would that person last?
—Nina Charest
A. If you lost your DNA , you would instantly be about a third of a pound lighter.
Losing a third of a pound
I don’t recommend this strategy. Th ere are easier ways to lose a third of a pound, including:
Taking off your shirt
Peeing
Cutting your hair (if you have very long hair)
Donating blood, but putting a kink in the IV once they drain 150 mL and refusing to let them take any more
Holding a 3-foot-diameter balloon full of helium
Removing your fingers
You’ll also lose a third of a pound if you take a trip from the polar regions to the tropics. Th is happens for two reasons: One, the Earth isshaped like this:
If you stand on the North Pole, you’re 20 kilometers closer to the center of the Earth than if you stand on the equator, and you feel a stronger pull from gravity.
Furthermore, if you’re on the equator, you’re being flung outward by centrifugal force. 1
Th e result of these two phenomena is that if you move between polar regions and equatorial ones, you might lose or gain up to about half a percent of your body weight.
Th e reason I’m focusing on weight is that if your DNA disappeared, the physical loss of the matter wouldn’t be the first thing you might notice. It’s possible you’d feel something — a tiny, uniform shockwave asevery cell contracted slightly — but maybe not.
If you were standing up when you lost your DNA, you might twitch slightly. When you stand, your muscles are constantly working to keep you upright. Th e force being exerted by those muscle fibers wouldn’t change, but the mass they’re pulling on — your limbs — would. Since F = ma, various body parts would accelerate slightly.
After that, you wouldprobably feel pretty normal.
For a while.
Destroying angel
Nobody has ever lost all their DNA, 2 so we can’t say for sure what the precise sequence of medical consequences would be. But to get an idea of what it might be like, let’s turn to mushroom poisonings.
Amanita bisporigera is a species of mushroom found in eastern North America. Along with related species in America andEurope, it’s known by the common name destroying angel.
Destroying angel is a small, white, inoccuous-looking mushroom. If you’re like me, you were told never to eat mushrooms you found in the woods. Amanita is the reason why. 3
If you eat a destroying angel, for the rest of the day you’ll feel fine. Later that night, or the next morning, you’ll start exhibiting cholera-like symptoms — vomiting, abdominal pain, and severe diarrhea. Th en you start to feel better.
At the point where you start to feel better, the damage is probably irreversible. Amanita mushrooms contain amatoxin, which binds to an enzyme that is used to read information from DNA. It hobbles the enzyme, effectively interrupting the process by which cells follow DNA’s instructions.
Amatoxin causes irreversible damage to whatever cells it collects in.Since most of your body is made of cells, 4 this is bad. Death is generally caused by liver or kidney failure, since those are the first sensitive organs in which the toxin accumulates. Sometimes intensive care and a liver transplant can be enough to save a patient, but a sizable percentage of those who eat Amanita mushrooms die.
Th e frightening thing about Amanita poisoning is the “walkingghost” phase — the period where you seem to be fine (or getting better), but your cells are accumulating irreversible and lethal damage.
Th is pattern is typical of DNA damage, and we’d likely see something like it in someone who lost their DNA.
Th e picture is even more vividly illustrated by two other examples of DNA damage: chemotherapy and radiation.
Radiation and chemotherapy
Chemotherapy drugs are blunt instruments. Some are more precisely targeted than others, but many simply interrupt cell division in general. Th e reason that this selectively kills cancer cells, instead of harming the patient and the cancer equally,
—Nina Charest
A. If you lost your DNA , you would instantly be about a third of a pound lighter.
Losing a third of a pound
I don’t recommend this strategy. Th ere are easier ways to lose a third of a pound, including:
Taking off your shirt
Peeing
Cutting your hair (if you have very long hair)
Donating blood, but putting a kink in the IV once they drain 150 mL and refusing to let them take any more
Holding a 3-foot-diameter balloon full of helium
Removing your fingers
You’ll also lose a third of a pound if you take a trip from the polar regions to the tropics. Th is happens for two reasons: One, the Earth isshaped like this:
If you stand on the North Pole, you’re 20 kilometers closer to the center of the Earth than if you stand on the equator, and you feel a stronger pull from gravity.
Furthermore, if you’re on the equator, you’re being flung outward by centrifugal force. 1
Th e result of these two phenomena is that if you move between polar regions and equatorial ones, you might lose or gain up to about half a percent of your body weight.
Th e reason I’m focusing on weight is that if your DNA disappeared, the physical loss of the matter wouldn’t be the first thing you might notice. It’s possible you’d feel something — a tiny, uniform shockwave asevery cell contracted slightly — but maybe not.
If you were standing up when you lost your DNA, you might twitch slightly. When you stand, your muscles are constantly working to keep you upright. Th e force being exerted by those muscle fibers wouldn’t change, but the mass they’re pulling on — your limbs — would. Since F = ma, various body parts would accelerate slightly.
After that, you wouldprobably feel pretty normal.
For a while.
Destroying angel
Nobody has ever lost all their DNA, 2 so we can’t say for sure what the precise sequence of medical consequences would be. But to get an idea of what it might be like, let’s turn to mushroom poisonings.
Amanita bisporigera is a species of mushroom found in eastern North America. Along with related species in America andEurope, it’s known by the common name destroying angel.
Destroying angel is a small, white, inoccuous-looking mushroom. If you’re like me, you were told never to eat mushrooms you found in the woods. Amanita is the reason why. 3
If you eat a destroying angel, for the rest of the day you’ll feel fine. Later that night, or the next morning, you’ll start exhibiting cholera-like symptoms — vomiting, abdominal pain, and severe diarrhea. Th en you start to feel better.
At the point where you start to feel better, the damage is probably irreversible. Amanita mushrooms contain amatoxin, which binds to an enzyme that is used to read information from DNA. It hobbles the enzyme, effectively interrupting the process by which cells follow DNA’s instructions.
Amatoxin causes irreversible damage to whatever cells it collects in.Since most of your body is made of cells, 4 this is bad. Death is generally caused by liver or kidney failure, since those are the first sensitive organs in which the toxin accumulates. Sometimes intensive care and a liver transplant can be enough to save a patient, but a sizable percentage of those who eat Amanita mushrooms die.
Th e frightening thing about Amanita poisoning is the “walkingghost” phase — the period where you seem to be fine (or getting better), but your cells are accumulating irreversible and lethal damage.
Th is pattern is typical of DNA damage, and we’d likely see something like it in someone who lost their DNA.
Th e picture is even more vividly illustrated by two other examples of DNA damage: chemotherapy and radiation.
Radiation and chemotherapy
Chemotherapy drugs are blunt instruments. Some are more precisely targeted than others, but many simply interrupt cell division in general. Th e reason that this selectively kills cancer cells, instead of harming the patient and the cancer equally,
Similar Books
