Page 12 - BBC Knowledge - October 2017 IN

Questions
& Answers
Sorry, but we’re
about to get very HOW MANY ORGANS
creepy in the name
COULD YOU LOSE AND
of science…
STILL LIVE?

You can still have a fairly normal life without one of your lungs, a kidney,
your spleen, appendix, gall bladder, adenoids, tonsils, plus some of
your lymph nodes, the fibula bones from each leg and six of your ribs.
Losing your uterus, ovaries and breasts, or your testicles and
prostate, is also quite survivable, although you might need hormone
therapy to avoid other long-term problems, such as brittle bones.
If you allow yourself artificial replacements and medication, we can
go further and remove your stomach, colon, pancreas, salivary
glands, thyroid, bladder and your other kidney. Still not enough
for you? Theoretically, surgeons could amputate all of your limbs,
and remove your eyes, nose, ears, larynx, tongue, lower spine
and rectum. Supported by machines in an intensive care unit,
they could also take away your skull, heart and your remaining
lung, at least for a short while.
This adds up to a theoretically survivable loss of around
45 per cent of your total body mass. But any trauma
that destroyed all these organs all at once would almost
certainly kill you from shock and blood loss. And surgically
removing them one at a time over many months
would likely also be fatal, due to infections in your
immune-compromised state. LV

HOW HOT COULD EARTH GET WHAT IS BEING DONE TO
BEFORE IT’S UNINHABITABLE PRESERVE POMPEII?
FOR HUMANS?
The main threat to the already excavated buildings and
Humans need to sweat to survive in warm conditions, and that’s mosaics is moisture, which attacks the plaster and mortar. But PHOTOS: GETTY X4, ILLUSTRATIONS: RAJA LOCKEY
only possible if the combination of temperature and humidity – Pompeii has attracted the best archaeological conservationists
known as the wet-bulb temperature – stays below around 35°C. from around the world. In 2012, a 10-year project began
According to a 2012 study by scientists at MIT, this limit could be installing protective roofs, removing existing moisture and
reached globally if our planet warms by around 12°C. Fortunately, researching the chemical structure of ancient plasters. There
few scientists think global warming will do this in the foreseeable is also a moratorium on new archaeological excavations. LV
12 future. RM
OCTOBER 2017