is that cancer cells are dividing all the time, whereas most normal cells divide only occasionally.
Some human cells do divide constantly. Th e mostrapidly dividing cells are found in the bone marrow, the factory that produces blood.
Bone marrow is also central to the human immune system. Without it, we lose the ability to produce white blood cells, and our immune system collapses. Chemotherapy causes damage to the immune system, which makes cancer patients vulnerable to stray infections. 5
Th ere are other types of rapidly dividing cells in the body. Our hair follicles and stomach lining also divide constantly,which is why chemotherapy can cause hair loss and nausea.
Doxorubicin, one of the most common and potent chemotherapy drugs, works by linking random segments of DNA to one another to tangle them. Th is is like dripping superglue on a ball of yarn; it binds the DNA into a useless tangle. 6 Th e initial side effects of doxorubicin, in the few days after treatment, are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea — which makes sense, since the drug kills cells in the digestive tract.
A loss of DNA would cause similar cell death, and probably similar symptoms.
Radiation
Large doses of gamma radiation also harm you by damaging your DNA; radiation poisoning is probably the kind of real-life injury that most resembles Nina’s scenario. Th e cells most sensitive to radiation are, as with chemotherapy,those in your bone marrow, followed by those in your digestive tract. 7
Radiation poisoning, like destroying angel mushroom toxicity, has a latent period — a “walking ghost” phase. Th is is the period where the body is still working, but no new proteins can be synthesized and the immune system is collapsing.
In cases of severe radiation poisoning, the immune system collapse is the primarycause of death. Without a supply of white blood cells, the body can’t fight off infections, and ordinary bacteria can get into the body and run wild.
The end result
Losing your DNA would most likely result in abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, rapid immune system collapse, and death within days or hours from either rapid systemic infection or systemwide organ failure.
On the other hand, there would be at least one silver lining. If we ever end up in a dystopian future where Orwellian governments collect our genetic information and use it to track and control us . . .
. . . you’d be invisible.
1 Yes, “centrifugal.” I will fight you.
2 I don’t have a citation for this, but I feel like we would have heard about it.
3 Th ere are several members of the Amanita genus called “destroying angel,” and — along with another Amanita called “death cap” — they are responsible forthe vast majority of fatal mushroom poisonings.
4 Citation: I got one of your friends to sneak into your room with a microscope while you were sleeping and check.
5 Immune boosters like pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) make frequent doses of chemotherapy safer. Th ey stimulate white blood cell production by, in effect, tricking the body into thinkingthat it has a massive E. coli infection that it needs to fight off.
6 Although it’s a little different; if you drip superglue on cotton thread, it will catch fire.
7 Extremely high radiation doses kill people quickly, but not because of DNA damage. Instead, they physically dissolve the blood-brain barrier, resulting in rapid death fromcerebral hemorrhage (brain bleeding).
Interplanetary Cessna
Q. What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different solar system bodies?
—Glen Chiacchieri
A. Here’s our aircraft: 1
We have to use an electric motor because gas engines work only near green plants. On worlds without plants, oxygen doesn’t stay in the atmosphere — it combines with other elements to form things like carbon dioxide and rust. Plants undo this by stripping the oxygen back out and pumping it into the air. Engines need oxygen in the air to run. 2
Here’s our
Some human cells do divide constantly. Th e mostrapidly dividing cells are found in the bone marrow, the factory that produces blood.
Bone marrow is also central to the human immune system. Without it, we lose the ability to produce white blood cells, and our immune system collapses. Chemotherapy causes damage to the immune system, which makes cancer patients vulnerable to stray infections. 5
Th ere are other types of rapidly dividing cells in the body. Our hair follicles and stomach lining also divide constantly,which is why chemotherapy can cause hair loss and nausea.
Doxorubicin, one of the most common and potent chemotherapy drugs, works by linking random segments of DNA to one another to tangle them. Th is is like dripping superglue on a ball of yarn; it binds the DNA into a useless tangle. 6 Th e initial side effects of doxorubicin, in the few days after treatment, are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea — which makes sense, since the drug kills cells in the digestive tract.
A loss of DNA would cause similar cell death, and probably similar symptoms.
Radiation
Large doses of gamma radiation also harm you by damaging your DNA; radiation poisoning is probably the kind of real-life injury that most resembles Nina’s scenario. Th e cells most sensitive to radiation are, as with chemotherapy,those in your bone marrow, followed by those in your digestive tract. 7
Radiation poisoning, like destroying angel mushroom toxicity, has a latent period — a “walking ghost” phase. Th is is the period where the body is still working, but no new proteins can be synthesized and the immune system is collapsing.
In cases of severe radiation poisoning, the immune system collapse is the primarycause of death. Without a supply of white blood cells, the body can’t fight off infections, and ordinary bacteria can get into the body and run wild.
The end result
Losing your DNA would most likely result in abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, rapid immune system collapse, and death within days or hours from either rapid systemic infection or systemwide organ failure.
On the other hand, there would be at least one silver lining. If we ever end up in a dystopian future where Orwellian governments collect our genetic information and use it to track and control us . . .
. . . you’d be invisible.
1 Yes, “centrifugal.” I will fight you.
2 I don’t have a citation for this, but I feel like we would have heard about it.
3 Th ere are several members of the Amanita genus called “destroying angel,” and — along with another Amanita called “death cap” — they are responsible forthe vast majority of fatal mushroom poisonings.
4 Citation: I got one of your friends to sneak into your room with a microscope while you were sleeping and check.
5 Immune boosters like pegfilgrastim (Neulasta) make frequent doses of chemotherapy safer. Th ey stimulate white blood cell production by, in effect, tricking the body into thinkingthat it has a massive E. coli infection that it needs to fight off.
6 Although it’s a little different; if you drip superglue on cotton thread, it will catch fire.
7 Extremely high radiation doses kill people quickly, but not because of DNA damage. Instead, they physically dissolve the blood-brain barrier, resulting in rapid death fromcerebral hemorrhage (brain bleeding).
Interplanetary Cessna
Q. What would happen if you tried to fly a normal Earth airplane above different solar system bodies?
—Glen Chiacchieri
A. Here’s our aircraft: 1
We have to use an electric motor because gas engines work only near green plants. On worlds without plants, oxygen doesn’t stay in the atmosphere — it combines with other elements to form things like carbon dioxide and rust. Plants undo this by stripping the oxygen back out and pumping it into the air. Engines need oxygen in the air to run. 2
Here’s our
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