basketball team makes it to the finals are all results of patterns of neurons firing in your brain. Neuroscience helps us answer the profound question of who we are. It is the final frontier of the human body.

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  16. You have two of them you use every waking moment of the day. Without them you would be devoid of the colors of a rainbow, the twinkle of a star, the shape of a snowflake or the view of a majestic sunset. What are they? Your eyes.
    How do they work? It involves a complex process of synapses and relays, which really can be easily understood if given some time. How do we capture these magnificent scenes of sight? With a camera. Your eyes create an image very similar to how a camera takes photos. A camera allows specific amounts of light to pass through a small opening-the lens- that create a visual impression on a film.
    In the eye, light passes through the cornea (camera lens) where two-thirds of your focusing is achieved. Then the light passes through the pupil where the iris (aperture) adjusts the amount of light that is allowed to enter. The remaining one-third of the focusing happens when the light passes through the lens (camera lens). The shape of the lens can adjust by tensing or relaxing the muscles in the eye. The focused light finally reaches the retina(film) where it is converted by the rods and cones into a signal that can travel to the brain (film development). Once the image reaches the brain, you have the gift of sight.

    -Dan Nielson

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  17. Have you ever stopped to think how your body functions? If you haven’t, think about it now. One of God’s most amazing creations is the human body. Respiratory, Integumentary, Nervous, Digestive, Skeletal, endocrine, immune and circulatory systems, the list goes on. These are all separate functioning systems that work together so that you and I can live and enjoy life. To often we take for granted how complex our bodies are.
    Take for example a single cell, the basic structural unit of life. Smaller than the naked eye can see, yet so perfectly organized and fine-tuned it functions with tiny microscopic organs called organelles. These organelles function somewhat like our organs do in side our own body. Now if we combine millions of cells together, we start to form in tissues. Once we have tissues forming, these tissues start to develop in to organs, and those organs collectively can be organized into an organ system—all working together to form an organism.
    I am truly blown away at how incredible our bodies are, even more so the intelligence that went in to creating them.

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  18. No matter how hard you try you will never be able to fathom just how amazing, how unique, is the human body. It just isn’t possible.

    The human body is very delicate and can be damaged very easily, like the human eye. However, the body is very resilient, like the heart, that will beat over 2,500,000,000 times in the average lifespan without, usually, skipping a beat or taking any time off.

    There are over 50 specialties in medicine, each one taking years and years of education just to understand a minute spectrum of medicine and the human body. You could spend your whole life learning just one of these specialties and never come to understand it completely. Now imagine if you could at least fifty doctors in a room trying to help you understand each of these specialties and how each one connects and associates with the other forty-nine. Are you imagining? Well, I’m sure you are, but it isn’t possible.

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  19. Just how many problems can a body have? Many people think of their body as one whole entity. Often, they pass up the fact that the body is made of an innumerable amount of smaller parts. These parts can range in size from a bone to a single cell. It is kind of hard to grasp just how complex the body really is. Let me help you try to understand from the perspective of orthopedics.
    Orthopedics is defined as the study and correction of problems in the musculoskeletal system of the body. This system is made up of a mere 206 different bones. To top that, there are only 640 different muscles associated with those bones. Is the picture starting to become clear? If we are counting only the bones and muscles of the musculoskeletal system, there are roughly 846 parts. Imagine that as a jigsaw puzzle! It would take hours upon hours to put together. The amazing thing is that the number 846 only counts muscles and bones – not even the different cells that make them.
    Now imagine the different possibilities of how many things could go wrong with something made out of 846 pieces. Well, we know there could be at least 846 different problems. Lets step out of the box a little more though. If you consider all the different problems that involve two different parts out of the 846 pieces, you’re looking at 715,716 possible problems. Have fun trying to figure out which one of those it could be...

    -Tanner

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  20. A map tries really hard to represent the earth as accurately as possible.  The problem is, it is impossible to represent it perfectly.  It can't be done.  Just look at any map you have.  It lies.  

    For one thing, look at the scale.  It is a complete lie.  Not everything on that map is proportional at that scale to real life.  A typical map scale is 1:24,000 and you have probably used this scale on a national geographic map or a USGS map when hiking or visiting Yellowstone.  Each isoline is supposed to represent altitude on a topographic map but it can't do so perfectly.  

    The problem is one that man has wrestled with for a long time.  How do you depict on a flat sheet of paper something that is not flat?  It is really stupid and utterly useless to do so and yet we have done it for thousands of years.  "Well, what about globes?", you might ask, "Aren't they round?  Don't they accurately depict the shape of the earth.?"  

    Have you ever tried creating a different scale globe? No, you don't do that because the more accurate the globe becomes, the bigger it is, thus spoiling the whole idea of representation.  And besides that, the earth isn't round.  "What?!!", you say.  I know, you're really freaking out now.  You can't really trust anyone anymore.  All your geography teachers you have ever had have been lying to you.  

    No, the earth is not round.  It is actually more elliptical than round in some ways.  Scientists use the term "geoid" to describe the shape of the earth.  What a dumb name!  It means "earth-shaped."  Yes, the earth is...wait for it....earth-shaped!  

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  21. We all want to be happy and have a successful life. Nobody wants to be miserable, but for certain reason individuals’ still experience pain and sorrow after they lost a love one. Some are scared for the future because they are unsure what tomorrow will be. Life is challenge and sometime can be a pain. So what? What are you going to do about it?
    The difference between someone successful and a failure is the failure quit on trying. Happiness is something you work for. Everything that is worthy you need to work for it. On September 11th many innocent died. All the Americans were in pain and some are still in pain. It is so had to find happiness when horrible things happened to someone. The more sorrow you feel the hardest it is on you. Life is challenging, but there are still good things in life. Be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for still being alive, for having people that loves and cares about you, be grateful for every little things that are in you live, and you will see the whole difference in your live.

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  22. Have you ever thought about what our bodies are made of? Not necessarily of the chemical materials but rather the components that make our bodies what they are. What lies directly under our skin? And under that? How does it all work together? What are they capable of? The body is a fascinating creation that nobody fully understands, yet I feel most everyone has been at least a little bit curious about.
    There are hundreds of different types of cells, each with a specific function that can change based on the environment it is in. Imagine yourself stranded, walking in a hot desert with little water to keep you alive, just waiting for someone to rescue you. How does your body keep you from dehydrating and withering away immediately? It could be multiple factors, but perhaps it’s simply anti-diuretic hormone that is released into your blood that helps you retain as much water as possible.
    Now think about the crazy stories you’ve heard about mothers lifting cars to save their babies. Is that even possible? In some instances, maybe not, but in others, it could very well be true. Epinephrine and norepinephrine are two other hormones that act on the sympathetic nervous system – a part of the nervous system that controls the fight or flight response – and they would be primarily responsible for this incredible, maternal feat.
    Hormones are only one aspect of the incredible ways our bodies are controlled. Our nervous system controls another aspect. The sympathetic nervous system, as previously mentioned, is just one part of the autonomic nervous system – the part of our nervous system that occurs automatically. The other part is the parasympathetic nervous system. This controls the rest and digest aspect of our bodies. It does basically the opposite of what the sympathetic nervous system does. The way these two parts of the nervous system go together help explain why you shouldn’t swim laps after eating. Essentially, if you have a big meal, the parasympathetic nervous system will direct the blood in your body the digestive organs such as the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Because blood is going to the organs to help digest food, if you hop in the pool to swim, there is a deficiency of blood going to the muscles. Without enough muscular blood flow, you have the risk of cramping up and drowning to your death.

    -Andrew Black

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  23. blood banking.

    it’s a friday night and there’s not much to do at the lab. you're sitting around with a bunch of your colleagues and wishing you had been invited to the dinner party. but of course you’re not the type to be invited to dinner parties. the melochonly genius they call him. a look around at your lab friends reveals that you are not really the type of guys to get invited much anywhere. Some of the other scientist in the lab sat twirling erlenmeyer flasks as they stared at the wall. others dosed quietly in corners with books on their chest. Karl Landsteiner wanted to do something that would impress those rich snobs that begrudgedly funded his research but that always seemed to forget to send an invite to their swanky soirees. so naturally the idea came to this austrian scientist how he could liven up his friday night and stick it to those snobs. what better than to stick each of his friends in the arm with a needle and mix their blood together. blood transfusion had been around for a number of years but it was more often disastrous than it was successful. to find out what was happening in the body when blood was traunsfused but without having to sacrifice a friend Dr. Landsteiner did the transfusion outside of the body in a test tube. He found that by mixing the serum of one person with the red cells of another it would form a clump and with another it would not.

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