Science Systems Essay: A Letter to the Human Body Corp.

Dear Human Body Corporation;

Can you live without your heart? Without it waste from cellular respiration would build up in the body and cause all sorts of problems. Cells would begin to die from the of the lack of oxygen coming from the capillaries, because no blood would be flowing through them. Also, the brain would die because no oxygen would be coming to it from the cardiovascular system. The body needs the cardiovascular system to survive.

If no blood was circulating, waste would collect in cells and would eventually cause them to die. The cardiovascular system's job is to pump blood and blood removes waste from the body. The build up of waste would damage organs as well as cells. Atherosclerosis, the build up of cholesterol on the inside of blood vessels, would narrow them and impede the flow of blood. The build up of waste is harmful.

Not having a cardiovascular system would mean that cells would not receive any oxygen and they would die. Nutrients would not be able to get to cells also, so if they did not suffocate to death they would die of starvation. There would be no ways to get oxygen from blood vessels to cells anyway because there would be no capillaries. Cells need oxygen and nutrients to live.

The brain depends on the cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen to it. The body exists to support the brain, so if you fire me, you might as well fire the whole nervous system too. The brain would probably have a stroke, when a blood clot blocks oxygen from the brain and parts of the brain die, because the heart would not be moving blood through the blood vessels at all! The only way for the brain to survive is for the heart to exist and to work.

The body has to have the cardiovascular system. If it didn't have it the build of waste would become and issue. Many cells would suffocate to death, and if the brain died the rest of the body would die with it. Firing me would doom you all.

Sincerely,

The Cardiovascular System

I got this image from here

A study on Athersclosis

Boy by Roald Dahl

            Boy is a memoir by Roald Dahl about his childhood. Boy opens with Dahl talking about how his one armed father and his Norwegian mother met. When he was six, his eldest sister, Astri, caught pneumonia and died, and his father then died of grief and pneumonia two weeks afterward. Later during his elementary school years, he and his friends hatched a scheme to get back at the much hated woman who owned a sweet shop on the way to their school. Roald Dahl was sent to a boarding school when he was nine years old. He was extremely homesick during the first few weeks and actually faked having appendicitis to be allowed to be sent home. During Christmas break of that year Roald was in a car accident and his nose was sliced off before the doctor was able to sew it back on again.  When he was twelve he was sent to a larger boarding school called Repton. At Repton, Roald discovered that he excelled at sports and at one sport in particular, Eton-fives, and at photography. After he turned eighteen he applied for a job with the Shell Oil Company and was sent to work in Africa.

            The theme of the book is that his stories were the sum of his unusual experiences. In Boy, Roald cites several books that he wrote later in his life. Roald talks about the inspiration for his book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which came from tasting chocolates for Cadbury as a kid. I think that the book The Witches was inspired partly by the matron from St.Peters. When he describes her smiling as she sends boys downstairs to be caned, it reminds me of the sadistic witches in the book.

            I think this book differs from modern day cultural norms in many ways. When Roald Dahl is first sent to boarding school, he is nine years old and away from his family for about four months. Nowadays, that would set up the child for hours of therapy later in his life. There is a passage in the book about how Roald Dahl had his adenoids taken out. The doctor took them out without giving him any anesthetic, or even telling him what he was going to do. The kids in the book are expected to endure a lot more pain than would be acceptable now.

            The reason I enjoyed reading this book was because of the intriguing experiences Roald Dahl had. He had a very interesting life and to learn about just part of it was not enough for me. After I finished Boy, I read the book that talks about his adult life, Going Solo. Boy is a great book and one that I would recommend to anyone. I loved reading Boy.

I got this image from here