HEMO THE MAGNIFICENT, PART 2

[Music] [Applause] [Music] so far your chatter on Plumbing has been uh Elementary but harmless but if you come to me I refuse to listen further unless you first dis describe me in just two words I can never mind Professor mention the two key words and I'll know you understand the Poetry the mystery and the true meaning of blood otherwise back to your plumbing hey Doc he's trapping us do you know what the two words are oh you [Applause] do the two words that best describe you and connect you with the mystical Origins and traditions of Life are seawater [Applause] seawater quiet brother research my apologies you mean he's right listen to this learned man and you'll hear a real tale seawater doctor please tell them who I am well thank you it's only a theory of course this I got to see but if you squeezed a human body as you would a sponge you'd squeeze out some 30% of the body weight as about 6 gallons of free water which we shall call body fluid this squeezed out body fluid has a salt content of 1% tropical sea animals might exist in this Aquarium of body liquid now the salts and sea water are like the salts and body fluid as you can see although sea water today is two or three times saltier than body fluid some biologists account for this Difference by saying that body fluids today represent the less salty composition of seawater as it was nearly 400 million years ago when life emerged from the sea and began to crawl on land at any rate a billion and a half or two billion years ago life is presumed to have originated in the warmth of tropical waters as a minute single celled aquatic organism something akin to the tiny Living Single Cell we know today as the amoeba this shapeless jellylike primeval cell absorbed its food and oxygen directly from the sea and passed out its carbon dioxide and other wastes to the warm ocean in the beginning heo was the sea please please time crawled in those days there's been life on this planet for at least a billion and a half years yet for hundreds of millions of those years life is supposed to have existed as separate one celled microscopic water animals then something wonderful happened obeying a great plan not given to us to know groups of these cells came together to live as colonies and new animals were born but just as the early American Colonials gathered in colonies behind stockades yet each fed and clothed himself independently so did the early colonial cells exist independently they hadn't learned to specialize yet and each cell in these primitive organisms had to have individual contact with its great provider the sea consequently no little sea animal could be more than two cells thick in any of its parts that styed their growth for a long time the Hydra is one of those early cell groupings it was y-shaped two cells thick and had an opening or primitive mouth through which the sea water could flow in and out to bathe and feed the inner cells that was the crude beginning of internal circulation just as the early Colonials specialized for the good of the community some becoming Carpenters blacksmiths Weavers While others raised the food so did the cells in primitive sea animals begin to specialize some in telling others what to do became the brain others in building and became bones those interested in feeding became stomachs while still others organized themselves into a pump and a closed circulating system to bring the precious fluid to the cells that were too deeply embedded in the body to have direct contact with the seed new organisms could now be more than two cells thick and they grew fast about 400 million years ago the first fish took form thousands of cells thick with a simple circulation system which is still in fish today a low press two chambered heart with one ventricle one Oracle and one slow circulation which pumps blood a specialized form of seawater up to the gills for oxygen and directly to the body cells because their blood is cooled by outside water surrounding the gills fish are cold blooded that is their bodies have the same temperature as the water they swim in when for some reason known only to God water animals first crawled out on land they had to learn to breathe in Air as well as in water so some of the internal cells organize themselves into a lung through through which blood could extract oxygen from Air the lung fish is an early example yeah but what about frogs amphibious animals like frogs also cold blooded have a three chambered heart and two circulation lungs one to the lungs body the other to the body but the two circulations are both pumped from one ventricle at medium speed and pressure since the blood doesn't have to regulate their temperature but as soon as the the heart became a four chambered pump two separate highspeed high pressure circulating systems became possible and land animals could live entirely out of water at a constant warm temperature regardless of their surroundings but these land animals whether they look like birds or Bears or baboon are still composed of billions of cells that have to be bathed fed service or as the great French physiologist CLA Bernard put it kept in a constant internal environment in the same way their ancient predecessor the tiny one cell Deeba was bathed in seawater only now land animals have to manufacture their own kind of seawater in the form of blood and other body fluids now wait a minute doc wait a minute are you trying to say that I'm descended from some kind of caat you have a human spirit that separates you to entirely from the animal world but there's great mystery and great Wonder in the fact that our body this Temple of the spirit is built of billions of Highly specialized individual cells like my new tropical sea animals that could only live in well say Tahiti externally your address may be in Ethiopia Tibet or Kansas City but internally we're all basking in the warm Waters of the South Sea Isle thanks to heo the Magnificent whom the poet Gerta described as that entirely wonderful sa please so you see Mr heo bit by bit we've come to know that your job is to play sea water to our body cells excuse me now what's the matter turtle boy heo big job he don't do it in the veins he don't do it in the arteries so where does he do it out in left field brother Turtle you're pretty sharp now I can see how you beat Mr rabbit in that famous foot race all right but you pay close attention Believe It or Not Mr heo does all his great work in this thin line that separates the arteries from the veins in the capillaries tiny little blood tubes too small to see with a naked eye you remember the the little primitive sea animals were only two cells thick because each cell had to have contact with seawat well our bodies are so crisscrossed with billions of capillaries that except in our bones and eyeballs not one of our cells is more than two cells away from the nearest capillary in just the tip of your little finger you have thousands of capillaries this illustration might help now here's the end of one of the billions of tiny arteries branching off into several capillaries which are surrounded by customers the muscle cells passing slowly through the Blood Services the customers then collects in a tiny vein and hurries on back for a new load of food and oxygen these capillaries are only about 150th of an inch long and so find that red cells only one 3,000 of an inch have to squeeze through in single file a bundle of 50 capillaries is still finer than a human hair the walls of the capillaries are only one cell thick and it's through the chinks in this thin wall that heo serves his customers with food and oxygen like a grocery man and takes out the waste products like a garbage man now a very important key figure in this whole going on is this little gatekeeper muscle here in the tiny artery that feeds each of the billions of capillaries most of the time he opens and closes acording according to the local needs of his alley of customers if they need service he opens up lets heo come in to do his grocery man garbage man act service over he closes down again in a muscle at rest only about 1% of the capillaries are open at any one time but in a very active muscle they all open up but doc doesn't Mr gatekeeper muscle also take orders from the central government from Mr Big up here in the brain yes sir through nerves telephone lines in case of an emergency or if blood is urgently needed elsewhere wico the brain orders Mr gatekeeper to stay closed dispatcher close down sphincter x315 J10 oh goody boss x315 J10 close your little capillary or else and Mr gatekeeper stays closed shut up boss says no no matter how loud his local customers yell for service yeah but if you can't see the cap capari how you how you going to know all this stuff ah more magic roll 16 now Mr Turtle these are microscopic scenes of the actual blood flow in live bats frogs and hamsters as taken by doctors George P Fulton and Brenton R loots of Boston University and by doctors Paul a nichel and Richard L Webb of Indiana University to the sharpest naked eye all this would be invisible this is a minute highly magnified artery branching into smaller arteries the blood still travels pretty fast here in a moment you'll see it slow way down in the capillaries notice the pulsing flow as the heart pumps Mr heemo into billions of these ever branching ever smaller microscopic arteries [Music] now we're down to the finest of arteries where you can see the individual red cells little flat concave discs and branching off is the tiniest of all blood vessels the capillary so thin the blood cells have to go through in single file surrounding the capillary are the customers the the MUSC cells which hemo [Music] Services after traveling through the capillary now remember it's only about a 50th of an inch long hemo collects in tiny veins which join up into larger veins which flow into still larger veins as hemo races back to the heart and lungs for a new load of food and oxygen now let's get back to the capillaries where the main show takes place here's where the Magnificent heo does his [Music] stuff everything else in the circulation system heart arteries veins are all designed for just one purpose to take Mr heo to and from his work in the capillaries and here's a key actor in the show The Donut shaped sphincter muscle the gatekeeper that opens or closes the capillary on orders from his muscle customers or from the headman in the brain here's another gatekeeper there are billions like him probably the most important muscle in your body yet you can't see him without a high-powered microscope now watch this one close down service is over this very choosy gatekeeper is letting the red cells in one at a time remember these red cells are so tiny a row of 3,000 of them laid flatwise would measure just 1 inch Now watch how beautifully this character controls the number of red cells going into his [Music] capillary now over on the other end of the capillaries and the tiny veins there's another gatekeeper valve that well it's still a big mystery to us [Music] in dozens of research centers all over the world scientists are burning the midnight oil trying to find out why when and what makes this strange little muscle open and [Music] close now Mr Turtle what do you think of that GE I wish I was a scientist yeah heo why don't you ever show us magic things like that heo can't he's a poet friends you might as well know it the magic of knowledge and reasoning is only for humans Mr heo we only wish it were magic nobody's born with knowledge has to be acquired with hard work added to and passed on every doctor every scientist every nurse student technician that ever lived has enriched the future by adding his or her two cents worth to the common fund of human knowledge few of these people may win prizes but the rest are rewarded with the greatest of all Awards personal satisfaction with their creative work are you saying science is an art sure it's an art thorough once defined art as that which improves the quality of the day well what's improved our daily lives more than science huh what do you do around here me well I I try to make things easier I guess if you made things easier for me you'd live longer he's right roll 21 let me show you how right he is we have three main body activities thinking eating and moving represented by the brain stomach and muscles each has its separate blood supply now if all three functions were going full blast at the same time all the capillaries in the body would be open to fill them we'd need 10 times as much blood and a heart 10 times as big to pump it around but this would be a big waste because we don't think eat and run at the same time television Riders do yes but normal people have a wonderful mechanism that cuts down blood flow to parts of the body that are not going full blast diverts it to the organs and muscles that are working now as we've seen at the end of each of the microscopic arteries just ahead of the capillaries there's a small muscle that acts as gatekeeper or flow controller each has his own private nerve line to the brain and upon orders from the dispatcher in the brain each of the billions of tiny Gatekeepers here represented by one only will open or close his own particular valve now for the open position which is normal the gatekeeper muscle just relaxes and when signal to close down his capillary the gatekeeper has to to apply constant pressure or the valve Will Spring open now first the brain whether we're thinking [Music] hard or just daydreaming the brain valves are always open no matter what the rest of the body is doing these non-replaceable non-reparable VIP governing cells must be constantly supplied with a rich flow of hemo or goodbye body mhm but if we're digesting a big meal the digestive valves open wide and the muscle valves are ordered to close conversely if we run exercise work hard the muscle valves open and the digestive system is mostly [Music] closed what about eat and run guys like me what happens to us well several things are all bad the brain has top priority but muscles have priority over digestion because muscles mean survival you fight you run with them suppose you've just finished a seven course dinner The Works your abdominal valves are wide open and about a quarter of your blood is racing through the digestive capillaries while the muscle Gatekeepers get the red stay closed light have a dock suppose I get up from a big meal and uh I run or I go swimming or or suppose my girl insists on doing a fast poker what then well have a good time because the brain dispatcher will do his duty even though he knows you're off your trolley he orders the digestive Gatekeepers to close down and the muscle Gatekeepers to open up since they now have priority leaving the stomach holding the bag with a big meal it can't digest for which it complains bitterly by giving you indigestion but if the girl's pretty it's worth it you mean they don't sleep after eating what's in digestion means you're civilized doc since we're all human doesn't our brain dispatcher ever make mistakes in sending messages to the capillaries oh yes just as a quarterback occasionally balls up signals do you watch boxing matches uh oh priz fight sure boxing matches the next time you see a knockout remember that it's bald up signals that are doing the knocking out you're kidding no a boxer's blood is mostly flowing through his active muscles practically no blood in his stomach and intestine hard blow to the chin smashes the Jawbone back against the brain Dispatch Center blitzing Communications to the capillaries things happen fast the closed signal to stomach Gatekeepers goes dead they relax unattended valves spring to normal open position and bingo about a third of his blood just pours into millions of empty abdominal capillaries the blood pressure takes such a sudden nose dive VIP brain cells pass out from lack of Blood The Fighter loses consciousness he drops like a log and the referee starts counting one and the Crowd Goes mad two if the brain dispatcher gets his wrecked communication straightened out before the count of 10 he frantically signals the abdominal Gatekeepers to close down close down the blood is quickly diverted back to the brain and muscles but pressure goes up again brain cells come to who hit me the fighter staggers to his wobbly feet and hazarded again again so that's what happens when the guy I bet on gets flattened I always thought it was the same as shock no it isn't shock this is knockout shock's different and shock Mr heo is one of the many things we still don't know about you some experts think that in shock our regulating mechanism breaks down under too heavy a stress everybody knows that too big a load will make a mule lie down or a car clunk out or a fuse blow anyway shock usually occurs when our body is subjected to a sudden and extremely heavy stress say from a serious [Applause] injury or a severe burn or even during a major operation we're pretty sure that in some way somewhere in the circulating system a goodly portion of our gallon and a half of hemo gets trapped and stops circulating might say the results the same as if one suddenly lost half of his blood there's a decrease in blood flow back to the heart the heart shrinks the blood pressure goes way down and the critical brain Supply gets so low the brain cells begin to starve shortly to die millions of people used to die from shock today we save most of them we may not know the exact cause but we know a good treatment a quick transfusion with emphasis on the quick a few minutes can mean life or death to the brain cells that's why helicopters fly the wounded that's why traffic stops for ambulances that's why during an operation on a patient whose blood pressure drops too low he's given a transfusion adding outside blood to raise the pressure up to where the brain cells can remain alive giving time for the trapped blood to become untrapped put back into normal circulation again these are just a few of the highlights in what little we know of the story of blood and circulation Mr heo but the Unsolved Mysteries Are Legion a few examples what is is Health how does the body protect itself as a whole we don't know what causes hardening of the arteries or high blood pressure or anemia just don't know is each person's blood slightly different from all others might be what is a fever we don't know that and this one's got us all scratching an automobile changes chemical energy into mechanical Movement by burning Fuel and oxygen in its cylinders well a muscle does this too but how in living cylinders and get this for ignorance how long is life how long might a person live if his body cells were Untouched by disease 100 years 200 they're all riddles that challenge the spirit of man and there are hundreds of others but the men of science will solve them brother heo someday sure you will what better way to Love Thy Neighbor than to heal him I've got my little set job and my little animal friends have theirs but we're limited man's not limited your creation's favorite you can imagine reason Dream create you know right from wrong to use these Divine gifts is your job and all Nature's waiting to see how you handle it you're right brother writer Research into Nature's Mysteries could well become the most rewarding and far-reaching of all the Arts one of your greatest physicists Max plank said that over the Temple of science should be written the words ye must have faith your great Apostle Paul wrote to his new church in thessalonica prove all things hold fast that which is good a scientist says have faith a saint says prove all things together they spell [Music] hope dream big take a lesson from your heart [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Bell Telephone system takes pride in bringing you this program in its series of shows on science we acknowledge our gratitude to the distinguished Board of advisers covering the broad range of modern Science Biology and genetics medicine bacteriology and botany chemistry geophysics physics anthropology mathematics [Music] engineering for the program you have just seen our thanks to the special advisers who have suggested and checked scientific material we are andb to all these men and to many institutions for the generous support they have given this Venture in public education through entertainment [Applause]