My name is Urkle Olus Oxygen.

I'm going to tell you about a hair raising

adventure I had about 157 years ago. Me and my best friend CO2, were in the
Structural Bases of Life Research Centre working on a Cray supercomputer, trying
to figure out why those huge monstrous humans need us to live. The computer had
been working for weeks and it still didn't have the answer. Then CO2 had one of
the scariest ideas I have ever heard in my entire life. He suggested to boldly do
what no Oxygen or CO2 molecule had done before, to make a record and map the
path and make a report on why the human race needs us to live. I suggested that
his idea could be tested on someone else, but he insisted that his brain wave was
one that only we could execute because of our experience. I know that I
personally have travelled through 1,204,621,057 humans but it was always
accidental. I would be travelling on my way when all of a sudden the Nitrogen,
Oxygen, Argon, Water Vapour, Carbon Dioxide, Neon, Helium, Krypton,
Hydrogen, Xenon, and Ozone gasses (all are commonly known as AIR) started to
move towards this black hole. Of course we all started screaming and then we
closed our eyes till we came out of the black hole again. But this time CO 2 and I
would keep our eyes open and write down the horrendous experience we had. But
this experience I was about to have, took some school work. I had to learn how to
write, spell, and to go into depth on the anatomy of the human body. After 16
years in school I graduated with first class honers and my title was a "hyper
supergenitic counter clockwise Oxygen atom."
Since I am telling you about what happened to me, I think I should go into
depth about myself. If you are not a moron, you would know that my atomic
number is 8 and my weight is 15.9994 and I make up about 20% of , I forgot the
name.........OH!! Earth's atmosphere. My boiling point or the temperature in which
I turn into gas is -182.962. Pretty chilly hey. If you are a person who likes
science you could tell me that liquid oxygen is magnetic and can be held between
the poles of a strong magnet. Cool!! Anyway, I got a little side tracked.
A few days before I was to go on the mission, I took out life insurance, just
in case what I was about to see gave me a vasospasm, or what we call it, a heart-
attack. I also went to a psychiatrist because I was so nervous that when I tried to
stand up my knees would knock together. The trauma I was experiencing was
incredible, so incredible that it even amazed the leading doctors at that time. There
was no cure, the doctors said that I was "self destructing" my "sub atomic nucleic
structure" and if I didn't get myself under control, I would collapse because of
exhaustion. I took dozens of sleeping pills to get to sleep. In the morning, I had to
drink at least three cans of Jolt (twice the caffeine) to keep me awake. Around
lunch time, I would get out the Molson Canadian Ice (fungus pea) just to keep
myself settled down. You could say I was "a living hell."
Then the day came. It came with such swiftness that it just about knocked
me over, but it came. It was the day that I was to do what no sane oxygen atom
had done before, to keep my eyes open and record what happens to me when I first
go into that "black hole", sorry the nose. You see I got a got a lot smarter since I
went to school. Just befor I go on my trip, I want to talk about the things that I
will write down. I will be writing down notes as I see things happen. I will be
writing in the present tense, not the past. I will be doing that because that is what
will be happening. As you may know, this is the first time in my life that I will be
doing this so I might get scared but please stay with me. When I see things I will
expand on what I see because that is why I went to school. So here we go!!
As I enter the nose I see that the air enters in two streams, because the
nostrils (the two openings in the nose) are divided by the septum ,which is a thin
wall of cartilage (tough tissue) and bones. I see the nostrils contain hairs which aid
in filtering dirt out of the air. This guy had a lot of dirt on the sides of his nostrils
so I knew he didn't pick his nose. From the nostrils I enter the nasal passage,
which lies above the mouth. It was getting a little bit dark so I decided to turn my
flashlight on. I saw above the nasal passage three shelflike bones called turbinates
which were covered with mucus membranes which moisten the air. While looking
at those structures, I observed that these bones help warm the inhaled air also.
Looking closely at the mucus membrane, I see they are covered with microscopic,
hairlike projections called cilia. They were waving back and forth constantly,
moving dust, bacteria, and fluids from the nose to the throat for swallowing.
Shifting my gaze to the highest part of the nasal cavity, I could see the olfactory
nerve receptors lying in a small piece of mucus membrane about as big as a dime.
These receptors give the human his sense of smell by generating nerve impulses in
response to chemicals in the air. One thing that really struck me is that the main
thing the nasal passage does is to warm the air and add moisture to it before it goes
any farther.<All these advantages of nasal breathing are lost in mouth breathing.>
From the nasal cavity, I go into the pharynx, which is a cone-shaped tube
that connects the nose and mouth with the voice box and oesophagus. It looks
about 5 inches long and has muscular walls lined with mucus membrane. As I'm
going down, I see a flap of cartilage called the epiglottis which is open. I guess I
will be going through it. Now I begin to see the Larynx, or the "Adam's apple,"
sometimes called the voice box because it contains the vocal cords. While I keep
observing, I notice that the larynx is shaped like a box, and it has a supporting
structure made up of nine sections of cartilage. The thyroidcartilage, in front, and
the cricoid cartilage, in the back, which look to me as the most important
structures. The thyroid cartilage consists of two wing-shaped plates that meet to
form the projection called the "Adam's apple." These plates make up the side walls
of the larynx. The ring-shaped cricoid cartilage forms the back wall of the larynx.
Now I begin to see the vocal cords, two bands of elastic tissue that lie along the
sides of the glottis wall. These muscles can stretch the cords, change their shape or
bring them close together. When the cords are close together, air rushing between
them produce sound. The shape and stretch in the cords determines the pitch
(highness or lowness) of the voice. The shape of the throat, nose, and mouth
determines the quality of a person's voice.
Now I begin to enter the t-t-trachea. It looks to me like a tube reinforced
with cartilaginous rings to prevent collapse. I look closely and notice that the
trachea is lined with cilia. Cilia look like hair. They are always in constant
motion moving back and forth, and carry dust or dirt taken in with the air upward
toward the mouth. The dust is mixed with mucus and the mucus even traps more
particles in the air. I can hear the swishing of the cilia as they move back and
forth. As I am going down they were getting pretty thick and I was weaving in and
out of them. As I was doing that I could see hundreds of dirt particles stuck to the
mucus that the upper hairs had missed. The farther down I go, the smaller the dirt
particles get! At the lower end, the trachea divides into two branches called
bronchi. One extends to each lung. These too have cilia and mucus in them. One
thing I am noticing is that there are more special cells called alveolar macrophages
which are engulfing the particles and carrying them to the mucus or destroying
them. Now the bronchi tube I am in begins to divide into countless small bronchial
tubes and these are dividing into even smaller tubes called bronchioles. While this
is going on I am going to go over the mechanics of breathing. Inspiration, or the
intake of air, occurs when the chest cavity is increased in size and therefore
decreased in pressure. The enlargement of the chest cavity involves the following
movements: (1) The rib muscles contract and pull the ribs upward and outwards
and can be aided with the shoulder muscles. (2) The muscles of the resting, dome-
shaped diaphragm contract. This action straightens and lowers the diaphragm and
increases the size of the chest cavity below. (3) The abdominal muscles relax and
allow compression of the abdominal organs by the diaphragm. The enlargement of
the chest cavity results in decreasing of the air pressure within. In an equalizing
movement, air passes through the trachea and inflates the lungs. Expiration, or the
expelling of air from the lungs, results when the chest cavity is reduced in size.
The action involves the following four movements: (1) The rib muscles relax and
allow the ribs to spring back. (2) The diaphragm relaxes and rises to assume its
dome-shaped position. (3) The compressed abdominal organs push up against the
diaphragm. This action is increased during forced exhalation by contraction of the
abdominal muscles. (4) The elastic lung tissues, stretched while the lugs are full,
shrink and force air out. Now back inside the lungs. The bronchiole I am in ends
in a sac called alveoli which is composed of lung tissue. The walls of the alveoli
are very thin, only one cell thick but they are very elastic. While I am floating
around in the alveoli, I make an inspection. I notice that I can see many minute
blood vessels outside the alveoli walls called capillaries. Now I am beginning to
see that I am moving toward the wall of the alveoli. As I am moving, I can see
spaces between the cells so I can squeeze through; and I do.
 I thought that the respitory system was exciting, but the circulatory system is
even better!! Now I am in a fluid called blood. Its main purpose is that it is a
transporting medium for all substances in the body. For example it assists in the
transportation of digested food, cell wastes, water, oxygen, heat, and secretions.
Blood is a fluid tissue. It is a peculiar tissue in that the cells are scattered among
the nonliving substances composing the fluid portion. The average human has
about 12 pints of blood, which compose about nine per cent of the body weight.
The fluid portion of the blood is the plasma, and the blood cells are called the solid
components, or the corpuscles.
Blood plasma looks straw-coloured and nine-tenths of it is water. The
proteins in plasma give it the sticky quality. One of them, fibrinogen, is essential in
the clotting of the blood. When fibrinogen is removed from plasma, two other
proteins remain. One is serum albumin, which is necessary to normal blood and
tissue relationship during absorption. The other is serum globulin, which gives rise
to antibodies causing immunity to various diseases. Inorganic minerals, dissolved
in water give plasma a salt content of about 1%, while sea water is approximately
3%. These compounds include carbonates, chlorides, and phosphates of the
elements calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium. They are absolutely
essential to the blood and to the normal functioning of the body tissues. Without
calcium compounds, blood will not clot in a wound. Digested foods are present in
plasma in the form of glucose, fatty acids and glycerin, and amino acids.
Nitrogenous wastes, resulting from protein metabolism in tissues, and urea are also
in plasma.
Now I am going to explain the solid components of the blood which I can
see all around me. First I will start with the red blood cells which are shaped liked
disks with both sides concave. The red cells are so small that ten million of them
can be spread in one square inch. They are so numerous that, placed side by side,
they would cover an area of 3,500 square yards. It is estimated that the blood of a
normal person contains 25 trillion (25 000 000 000 000) red blood cells, or enough
to go around the earth four times at the equator if they were laid side by side. The
red blood cells are produced in the marrow of the bones. During development,
they have nuclei, as do other cells. Normally, by the time they are ready to be
released into the blood stream they have lost their nuclei. The average life of a red
cell is about 20-120 days. Worn-out cells are filtered out of the blood in the spleen
and liver. At the same time, certain compounds are released into the blood stream
and used in the manufacture of new red blood cells. I'm not sure what role they do
in the body but I am sure that I will find out.
The white blood cells which I can see are larger than the red blood cells and
differ from them in three ways: (1) White blood cells have nuclei. (2) White
corpuscles do not contain haemoglobin. (3) Some white cells move much like the
ameba. The white blood cells are less numerous than the red cells, the ratio being
about one white cell to every 600 red cells. White corpuscles are formed in the red
bone marrow and in the lymph glands. Normally there are about 8,000 in one
cubic millimetre of blood as against four and one-half to five million red cells.
The white blood cells that can move about are able to ooze through the
capillary walls into the tissue spaces. Here they engulf solid materials, including
bacteria. They are a important defence of the body against infection. Whenever an
infection develops in the tissues, the white cell count may go from 8,000 to more
than 25,000 per cubic millimetre. White cells collect in the area of an infection
and destroy bacteria. the remains of dead bacteria, white corpuscles, and tissue
fluid is pus.
Another solid component of blood is the blood platelets. As I look around
me they look like they are irregularly shaped, colourless bodies, much smaller than
the red cells. Platelets are not capable of moving on their own but float along in
the blood stream. They have an important function in the formation of a blood
clot.
Now enough of my babbling. At this moment I am moving toward a red
blood cell. On the red blood cell is a substance called haemoglobin. Haemoglobin
is a conjugated protein, containing four atoms of iron, which forms bonds easily
and permits carbon dioxide and oxygen (that's me!) to transport. I see a molecule
of CO2 leave the red cell and I am moving toward it like it is a magnet. I stick to
the haemoglobin which is on the red blood cell. I can't even move and I am scared.
I think I am going to die. I notice that all the red cells are red and not as pale as
they used to be. I also see that I am moving, I am out of the capillary, have passed
through the venules and am in the left pulmonary veins. As I am travelling, I hear
a loud thumping sound, and it is getting louder. I look in my note book and find
that I am nearing the heart. Now I am getting closer and the sound is getting very
loud. I feel a suction all around me. As I come out of the left pulmonary veins, I
enter a big space in the heart called the left atrium. This is where the blood enters
from the lungs. Then I pass through the bicuspid valve into an even larger opening
than the atrium and this is called the left ventricle. The left ventricle is where most
of the muscle is on the heart and it pumps the blood to the entire body. As it
compresses, the red blood cell I am attached to passes out through the aortic
semilunar valve into the aorta.
As I am in the aorta, I am going to talk about the heart. The heart, as you
know, is an organ that pumps blood to the body. An adult heart is about 5 inches
long and weighs about 9 ounces. The heart is completely enclosed by a thin sac
called the pericardium. The inside of the pericardium has a smooth lining that
discharges a slippery liquid. The heart beats smoothly and with little friction
against the moistened lining. A muscular wall called the septum divides the heart
lengthwise. The heart has four chambers two of which I have described. An
adult's heart beats about 70 times a minute. The walls of the heart are made of a
special kind of muscle. The heart muscle contracts and relaxes regularly and
automatically. A beat is one complete contraction and relaxation of the heart
muscle. One part of the heart's muscle system, the sinoatrial node, has the job of
starting each heartbeat, setting the pace, and causing the contraction of the heart
muscle. It has been called the "pacemaker" of the heart. I could go on and on
about this vital organ but I will stop there.
Right now I am in the aorta which is one of many arteries in the body, but it
is the biggest. As blood comes out of the left ventricle it expands and adds to the
pressure of the blood and helps force it to the body. I refer to this as systolic
pressure. The recoil of the artery wall maintains part of the pressure while the
ventricles are at rest. This is the lowest pressure in the arteries, or diastolic
pressure. If the aorta were cut blood would spurt out in a stream six feet or more.
While I am going through the aorta I pass the openings of the left and right
coronary arteries. They are the ones that supply blood to the heart. Now I am in
the aortic arch and it starts to branch off into separate arteries. The blood cell I am
on I guess decides to take me down the thoracic aorta which is going down through
the chest. Then I go down to the abdominal aorta which splits in to two different
arteries. And of all things we get caught in a whirlpool and I decide to take the
time to socialize.
I see another molecule and stop him and ask him his name. He tells me that
his name is Brutus Thorac the 3rd. I ask him how he got to the place and this is his
story.
Brutus was in a hamburger and was part of a long chain of sugars called
carbohydrates? As you may know it is part of a long chain of sugars called starch,
which is made up of single hexose molecules and Brutus's chemical formula is
C6H12O6. Anyway he is a molecule and was in a hamburger and then that big black
hole picked him up and put him in the hole. In the hole called the mouth were
teeth that the bread he was in was crushed into little bits. Let me describe the
mouth. The mouth has structures in it called teeth. There are 32 teeth in the
mouth. The first two teeth are the incisors which cut the food. Next is the canine
tooth which rip the food. They are sharpm and pointed. The next are the
premolars that crush the food into little bits. The molars which have a large
surface area and are grinding and crushing teeth too. There is a tooth called a
wisdom tooth but it gets usually pulled out. Haa!! The chief function of the
mouth is to prepare the food for digestion. The top of the mouth is called the hard
palate and is a bony structure covered with several membranes. The soft palate lies
just back of the hard palate. It is formed by folded membranes which extend from
the rear portion of the hard palate and fasten along the sides of the tongue. The
tongue lies in the floor of the mouth and extends into the throat. This muscular
organ performs several different functions. 1. It acts as an organ of taste. Scattered
over the surface are tiny projections called papillae. These papillae contain taste
buds. They have nerve endings that are stimulated. The result is that the humans
can taste sweet, bitter, salty, and sour. 2. The tongue aids in chewing by keeping
the food between the teeth. 3. During swallowing, food is worked to the back of
the tongue. When the tongue is jerked downward, food lodges in the pharynx and
the food goes down. 4. The tongue rolling in the mouth keeps the inner surface of
the teeth clean. 5. The tongue is essential in speech. Also in the mouth are the
three pairs of salivary glands that secrete saliva. The names of the three glands are
the parotid, sublingual, and the submaxillary glands. The parotid gland is on top of
the mouth. The saliva helps in the digestion of food and cleaning of the teeth,
being alkaline, it neutralizes acids in the mouth. Saliva also lubercates the food,
kill bacteria, and stops the sensation of thirst. An important enzyme in saliva is
called amylase which breaks down starch into smaller parts called maltose. Saliva
contains more than 95% water and contains mineral salts, lubercating mucus, and
the enzyme ptyalin. Ptyalin converts starch (Brutus) into maltose, a disaccharide.
Now I will get back to Brutus. While he was getting chewed up by the
molars the saliva was breaking him down too. He saw his chain break off ahead of
him and he got scared. When the chain finished breaking off all around him, he
was only connected to a fraction of what once the chain was. He was then a
double sugar. And, mean while, he and his buddies were getting sloshed around
by that wicked tongue and that sticky saliva was everywhere. With all this
happening, he was being slowly moved to the back of the mouth. In the act of
swallowing, which is when the food goes from the mouth to the stomach, he
passed through the pharynx (it is where I passed through too) to the oesophagus.
This is a tube which is about a foot in length and connects the mouth to the
stomach. He went down the tube with the aid of layers of muscle in the wall of the
oesophagus. One layer is circular, and squeezes inward. The other layer is
longitudinal, and contracts in a wave which travels downward, pushing the food
ahead of it. Just before he entered the organ called the stomach he passed the
cardiac notch.
Now he entered the stomach which is a somewhat J-shaped. It lies in the
upper left region of the abdominal cavity just below the diaphragm. The stomach
wall contain three layers of smooth muscle, each arranged differently. One layer is
longitudinal, one is circular, and one is angled, or oblique. Contraction of the
smooth muscle fibers of the various layers in different directions causes the
twisting, squeezing, and churning movement of the stomach. The lining of the
stomach is thick, wrinkled membrane. Numerous gastric glands are embedded in
the stomach lining. Each gland is a tiny tube with an opening into the stomach.
The walls of each gland are lined with cells which secrete gastric fluid containing
an enzyme and hydrochloric acid. This secretion passes directly into the stomach.
The principal enzyme in gastric fluid is pepsin. This enzyme acts on protein,
splitting the complex molecules into simpler groups of amino acids, known as
peptones and proteoses. The hydrochloric acid, in addition to providing the proper
medium for the action of pepsin, dissolves insoluble minerals and kills many
bacteria which enter the stomach with food. It also regulates the action of the
pylorus, which opens at the completion of the stomach digestion and allows food to
pass to the small intestine.
The food which passes from the stomach to the small intestine contains: 1.
fats, unchanged 2. sugars, unchanged 3. some starches which were not acted upon
by the ptyalin of saliva 4. coagulated milk casein 5. some proteins unchanged by
the pepsin of the gastric fluid 6. peptones and proteoses formed from pepsin acting
on protein. Poor Brutus remained in the stomach for three hours. While he was
there he was churned back and forth in a circular path. This action separates the
food particles and mixes them thoroughly with stomach secretions. At the
completion of stomach digestion, the valve at the intestinal end, the pyloric valve,
opens and closes several times sending Brutus through on the second squirt. Now
he was in the duodenum, the upper ten inches of the small intestine. The
duodenum carves upward, then backward and to the right, beneath the liver. Here
is where secretions of the liver and pancreas enter. Beyond the duodenum is a
second much longer region, the jejunum. This portion, about seven and one-half
feet in length, is less coiled than the other regions. The lower part of the small
intestine is the ileum and it is about 15 feet long, coils through the abdominal
cavity before joining the large intestine.
As Brutus entered the duodenum, secretions from the liver entered. The
liver is the largest gland in the body and it weighs about 3 and a half pounds. It is
a dark chocolate colour and lies in the upper right region of the abdominal cavity.
Bile is produced by the liver and is a brownish-green fluid. It passes from the liver
in a series of bile ducts which form a Y. As bile is secreted in the liver, it passes
down one branch of the Y, then travels up the other branch to the gull bladder.
Here the bile is stored and concentrated as part of the water is removed. The base
of the Y is the common bile duct. This tube carries bile from the gull bladder to
the upper end of the small intestine, or duodenum. If the common bile duct
becomes clogged by a gallstone, or a plug of mucus, bile enters the blood stream
and causes a yellowing of the eyes and skin, known as jaundice. The liver
performs several vital functions. In receiving glucose from the blood and changing
it to glycogen, it serves as a storehouse in holding reserve carbohydrates as
glycogen. In acting on amino acids and forming urea, it is an organ of excretion.
All these changes involve food after digestion. As a digestive gland, the liver
secretes bile which acts on food in the small intestine. In the formation of bile, the
liver plays a part in using what might otherwise be discarded as waste. Part of the
bile is formed from worn-out haemoglobin that the blood system can no longer use.
Bile has several important functions: l. It is partially a waste substance containing
material from dead red blood corpuscles filtered from the blood stream by the liver.
2. It increases the digestive action of lipase, an enzyme produced in the pancreas,
by breaking globules of fat into small droplets, in the process called emulsification.
3. It helps to neutralize the hydrochloric acid from the stomach so that digestion
can take place in the intestine. Actually, bile is not a digestive secretion. In
emulsifying fats, it splits large fat particles into smaller ones, producing a milky
liquid called an emulsion. In this form, pancreatic fluid can act on fats more
readily.
The pancreas is a many-lobed, long, whitish gland, quite similar in general
appearance to a salivary gland. It lies behind the stomach and the upper end of the
small intestine, against the back wall of the abdominal cavity. It performs two
entirely different functions. The production of insulin and the digestive secretion,
pancreatic fluid, passes into the small intestine through the pancreatic duct, which
leads to a common opening with the bile duct in the wall of the duodenum.
Pancreatic fluid acts upon all three classes of organic nutrients. This digestive
fluid contains the following three enzymes: l. trypsin; 2. amylase; 3. lipase.
Trypsin continues the breakdown of proteins which began in the stomach, by
changing peptones and proteoses to still simpler amino acid groups called paptids.
In addition, it may act upon proteins which were not simplified during stomach
digestion. Peptide are not the final product of protein digestion. Only one
additional step is necessary to form the amino acids which are used by the body
tissues. Amylase duplicates the action of the ptyalin in saliva by changing starch
into maltose. This is how the potatoes you did not chew enough are changed to
sugar. Lipase splits fat into fatty acids and glycerin. This is the only digestive
action on fats which reduces them to the form in which they are absorbed. The
intestinal glands secrete intestinal fluid. The mucous lining of the small intestine
contains many tiny embedded glands that are called intestinal glands. They secrete
intestinal fluid, a highly alkaline substance containing four principal enzymes: 1.
erepsin; 2. maltase; 3. lactase; and 4. sucrase. Erepsin completes protein
digestion by changing peptids, formed by the pancreatic fluid, to amino acids.
Maltase splits the double sugar, maltose, into the simple sugar, glucose,(so Brutus
is now a single sugar called glucose) the final product of carbohydrate digestion.
Lactase has a similar action on lactose, or milk sugar, in changing it to glucose.
Sucrase acts on sucrose and changes it to the simple sugars glucose and fructose.
Thus, with the combined action of bile, pancreatic fluid, and intestinal fluid in the
small intestine, all three classes of foods are completely digested. As simple
sugars, fatty acids and glycerin, and amino acids, they leave the digestive system
and enter the blood and lymph.
The duodenum is also where secretions from the pancreas enter, this process
is described above.
For Brutus to be absorbed into the blood stream, another process must occur.
This process occurs in the villi. A magnified portion of the small intestine shows
that its irregular lining gives rise to great numbers of fingerlike projections called
villi. These projections are so numerous that they give a velvety appearance to the
intestinal lining. Within the villi are branching lymph vessels, called lacteals, and
blood vessels. The villi bring blood and lymph close to the digested food and
increase the absorption surface area of the intestine enormously. Absorption is
increased further by a constant swaying motion of the villi through the intestinal
content.
Glycerin and fatty acids enter the villi and are carried away by the lymph.
They eventually reach the general circulation and travel to the tissues. Glucose
(Brutus) and amino acids, however, enter the blood vessels of the villi. Brutus,
however, does not get carried by a red blood cell but floats around in the plasma.
From the villi they are carried directly to the liver through the portal vein. This is
called portal circulation and it includes an extensive system of veins which lead
from the spleen, stomach, pancreas, small intestine, and colon. The large veins of
the portal circulation unite to form the portal vein, which enters the liver. In the
liver some of the wastes and poisons of the blood are taken out. Additionally,
some substances produced by the liver help the body fight disease and enable
blood to clot. The liver also manufactures various blood proteins, including
albumin, globulins, and fibrinogen. The liver also secretes cholesterol, a fatty
substance. The body uses cholesterol to build cell membranes and to manufacture
certain hormones, including the sex hormones. Hormones are chemicals that
influence various body functions. Liver cells use cholesterol to manufacture bile
salts.
From the liver, Brutus, entered the inferior vena cava which is to the right of
the heart. Then he was pushed and sucked into the right atrium and passed through
the tricuspid valve. From the valve he entered the right ventricle, passed through
the semilunar valves of the pulmonary artery and entered the pulmonary artery.
The pulmonary artery branched off in two directions and Brutus took the left
pulmonary artery. This artery took him to the left lung which has two lobes. Here
the blood looses CO2 and get O2 then Brutus went back to the heart through the left
pulmonary veins. He then entered the left atrium and passed through the bicuspid
valve into the left ventricle. From here he went through the semilunar valves of the
aorta and then was in the aorta. He went by the aortic arch and into the thoracic
aorta, then down to the abdominal aorta where he met me!!
I told him that was some story and that his journey was even worse than
mine. He asked me why I was here and I told him that I was recording everything
that happened to me, I was kind of an experiment. He said that was cool and we
said our good byes and then we went our separate ways.
Now I am out of the whirlpool and going into the left branch of the
abdominal aorta called the common iliac artery. This artery goes down the left leg
of the individual I am inside of. The common iliac branches off and I go into the
external iliac artery. It branches off so I go into the femoral artery. From there I
then go into the post peroneal artery which is just below the left knee. I know I am
sounding complicated but please stay with me. From the post peroneal artery I go
into the lateral plantar artery which is near the heal of the foot. I keep branching
off into smaller and smaller arteries until they aren't arteries anymore. They are
than called arterioles which are small blood vessels that carry blood away from the
heart. The arterioles then branch into capillaries which my red blood cell can
barely fit through. Only one blood cell can go through at a time and they go one
after the other.
As I am in the capillary the walls are thin and one-celled. The spaces
between the cells are big enough so I can pass through but not my red blood cell.
Since there is more carbon dioxide where I am than oxygen the carbon dioxide
takes my place by the process of diffusion. I then pass through a membrane and if
you don't know what a membrane is I will tell you. A membrane is a layer of
tissue through which the cells are enclosed in and through which they can obtain
their food. The membrane is made up mainly of protein. The membrane also hold
the protein in the blood from getting in. Now I am in between the cell and in a
fluid called tissue fluid. The tissue fluid is connected to the lymphatic system but
this system is another story. While I am here I will tell you facts about cells. The
cell is the basic unit of life. The body of a human being has more than 10 million
million (10,000,000,000,000) cells. Also there are all different kinds of cells. If
you want to know, I am near a group of muscle cells. I will talk more about the
cell in a minute.
Now I am floating around in the tissue fluid and I am getting nearer to one of
the cells. As I get closer I see spaces in the cell wall or membrane. The membrane
encloses the entire cell, the nucleus, and all the organelles. The membrane also
hold the cell together. Most membranes consist of a double layer of fatty
substance called phospholipid. Proteins occur at various points and extend to
different depths within the double layer of phospholipids. Only needed materials
can enter the cell and its parts because of the structure and chemical composition
of the membranes.
Now I have squeezed through the cell wall and I am floating around in a
substance called cytoplasm. The cytoplasm is all the cell except the nucleus.
Proteins are made in the cytoplasm, and many of the cell's life activities take place
there. Also in the cytoplasm the sugars are broken down into pyruvic acid, and a
small amount of ATP is produced. Many tiny structures called organelles are
located in the cytoplasm. Each has a particular job to do. These organelles are
called mitochondria, lysosomes, the endoplasmic reticulum, centrioles, and golgi
bodies. Mitochondria are the power producers of the cell. A cell may contain
hundreds of mitochondria. These sausage-shaped structures produce almost all the
energy the cell needs to live and to do its work. Most of your energy comes from
the mitochondria, the power producers of a cell. The mitochondria are like a
power plant which burns fuel to produce the electricity that runs machines. The
food humans eat is the fuel that is "burned" inside the mitochondria. A product of
this burning is a compound called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the
"electricity" that runs the cell's activities. It supplies the energy when a protein is
made, a muscle cell contracts, a nerve cell sends, a message, or a gland cell
produces a chemical. An ATP molecule consists of three substances: (1) adenine,
(2) ribose, and (3) three phosphate groups. Chemical bonds (forces that hold atoms
together) link the phosphate groups together like railroad cars. The bonds that
attach the second and third phosphate groups are especially rich in energy. When
they are broken, energy is released. Lysosomes are small, round bodies containing
many different enzymes, which can break down many substances. For example,
lysosomes help white blood cells break down harmful bacteria. Endoplasmic
Reticulum is a complex network of membrane-enclosed spaces in the cytoplasm.
The surfaces of some of the membranes are smooth. Others are bordered by
ribosomes--tiny round bodies that contain large amounts of RNA. Ribosomes are
the cell's manufacturing units. The proteins the cell needs in order to grow, repair
itself, and perform hundreds of chemical operations are made on the ribosomes.
Centrioles look like two bundles of rods. They lie near the nucleus, and are
important in cell reproduction. Golgi bodies, also called Golgi complex or golgi
apparatus, consist of a stack of flat, baglike structures that store and eventually
release various products from the cell.
Now as I look around I also see a big dark shape located near the centre of
the cell. It is called the nucleus. The nucleus is the control centre that directs the
activities of the cell. A nuclear membrane surrounds the nucleus and separates it
from the cytoplasm. The nucleus contains two important types of structures,
chromosomes and nucleoli. Chromosomes are long, threadlike bodies that
normally are visible only when the cell is dividing. Chromosomes consist chiefly
of two substances--DNA and certain proteins. Lined up along the chromosomes
are the genes, the basic units of heredity. Genes control the passing on of
characteristics from parents to offspring. Each gene consists of part of a DNA
molecule. The DNA that makes up the genes determines that a dog will give birth
to a dog instead of a fish. It determines your height, the colour of your eyes, the
shape of your hands, the texture of your hair, and thousands of other
characteristics. DNA works its wonders chiefly by directing the production of
complicated chemical substances called proteins. The cell's structures are built
mostly of proteins. In addition, certain proteins called enzymes speed up chemical
reactions in the cell. Without enzymes, these reactions would occur very slowly,
and the cell could not function normally. Thus, the kinds of proteins a cell makes
largely determine the nature of the cell. Nucleoli are round bodies that form in
certain regions of specific chromosomes. Each nucleus may contain one or more
nucleoli, though some cells have none at all. Nucleoli help in the formation of
ribosomes, the cell's centres of protein production. Nucleoli are made up of
proteins and RNA (ribonucleic acid). RNA is chemically similar to DNA and
plays an important role in making proteins.
Another thing I can see in the cell is a vacuole. A vacuole is like an empty
space where the cell can store wastes and food.
After floating around in the cytoplasm I eventually go into the structure
called mitochondrion. The amino, fatty, and pyruvic acids also entered the
mitochondrion. I see enzymes breaking down these substances further in a series
of chemical reactions. I guess that I must also be present for these reactions to take
place. With all these reactions taking place at the same time, I am very dazed.
Suddenly I notice that I am attached to a carbon atom. WOW!!!! You know what,
I think I know the chemical formula for a cell to produce energy. It is C6H12O6 +
O2 = H2O + CO2 + energy. That is Sugar (Brutus) plus oxygen (me, Urkle Olus
Oxygen) equals Water plus Carbon dioxide plus energy. Energy which is in the
form of many molecules of ATP. I can see the ATP then leave the mitochondria
and provide power wherever it is needed in the cell. For every job that is done,
enzymes break the ATP phosphate bonds and release the energy.
Now that I am a carbon dioxide molecule I am leaving the cell by the
process of diffusion. Diffusion is when substances diffuse from areas of greater
concentration to areas of lesser concentration. What also helps the water move
around is the fact that proteins in the blood can't get through the membrane layer
but salt can. The salt draws the water into the cell and the proteins can draw the
water out to the capillaries. The blood pressure also pushes the water out.
I pass through the cell wall and into the tissue fluid. From there I pass
through another membrane that holds the groups cells together and now I am in the
capillary. I see a oxygen molecule leave a red blood cell and then I (CO2) float
over to the red blood cell and stick to it (I stick to the haemoglobin like before).
From the capillary I go into a venule and then into a vein. First I will tell you what
an artery is; then what a vein is. Arteries have elastic, muscular walls and smooth
linings. This is what an artery is made up of from the inside to the outside, first
there is a membrane called the serous membrane, next there is smooth muscle
tissue, and last there is the connective tissue. Arteries must be elastic to absorb
part of the pressure resulting from contraction of the ventricles. This expansion
can be felt in the wrist and in other parts of the body where arteries are near the
surface. It is know as the pulse. The muscles of the artery walls are controlled by
nerves. When these muscles contract, they reduce the size of the artery and raise
the blood pressure. Veins carry dark-red blood; that is, blood lacking oxygen.
Veins aren't much different in what makes them up except that they are bigger and
that they have more valves. In the skin the veins have a bluish colour due to the
fact that the skin contains a yellow pigment which changes the appearance of the
dark-red blood. The walls of the veins are thinner and less firm than those of
arteries, and their internal diameter is proportionally larger. Many of the larger
veins are provided with cuplike valves which prevent the backward flow of blood.
Veins have no pulse wave and the blood pressure within them is much lower than
that of arteries. Blood pressure resulting from heart action is almost completely
lost as blood passes through the capillaries. Blood from the head may return to the
heart with the aid of gravity, but in the body regions below the level of the heart
other factors are required. Venous flow from these regions are aided by the
working muscles, the vacuum created in the chest during inspiration, and, to a
small extent, by the sucking action caused by the contractions of the heart. All this
circulation is called the systemic circulation.
The first major vein that I travel up toward the heart is called the small
saphenous vein and it travels up the heal and the back of the leg. As I go up I pass
a few valves and my vein then goes into the vein called the femoral vein. From the
femoral vein I then enter the common iliac vein and then it goes into the inferior
vena cava. The inferior vena cava is then joined by the superior vena cava before
entering the heart. I then entered the first part of the heart called the right atrium.
Now I am in the right ventricle, but before I entered the right ventricle I first passed
through the tricuspid valve. From there I go through the semilunar valves of the
pulmonary artery and passed into the pulmonary artery. The pulmonary artery then
splits into two arteries and my red blood cell decides to take the left pulmonary
artery. This artery then splits into more arteries and eventually into arterioles and
capillaries. In the capillary we start to slow down as we near the alveoli. When
we are right against the alveoli I (CO2) then fall off the red blood cell and pass
through a membrane called the pleural membrane and enter into the middle of the
alveoli. I then see an oxygen molecule take my place and it is attached to the red
blood cell. So now I have just gone out of the circulatory system and have entered
the raspatory system again. Right now I am in an alveoli that is at the end of a
bronchus tube called the lateral basel and it is in the left lung. The left lung has
two lubes and the right has three. Now I enter the bronchiole and it goes into a
bigger tube called bronchial and it enter the bronchi tube. The bronchi tube is the
main tube that enters each lung. As I go up the trachea I noticed the cilia as I did
when I went down. Just before I pass out of the trachea I notice a structure that I
didn't notice when I came in. It is called the epiglottis. The epiglottis sits at the
upper end of the trachea and it is a lid. During swallowing, the end of the trachea
is closed by the epiglottis. At other times it remains open for breathing. The
epiglottis keeps the food from going down the wrong hole.
Now I enter the nasal passage and I once again see the hairs and mucus, but,
there isn't any dirt so I gathered that someone taught him to pick his nose and eat it
to recycle those valuable proteins that his body needs. Who am I to say that it is
bad. Guess what? I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, the nose. Now I am
outside in the nice fresh air and I am heading toward a plant!! This is stupid. I get
the feeling that I am going to see some more reactions take place before a can get
back to the Structural Bases of Life Research Centre. THE END!!!

Information about my non-fiction story.

37592 - Character Count

8223 - Word Count
580 - Line Count
626 - Sentence Count
62 - Paragraph Count
15 - Page Count
4 - Average Word Length
13 - Average Word Per Sentence
43 - Maximum Words Per Sentence

Sources to whom I give credit.

Main Author Book Title Publisher and Date
James H. Otto Modern Biology Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
1960
Carmine D. Clemente Anatomy Lea and Febiger, 1975
Aaron O. Wasserman Biology Meredith Corporation, 1973
Mr. Morris Notes HSS, 1994
To many World Book Encyclopedia Scott Fetzer Company, 1986

PS -- I didn't use your text book you gave me because I had a three better ones at
home.

Here is a blonde joke you never heard before.

Jean: Do you think she is a natural blonde or a bleached blonde?
Zona: I think she is a suicide blonde.
Jean: What kind is that?
Zona: Dyed by her own hand.