Science Newsletter #15 - Bournemouth School for Girls

ut te disadvantage is tat only 1/19 asmuc energy can e produced rom tesame amount o ood iving mammals aveeen ound to e more tolerant o lacc acid, te poisonous y product o anaeroicrespiraonRedistribuon of blood owe dive reflex is also associated wit a reducon in eart rate In order to maintainlood pressure, lood is sunted primarily tote eart, lungs and rain wit lile or nolood flowing to oter organs suc as teliver, idney and pancreasOxygen storesiving mammals avean increased aility tostore oxygen in watcan e tougt o as an‘internal scua tanconsisng o treecompartments, te stored in te lung, muscle and ssue emuscle and lood o diving verterates avegreater concentraons o te oxygen carrying pigments aemogloin and myogloinyogloin is a pigment wic acts as an oxygen store in muscle and occurs in concentraons 13 mes tat o terrestrial mammals Haemogloin is ound in red lood cellsand is increased y aving ot a largeramount o lood and a greater proporon ored lood cells in te lood iving mammalsave a lood volume o 1% o teir overall mass, compared wit 7% in umansHow do sciensts study diving mammals?nl recently, it was very dicult to studydirectly te eaviour o diving mammals inteir natural aitats and sciensts reliedeavily upon wor undertaen wit capvemammals erendipity also played its part:or example, it was nown tat a spermwale was ale to dive to 1134m ecause atransAtlanc cale was roen at tis dept,and wen te cale was taen up or repair,a dead wale ad its lower aw entangledwit te caleGLOSSARPysiology is aout te uncons o living organisms – ow tey eat, reate, and move aout, and wattey do ust to stay aliveRespiraon is te release o energy rom ood, it may e aeroic reuiring oxygen) or anaeroicRespiratory pigments are proteins wic are aly to reversily ind to oxygen, acng as a store unl teoxygen is needed or respiraonCBA stands or selcontained underwater reating apparatus and was invented y te legendaryFrenc marine iologist and lm maer Jacues Cousteau in te 194serendipity is a ‘lucy accident In our example one could answer tat wilst te sciensts were lucy tewale was less so! ere are many examples o serendipity is science, te most amous one eing tediscovery o penicillin y Alexander Fleming in 198