Brought to you by The Silver Sky Network
I am Caelum, and you are watching the Nature Chanel
"Who was the first human you met?"
"It was actually doing some ecological conservation work on Irus. They happened to come in with a team of scientists working on the same project as me, and we got to talking. Had a lot in common actually, and obviously considering my curiosity for different sorts of life, I asked her a lot of questions , and she seemed really excited to answer them. I've said it before and I will say it again, I think humans get a bad rap in the galaxy. People like... like my brother, tend to sensationalize humans, when in all reality all the stuff you hear about them is only true to a certain point, or its out of context or what have you. Like that whole thing about humans eating meat, which is true, but people like Mendex will have you believing humans use their teeth to strip meat from the bone raw, when in all reality humans can't eat anything that isn't cooked most of the time, and their teeth aren't strong enough to strip flesh from bone on most occasions, so they never do it. A lot of people talk about how humans can lift five hundred percent their body weight or some sort of nonsense, and that is true, a human IS capable of lifting something that heavy in dire situations, but what they forget to tell you about is the aftermath, where the power from that lift stripped their muscle from their bones, and they might never physically recover from it."
"You seem very passionate about this subject. Why did you decide to do this series on humans when ou usually only do your series on non-sentient life."
"I just wanted to get the truth out there, and let's be honest, everyone wants more content about humans, they are a big deal, and from what I have seen no one has been doing them justice. I just wanted to be a part of soemthing good."
"That's a very honorable way to look at things. Out of curiosity, how do you feel about LFIL relationships, humans being romantically involved with other species."
"I say its none of my damn business what they do with their romantic lives. I don't think the GA should have absolutely any say in what they do or who they are involved with. They aren't hurting anyone simply trying to be happy, and that is soemthing I think we should all be able to get behind. As far as my own personal opinion on the subject, I have no problem with it at all. I've never found a human attractive, but I have known people, who will remain nameless of course."
"So you support their cause."
"I would say I do."
"Are you bothered that that opinion might lose you support."
"You're a funny guy, really. I couldn't care less, and honestly if they have an issue with my personal beliefs, than they can stop watching my show, but at the end of the day, one things is important to me, and that is that people are happy safe and being represented fairly in media."
***
The stopwatch ticks with all the inevitability of time, always moving forward. The race is on, and these humans have been training for months for just this moment.
Here in the water, humans are far outside their natural habitat.
They don't belong here.
But you wouldn't think that by looking at them.
Humans are one of the only sentient species in the galaxy that can survive any amount of time in deep water. Rundi and Bran react to water with an extreme allergic reaction, Tesraki can't swim, and Both Vrul and Gromm are capable of floating in water without any adverse effects, but none of them can swim like humans can.
Humans were originally designed for survival in the trees of the African Savana, but evolved over time to prefer wide open grassy plains. Humans are at their element running over long distances.
Here in the Olympic sized swimming pool, they are as far from their element as they could possibly be.
As with everything else in human history, humans adapted to swimming, likely when climate change turned their lush savannah to desert, pushing the animals north and forcing some humans into colder climates, or, towards the sea, where they had to learn to fish, and to swim.
Still, this is not their natural habitat, and the human body has to work hard to keep itself on the surface, not to mention going at any sort of speed is taxing.
Deep inside the human thoracic cavity lives one of the organs responsible for human life, and may be the difference between victory or defeat in this competition of aquatic strength and speed.
The Heart.
The human heart is an organ comprised primarily of muscle, like the biceps or the pectoral muscle, however, unlike all other muscles in the human body, the heart will expand and contract continuously from five to six weeks in-utero and will continue to beat for up to 122 years (the oldest human ever recorded). That is 12 decades of non-stop expansion and contraction without exhaustion or fatigue, if everything goes well, of course.
In order to beat, the heart generates its own electrical current to keep the pace steady and even.
It would be incorrect to say that the heart is the MOST important organ in the human body as that would be disqualifying the brain, the lungs , and the skin without which human life would be impossible, but it is safe to say that it is one of the most important organs in the body.
While the human body is a complex system, the heart and its 60,000 miles of veins arteries and capillaries is responsible for pulling the whole system together and keeping it functioning.
How does it do this?
By transporting one of the most important liquids in the human body.
Blood.
Each adult human contains about 3-4 quarts of blood, which is forced through the miles and miles of blood vessels by way of the heart. The heart muscle is about the size of a human fist and is so strong it can crush a tennis ball with tis contraction, it needs to be strong in order to push blood throughout the body, especially upwards into the head where the brain is located, with as much energy as the brain uses it needs a lot of blood to function.
Why is blood so important?
As These swimmers move through the water, they are going to need a lot of it to allow their muscles to function. In fact, they are going to need blood for a lot of things if they want to continue this race, if not continue living all together.
Human blood serves a multitude of important functions: It carries antibodies and cells that fight infections, it collects and carries dead cells and other waste products to be disposed of by the kidneys and liver, it helps to regulate temperature, carries clothing agents to prevent blood loss if the skin is breached, and most importantly for these swimmers, it carries oxygen to cells and tissue all around the body.
Blood itself is made up of a multitude of components.
Plasma, makes up most of the contents of blood, and primarily represents the liquid substance responsible for carrying red and white blood cells around the body It is made up of water, salt, protein, sugar and fat, and must remain the correct consistency to flow properly. For instance, if a human is dehydrated, the blood can grow thick making it difficult to flow properly and forcing the heart to work harder than necessary.
Then there are the red blood cells, small disk-shaped cells without a nucleus, whose primary job is to carry oxygen throughout the body. Red blood cells are flexible and intended to fit through small spaces. These red blood cells begin their life in the bone marrow and stay there up to seven days before being released in the blood; as they travel these red blood cells will become damaged, and last only 120 days before the blood carries them, like the rest of its waste products to the liver for disposal.
Red blood cells are what give human blood its striking crimson color.
Then there are the white blood cells which make up approximately 1% of blood. These white blood cells come in two major types Neutrophils and lymphocytes, and it is their main job to attack foreign bodies found I the blood like viruses and bacteria to prevent infection and contamination. Unlike red blood cells, they have a very short life span, living less than a day before being disposed of. The bone marrow must work constantly to keep them supplied.
Platelets are not cells, but rather cell parts, which congregate at the sight of breaches in the skin and form what are known as, clots, keeping any more blood from spilling out. A human must have just the right amount of platelets to survive. Without platelets, a human will continue to bleed non-stop from any wound big or small. Even a papercut can be fatal without platelets. However, if too many are present the platelets can stick together while still inside the body making the blood thick and causing fatal blockages in the heart, lungs or brain.
As blood moves around the body, it enters the left atrium of the heart. All together the heart has four compartments to carry blood, entering the upper right atrium of the heart. The blood that enters the heart is deoxygenated, having carried its supply of oxygen all around the body to the oxygen hungry tissues and cells. This blood passes into the upper right atrium and then through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle, before being pumped through the pulmonary valve and artery. This artery will carry the deoxygenated blood to the lungs.
As these swimmers gasp for air, oxygen rushes down into the lungs where the deoxygenated blood is waiting. Special proteins contained inside the red blood cells called hemoglobin absorbs the oxygen before being pumped back into the heart. Oxygenated blood is bright red, while deoxygenated blood is a deeper red color, the reason veins look blue or purple in the skin of some humans is the same reason that the sky is blue on earth: and that is by way of light diffusion through the skin.
Contrary to popular, but incorrect belief, deoxygenated blood is not blue.
This newly oxygenated blood passes into the left ventricle of the heart through the mitral valve and into the left ventricle before passing into the aortic vale and into the aorta which is the main artery that will supply the rest of the body with blood.
It will take only a single minute for blood to pass all through 60,000 miles of blood vessels and arteries before returning back to the heart.
As these swimmer's work, muscles expand and contract sending signals to the brain demanding more oxygen to perform. The more work that a cells in the human body does, the more oxygen it requires, these signals are transmitted to the brain and then back down to the heart, which speeds up to accommodate the lack of oxygen in the working muscles.
The humans gasp for air as their heads break the surface desperately gulping in oxygen as the muscles of their arms and legs desperately send signals to the brain and heart.
Despite the human heart always beating, it is still just like any other muscle, and can be trained to better performance.
The average resting heartrate of a human can be anywhere from 60-100 beats per minute.
However, well trained athletes also train their hearts to beat harder and more efficiently while their blood adapts to produce more hemoglobin sometimes resulting in a human with a heart rate as low as 40 beats per minute. In the average person this heart rate would be worryingly low, but in an Athlete it is a sign of a powerful heart muscle, training and dedication to their craft.
These simmers all have resting heart rates below sixty, but now as they fight their way across the pool, their heart rates reach as high as 200 beats per minute, but usually only around 170 beats. In their early twenties, these swimmers are in the prime of their lives.
Blood continually supplies their muscles with oxygen, but even the human heart can only do so much, and eventually even the heart cannot bring enough oxygen to the muscles, resulting in fatigue and a burning sensation. Cells are forced to work without oxygen, and waste products build up in the cells making their work sluggish.
This will go away as soon as the simmers come to a stop. The heart will continue to beat hard for the next few minutes to resupply those muscles with oxygen, but the healthier the athlete and the healthier the heart, the shorter amount of recovery time the human will require.
Soon enough the heart is back to a steady pace, and all is well.
The heart and blood of a human is a remarkable thing, and to go into more detail could constitute an entire series, however, another important function of the blood, which cannot be overlooked, is its function in carrying nutrients and other chemicals through the cells around the body. Blood absorbs these chemicals and nutrients through the walls of the stomach and intestines, this can be dangerous, as poisonous or toxic foods can be carried from the digestive tract all around the body in a matter of minutes.
These swimmers are about to experience such an event.
Excited by their team's victory at the swimming competition, these young humans head out for dinner, supplying their blood with the nutrients to support cell function, however, a few of these humans have soemthing else in mind.
Alcohol.
Alcohol contains ethanol, a substance that is absorbed directly into the blood stream, and is, in essence, a poison that causes metal confusion, dizziness, nausea, neurological dysfunction, but in many cases euphoria and feelings of pleasant fuzziness which most humans enjoy. Alcohol is a poison and behaves as such traveling through the body where it damages tissues, most notably the liver, which is forced to metabolize it and clear it from the blood stream, however many humans find it a small price to pay for a good time.
While the body can generally recover from minor damage induced by alcohol, increased alcohol consumption can and will destroy the liver as it attempts to metabolize the alcohol from the blood stream on too many occasions. This will vary from human to human as all things do, but everything in moderation seems like the best advice for this scenario.
And these humans head home light headed and pleasantly fuzzy for the time being.
Inside their hearts continue to pump life sustaining blood through thousands of miles of vessels, and hopefully, it will continue to beat for another century.
If they are lucky.