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poking the internet for facts
Mar. 12th, 2011 04:07 pmI read that Andean, Ethiopian and Himalayan populations with ancestors who have been there a good long while have adapted to the altitude so they can breathe air much thinner than sea level without getting ill. Also that they do this three different ways, and nobody had figured out how the Ethiopians do it. Andean populations carry more oxygen in each red blood cell, having higher hemoglobin concentrations in their blood. Tibetans breathe more often and expand their blood vessels, increasing their blood flow. Ethiopians don't do either of those things and yet manage to be perfectly healthy. Science is fascinated. I read a national geographic thing that explains it, from a bunch of years back. I'm still not sure I understand it right. But basically: some humans need less atmosphere than us sea level types.
So, logically, if we find a planet with less atmosphere, we could send those humans to go colonise it.
... or acquire their clever genes to grow colonists with, depending which strand of SF you go with.
I was sort of wondering if you could mix them all together and have humans that can live even higher up mountains, but you can't do selective breeding on humans so I'll have to stop wondering.
So then I was trying to find out if there's any down sides to this adaptation. Like, do they get ill at sea level? I didn't find anything on the internet about that, just about sports people living at altitude so they can come down to sea level and be a bit better. So would these altitude people just be a bit better at sea level?
I sort of wanted something that would look weird on medical charts and let someone go 'aha! I know what planet they're from! ... after Earth, obviously.' Maybe if I understood more about these breathing adaptations I could do that, or maybe if someone had been living at 'sea level' for long enough they'd just be all ordinary.
... now I'm sure I've wondered about this before, but google can't find such a journal entry, so I'll post this.
... I am hiding from reality today, btw. I read too many things about reality, so now I'm playing with nice safe spaceships.
So, logically, if we find a planet with less atmosphere, we could send those humans to go colonise it.
... or acquire their clever genes to grow colonists with, depending which strand of SF you go with.
I was sort of wondering if you could mix them all together and have humans that can live even higher up mountains, but you can't do selective breeding on humans so I'll have to stop wondering.
So then I was trying to find out if there's any down sides to this adaptation. Like, do they get ill at sea level? I didn't find anything on the internet about that, just about sports people living at altitude so they can come down to sea level and be a bit better. So would these altitude people just be a bit better at sea level?
I sort of wanted something that would look weird on medical charts and let someone go 'aha! I know what planet they're from! ... after Earth, obviously.' Maybe if I understood more about these breathing adaptations I could do that, or maybe if someone had been living at 'sea level' for long enough they'd just be all ordinary.
... now I'm sure I've wondered about this before, but google can't find such a journal entry, so I'll post this.
... I am hiding from reality today, btw. I read too many things about reality, so now I'm playing with nice safe spaceships.