Friday, January 14, 2011

Our ontogenesis: only one outcome...


Indeed: only one outcome: death. Ontogenesis is the sequence of events involved in the life of an individual organism, or more specifically from birth to death. I did go to the doctor today but that isn't what I'm on about: reading B&D's "We All Die In The End, But How?": a nice post and with a few links to little known charities; a self explanatory blogpost and with a link to THIS fantastic graphic at the Guardian (PDF). Some interesting and strange facts e.g. as many people die from falling down stairs/off steps than die from alcohol.
"So the biggest killer? That is heart attacks. [...] Yet it seems to me to be really rather under-represented in terms of fundraising and celebrity endorsement."
I commented there that the heart has never ceased to amaze me...
"Give a tennis ball a good, hard squeeze. You're using about the same amount of force your heart uses to pump blood out to the body. Even at rest, the muscles of the heart work hard—twice as hard as the leg muscles of a person sprinting."
A pump, made of meat, that beats 2 or 3 BILLION times in an average life...jeez. Amazing heart facts.

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