[HN Gopher] Why birds can fly over Mount Everest (2020) ___________________________________________________________________ Why birds can fly over Mount Everest (2020) Author : Phithagoras Score : 81 points Date : 2021-10-12 20:48 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (nautil.us) (TXT) w3m dump (nautil.us) | dang wrote: | One past thread: | | _Why Birds Can Fly over Mount Everest_ - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23639294 - June 2020 (96 | comments) | dmd wrote: | If you remove the word 'can' from the title, you get another | interesting question, and some scientists think the answer is | that the bar-headed geese have been doing it since before there | was a mountain range there! | jhgb wrote: | > bar-headed geese have been doing it since before there was a | mountain range there | | The Himalayas formed fifty millions years ago. Geese apparently | appeared ten million years ago. How would this be possible? | pvg wrote: | If that's true they've also been pigheaded since before there | were pigs which probably explains the name. | aspectmin wrote: | I love reading both Nautilus and Quanta. Great articles. | smegcicle wrote: | tldr bird respiratory system is very effective, they breathe in | one end of their lungs and out the other, always with either a | full breath in their lungs or two breaths in their air sacs (one | fresh, one ready to be exhaled) | | http://www.lslbo.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/bird-lungs.j... | Mountain_Skies wrote: | We already have artificial continuous flow hearts, next up: | continuous flow lungs. | plantain wrote: | Some people have (kinda) learnt to - | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_breathing | polishdude20 wrote: | Like a literal jet engine. Continuous flow of air | soylentnewsorg wrote: | Well this seems interesting... So from my knowledge of high | school honors bio, blood vessels have these long slow muscles | that also help pump blood. If a heart pumps continuously, | wouldn't that create back pressure on the vein/artery | muscles, which would in turn increase your blood pressure | whenever the vessel muscles contract to pump? And if you got | an artificial heart, I'd think higher blood pressure is a bad | thing? | | From my quick research just now, it seems continuous flow | hearts are not better because they pump differently. That's | just a side effect with no benefit that's noted in studies. A | continuous pump is much smaller, and for long-term total | heart replacement, is the only thing that can be small enough | to fit in the body. In fact, it's noted in a case study that | they're not sure about the long term effects of not having | pulses, and that's something that will need to be studied. | | Now as far as the lungs - I think that would be a bad idea | too. We'd need separate flow-through pathways to inhale and | exhale. So two necks, or an exit hole in the chest. That | takes up space and is another vector for infection. In | addition, exhaling moisturizes the tissue, so you'd need much | harsher intake tubes, and your exhale tubes would be | constantly dripping water. All that extra space has to come | from somewhere - meaning you now have less space for actual | oxygenating tissue, resulting in worse oxygen capture. Now | the diaphragm has to pump harder, because you're not | extracting as much oxygen from your air intake. | | Anywise, you had a funny comment, which I hopefully made | funnier by responding to it seriously. We're a good team. | Team Heart & Lungs they call us. | dorfsmay wrote: | Yes, Medlife Crisis talks about the issue of continuous | flow artifixcal heart and mentioned that work is happening | on one than mimmics the heart better in one of his videos. | einpoklum wrote: | Wow, that story is amazing well-written. I would definitely tell | it to my kids (if and when I have them). | ARandomerDude wrote: | It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question | of weight ratios! A five-ounce bird could not carry a one-pound | coconut. | icelancer wrote: | African swallows are non-migratory, man. | simorley wrote: | So that's what dinosaur tastes like. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-10-12 23:00 UTC)