WEBVTT - The Centaur with Two Hearts

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Works dot com. Hey are you welcome to Stuff to

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<v Speaker 1>Blow your Mind? My name is Robert lamp and I'm

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<v Speaker 1>Julie Douglas. Julie, have you seen any recent movies that

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<v Speaker 1>have centaurs? And no, I haven't, but you recently sent

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<v Speaker 1>out a rate photo of fifty center. Oh yes, well

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<v Speaker 1>that was online. Various individualsome to have a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>fun creating centaurs out of humans famous humans generally and horses.

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<v Speaker 1>But they have shown up in some movies, and the

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<v Speaker 1>Narnia movies had centers in that Harry Potter movies. Pierce

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<v Speaker 1>Bronson even hoofs it up in Percy Jackson and the

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<v Speaker 1>Lightning Thief, which is amusing to look at because it's

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<v Speaker 1>one of these cases where the centaur is wearing clothes

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<v Speaker 1>on its human part. It's just weird. Yeah, and then

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<v Speaker 1>the horses naked, of course, and you're like, why aren't

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<v Speaker 1>you even wearing a shirt? You know? In our films,

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<v Speaker 1>it's interesting because they use various elements of costume and

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<v Speaker 1>makeup and CG. I generally need to create these. A

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<v Speaker 1>centaur is an idea that is kind of monstrosity. In

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<v Speaker 1>the best of cases. But if you throw in kind

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<v Speaker 1>of shaky c g I or makeup, it looks even

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<v Speaker 1>weirder and a little more troubling to behold. Yeah, I

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<v Speaker 1>have to say that in the Narnia series that for

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<v Speaker 1>whatever reason, that Center drives me nuts, Like, not in

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<v Speaker 1>a good way anyway, it is. It's a fine line. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, they're ridiculous yet oddly perplexing, and in large

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<v Speaker 1>part because they do embody the dual nature of man,

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<v Speaker 1>this idea of the man and beast hybrid, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>much like the Saturday that we had mentioned before. It

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<v Speaker 1>represented the duplicity of man's be steel and pious nature.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's why you also find centaur's running around in

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<v Speaker 1>Dante's Inferno, thrusting centers back to their assigned depths in

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<v Speaker 1>boiling rivers of blood with spears um. Elsewhere in the

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<v Speaker 1>world of sculptures, you find them choking heroes and punching heroes.

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<v Speaker 1>They're always engaging in physical violence. With a few exceptions.

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<v Speaker 1>You do have some notable centaur teachers who are very

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<v Speaker 1>wise and want to help people, but a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>Center seemed to be perfectly happy, was just punching dudes

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<v Speaker 1>in the face. Yeah, it's funny because when you first

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<v Speaker 1>think of them, it's sort of like in the realm

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<v Speaker 1>of unicorns and they seem cute and you know, like

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<v Speaker 1>randier unicorns, half man, but they really are sort of

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<v Speaker 1>bloodthirsty folk. When you look at the tales of them.

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<v Speaker 1>You see them in various mythologies. Their most famous for

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<v Speaker 1>their role in Greek mythology, but you also find them

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<v Speaker 1>in India. The Gandharva's are are basically centaurs, and then

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<v Speaker 1>you find other cultural traditions that take new takes on

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<v Speaker 1>what a centauri is. For instance, according to Carol Rose,

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<v Speaker 1>historian has written a lot about monsters and symbolic meaning

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<v Speaker 1>of monsters, points out that centers often pop up in

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<v Speaker 1>European traditions to represent quote, the suffering of Christ as

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<v Speaker 1>the man and the revenge taken upon his betrayal, which

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<v Speaker 1>I find rather interesting and kind of hard to imagine.

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<v Speaker 1>And then you also find some interesting takes on centaurs

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<v Speaker 1>in sculpture. Versus, if you traveled to the Louver and

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<v Speaker 1>you see the old centaur there, which is this statue

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<v Speaker 1>of the centaur and his arms are bound behind his

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<v Speaker 1>back and upids riding on his back. There originally two

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<v Speaker 1>of these, you have the old centaur and the young centaur,

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<v Speaker 1>and the young center is free and in love, and

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<v Speaker 1>the old one has his arms bound by Cupid behind

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<v Speaker 1>his back. So there's this idea of his dual nature

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<v Speaker 1>of man and sort of the bestial urges that are

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<v Speaker 1>commanding the human portion of ourselves, and what the ramifications

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<v Speaker 1>of that might be in later years. Well, and we

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to focus on Center today because we thought, you know, what,

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<v Speaker 1>what if a centaur were to actually exist, what might

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<v Speaker 1>it look like physically? What sort of vital organs would

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<v Speaker 1>it have, much like when we talked about King Kong

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<v Speaker 1>or god Zilla. So we're gonna kind of take you

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<v Speaker 1>guys through this a little bit today, talk about not

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<v Speaker 1>just centaurs, but mythology, mistaking mythology for science, and you know,

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<v Speaker 1>in a historical context. And then we're gonna take a

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<v Speaker 1>look at our own bodies and try to figure out

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<v Speaker 1>why we are designed the way we are designed. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>first of all, we should stay just for the record, again,

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<v Speaker 1>there's no such thing as a center. They do not

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<v Speaker 1>exist as real creatures. As powerful as the idea maybe

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<v Speaker 1>and as interesting as the topic. Maybe there has never

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<v Speaker 1>existed a human horse hybrid creature. That doesn't mean that

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<v Speaker 1>people didn't try to convince us otherwise. Right, We've always

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<v Speaker 1>tried to make sense out of fossils that we find

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<v Speaker 1>a way bones are aligned in the earth, the ruminants

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<v Speaker 1>of bones, So it's not impossible that one might come

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<v Speaker 1>across the mixed bones of a human and a horse

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<v Speaker 1>or horse like creature and wonder, hey, I wonder one

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<v Speaker 1>of these are the same creature? How how might these

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<v Speaker 1>pieces fit together if I symble them wrong? And then

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<v Speaker 1>of course you have stories about the Spanish conquistadors arriving

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<v Speaker 1>on horseback in Central America and the native people thinking

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<v Speaker 1>at first that they were one creature composed of horse

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<v Speaker 1>and man. How to explain the first time someone rode

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<v Speaker 1>a horse? Right, and you see that cruising by, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>you might think, what so a lot of these fantastic

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<v Speaker 1>idea I mean, monsters, on one hand, are always symbols.

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<v Speaker 1>Monsters symbolize something. And so we've discussed a little, and

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<v Speaker 1>we'll continue to discuss a little about what a into

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<v Speaker 1>our means and what it represents about us. But then

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<v Speaker 1>also we create monsters in attempt to understand something or

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<v Speaker 1>to illustrate something that exists in the world, such as

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<v Speaker 1>people riding horses or strange ways that bones are turning

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<v Speaker 1>up in the earth. Yeah. The Fermbank Museum here in Atlanta,

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<v Speaker 1>I guess I was, but it was a year and

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<v Speaker 1>a half two years ago had an exhibit that actually

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<v Speaker 1>talked about these mythical creatures. And I did not see it, unfortunately,

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<v Speaker 1>but you did see it, right, nephew. Yeah, And so

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<v Speaker 1>they wanted to talk about with the public specimens and

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<v Speaker 1>fossils of prehistoric animals and try to investigate how they

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<v Speaker 1>could have, through misidentification, speculation, fear, or imagination, inspired the

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<v Speaker 1>development of some legendary creatures. They were talking about narwhal

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<v Speaker 1>tusks from the North Sea, which they think could have

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<v Speaker 1>given credence to this idea of the unicorn. Right, I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>if you've ever seen the narwhal tusk two, you can

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<v Speaker 1>actually see the way that it's spiraling upward, just like

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<v Speaker 1>you think of a unicorn. And how dinosaurs might have

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<v Speaker 1>been mistaken for griffin for instance, or undersea monsters like

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<v Speaker 1>giant squid could have become these Yeah, the cracking, these

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<v Speaker 1>crazy creatures that rose up with you in these hundred

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<v Speaker 1>foot waves. Hundred foot waves, true rug waves, but not

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<v Speaker 1>so much giant three headed octopus. That exhibit which I

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<v Speaker 1>believe there's a Smithsonian traveling exhibit. They also had a

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<v Speaker 1>Fiji mermaid, which which is a lot of fun, which

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<v Speaker 1>of course one of these side show carnival hybrid deals

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<v Speaker 1>where they would take the remnants of a monkey and

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<v Speaker 1>the remnants of a fish, sew them together and display

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<v Speaker 1>the mummified remains and it's it's frightening and horrifying and

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<v Speaker 1>wonderful and wonderful at the same time. You tend not

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<v Speaker 1>to see that kind of specimen with centaurs, because you're

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<v Speaker 1>talking of a horse is a big animal to deal with,

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<v Speaker 1>and even if you had a large enough monkey so

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<v Speaker 1>on to that body that you're still talking about a

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<v Speaker 1>lot of work to click, a lot of bones for

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<v Speaker 1>that one. But you do see some examples of people

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<v Speaker 1>combining the bones of a man in the bones of

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<v Speaker 1>a horse, specifically with an artistic result in mind. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I attended the University of Tennessee and Knoxville some years

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<v Speaker 1>ago and they actually have an exhibit there in their library.

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<v Speaker 1>I assume it's still there. Perhaps any U t K.

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<v Speaker 1>Listeners out there can correct me on this if I'm wrong.

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<v Speaker 1>But they have this exhibit called the Center Excavations at Volos,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's made to look like the fossil remnants of

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<v Speaker 1>a cent our skeletal system. We've always kind of thought,

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<v Speaker 1>well in the description and the photo I saw, I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>it's really pretty mapped out so that it looks like

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<v Speaker 1>it is indeed the real thing. And it's tuned in

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<v Speaker 1>a case with a faux marble base and stimulated wood

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<v Speaker 1>panels at these skeletal remains of what they call a

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<v Speaker 1>centaur burial, along with inscribed clay tablets. And you see

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<v Speaker 1>there's a panel and it says it's one of three

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<v Speaker 1>Center burials discovered in nineteen eighty by the Archaeological Society

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<v Speaker 1>of Argos near Volos, Greece, and they include a map.

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<v Speaker 1>Would cut. I mean they make it look like, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>this is a real thing, and the idea is that

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<v Speaker 1>it supposed to be an object lesson on the importance

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<v Speaker 1>of skepticism. Yeah, right, like it just because something is

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<v Speaker 1>presented in a way that looks like it's got authority

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<v Speaker 1>doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, these bones are the

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<v Speaker 1>real thing. I think it's it's fascinating and of course,

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<v Speaker 1>as you said, it's meant as is artwork as well. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>I kind of wish it would have become more of

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<v Speaker 1>a heart for the university because the football team was

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<v Speaker 1>the Tennessee Volunteers, and I never really paid any attention

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<v Speaker 1>to the football, but but I might have had they

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<v Speaker 1>been the Tennessee Centaurs if that had been like the mascot. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it's very possible, right, and then they should have taken

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<v Speaker 1>that whole heart, because I think that's an I wish

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<v Speaker 1>my university had had such an exhibit. But what if,

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<v Speaker 1>what if a center could be real? Well, we should

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<v Speaker 1>explore that after a fifth break. All right, we're back

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<v Speaker 1>the anatomy of the center. It's a fascinating thing to

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<v Speaker 1>think about, and we've discussed before. I love it when

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<v Speaker 1>someone with the scientific mind applies that scientific mind to

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<v Speaker 1>something ridiculous, not in an attempt to prove that ridiculous

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<v Speaker 1>thing true, but sort of has a thought experiment. So

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<v Speaker 1>we actually have an example of that. Year. There's a

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<v Speaker 1>wonderful paper that actually it published in the Annals of

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<v Speaker 1>Improbable Research. And these are the guys to do the

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<v Speaker 1>Ignoble Prizes every year, and just a little background on that.

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<v Speaker 1>They highlight real and legitimate scientific research that seems absurd. Generally,

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<v Speaker 1>these experiments or papers or studies that they highlight there's

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<v Speaker 1>generally something to them. It's not just complete nonsense, and

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<v Speaker 1>there's there's always science to it. A lot of these

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<v Speaker 1>scientific experiments are things that elected giggles from certain members.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm thinking about the scientists who a forty year study

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<v Speaker 1>of his own cracking of his knuckles proved to his

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<v Speaker 1>mother that it wasn't going to cause I don't know,

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<v Speaker 1>our fridays or something, as his mother had claimed years

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<v Speaker 1>and years. And that's a great example because on one hand,

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<v Speaker 1>question answered, mystery solved. This dude set out and using science,

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<v Speaker 1>using rigid system of evaluation take that mom, investigated his

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<v Speaker 1>mom's statement and proved it wrong, you know. So that's awesome.

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<v Speaker 1>But then in the other hand, it's a guy cracking

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<v Speaker 1>his knuckles and keeping track of it for this large

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<v Speaker 1>portion of his life and then publishing the results. So

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of stuff since the lineup like that. For instance,

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<v Speaker 1>there was the I think was the Las Vegas study

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<v Speaker 1>into the ovulation of strippers and how that affected their

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<v Speaker 1>tips like that was also a study that ignoble prizes

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<v Speaker 1>anson probably research fla that research, by the way, has

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<v Speaker 1>been questioned, yes, by the way recently, but a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of researches. But still it was a scientific inquiry. And

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<v Speaker 1>so we encounter a paper titled Anatomy of the Centaur.

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<v Speaker 1>And this is from a German anatomous by the name

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<v Speaker 1>of Reinhard. Do you have his full name? Yeah? HC.

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<v Speaker 1>Reinhard v Puts of Germany's Ludwig Maximilian University, Unique Institute

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<v Speaker 1>of Anatomy. Yeah. And he writes a paper where he

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<v Speaker 1>just sets out with this question in mind. All right,

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<v Speaker 1>so the centaur is not real, but what if it was.

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<v Speaker 1>If the center was real, how would it's an atomy work,

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<v Speaker 1>How would its circulatory so isom work? How would it

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<v Speaker 1>digest food? There are a number of anatomical problems that

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<v Speaker 1>emerge and trying to imagine how a centaur works. And

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<v Speaker 1>this guy decided to create an answer using actual science,

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<v Speaker 1>using everything you knew about human and equine anatomy to

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<v Speaker 1>combine those and create a probable centaur. Yep, you've got

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<v Speaker 1>a hybrid system. So you have to keep this in mind.

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<v Speaker 1>So centaur's heart, or we should say hearts right right,

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<v Speaker 1>the centaur's going to need two of them, primary and

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<v Speaker 1>secondary to pump blood. Through this mash up of bodies,

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<v Speaker 1>you're also getting into questions of well, how does it

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<v Speaker 1>digest food? All right, so the stomach would be in

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<v Speaker 1>the horse section, but it would need to have a

0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.040
<v Speaker 1>human stomach because the centaurs, according to most records, they're

0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.200
<v Speaker 1>not going around eating hay or anything. They're going around

0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:46.800
<v Speaker 1>eating human food, so they would have to have a

0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.960
<v Speaker 1>human gastro intestinal system. Well, and lots of libations too.

0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:55.160
<v Speaker 1>According to right big drinkers, they live large. And then

0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.600
<v Speaker 1>he also gives a certain amount of consideration to the

0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:02.840
<v Speaker 1>reproductive organs of the center pis. Yes, most depictions is

0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.080
<v Speaker 1>he discusses show no penis in the front of the center,

0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.120
<v Speaker 1>and most centers in art are are males. You'd see

0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:12.400
<v Speaker 1>no penis at the front of the center because that's

0:12:12.520 --> 0:12:14.240
<v Speaker 1>like the front of the horse. That's like the horses

0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.000
<v Speaker 1>sternum more or less. Right, So i'd be like a

0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.280
<v Speaker 1>penis on a sternum, right, So you tend not to

0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:19.800
<v Speaker 1>see it there, you tend to see it back in

0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.880
<v Speaker 1>the back. So where the horses actual reproductive organs would

0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:26.320
<v Speaker 1>be right. There was no definitive that like where the

0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:28.599
<v Speaker 1>placement is right. It just sort of makes sense that

0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.800
<v Speaker 1>it would be in the hind quarters, though you do

0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:34.040
<v Speaker 1>see a certain variety points out the cretion variety of center,

0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.040
<v Speaker 1>which you'll see in some like mid eighth century BC

0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.640
<v Speaker 1>Greek artwork, where you see a center that has more

0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:44.040
<v Speaker 1>human legs in the front and human genitalia in the front,

0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.320
<v Speaker 1>but then but then it's unknown if it also has

0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.760
<v Speaker 1>genitalia in the back. This is the problem when you

0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:52.559
<v Speaker 1>start start trying to imagine mythical, unreal things as real

0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.199
<v Speaker 1>anatomical creation. And now I'm just laughing that we're sitting

0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.319
<v Speaker 1>here discussing the penis placement on the center. Yeah. I

0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.160
<v Speaker 1>don't know how we got here, but we did. One

0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:02.120
<v Speaker 1>of the things we found most interesting was the idea

0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.000
<v Speaker 1>that Reinhart argues that it would need to hearts, that

0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.080
<v Speaker 1>you need the human heart and the horse heart both

0:13:09.200 --> 0:13:12.840
<v Speaker 1>achieving a certain synchronicity in order for this being to exist,

0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.120
<v Speaker 1>which led us to think, Okay, we've got two lungs,

0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:17.600
<v Speaker 1>two kidneys, two eyes, why don't we have two hearts?

0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:19.560
<v Speaker 1>Exactly yeah, why is there? Why is there just one

0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.920
<v Speaker 1>of these? Is? Okay, there's there's there's there's a really

0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:26.160
<v Speaker 1>good reason for this Record's University anthropologists Susan Cashell says

0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.640
<v Speaker 1>that the one heart to lung system began to emerge

0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.920
<v Speaker 1>about three hundred million years ago when animals first moved

0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.320
<v Speaker 1>from seed to land, and the idea is that this

0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.960
<v Speaker 1>one heart too lung system was an easy blueprint to

0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.480
<v Speaker 1>iterate as animals evolved into such divergent species as birds

0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.679
<v Speaker 1>and insects and humans. Um, So we all evolved to

0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.120
<v Speaker 1>have stomachs digest food, lungs to breathe air, kidneys to

0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:54.080
<v Speaker 1>filter waste, and this became the most efficient mold for

0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.600
<v Speaker 1>nearly all species to evolve here and live on earth.

0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.040
<v Speaker 1>That is why, my friend, And here's another thing. If

0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.439
<v Speaker 1>we were to have two hearts, it really wouldn't make

0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.600
<v Speaker 1>a difference because your body is a system that functions

0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.080
<v Speaker 1>at full capacity, so the addition of extra heart wouldn't

0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:14.839
<v Speaker 1>really do much. So it seems like a cool thing, like, hey, yeah,

0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:16.720
<v Speaker 1>why not have two hearts? It seems like that could

0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.080
<v Speaker 1>really get us to move faster, pump more blood to

0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:22.560
<v Speaker 1>our system, more oxygen to our brain. But that is

0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.800
<v Speaker 1>not actually what would happen. I ran across an excerpt

0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:26.760
<v Speaker 1>from a paper by a man by the name of

0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:31.120
<v Speaker 1>Nikolai Siniston. He was working at Gorky Medical Institute in Moscow,

0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.760
<v Speaker 1>and this is from and he says, for a number

0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.720
<v Speaker 1>of years my laboratory has been studying the problem of

0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.960
<v Speaker 1>transplating the heart of vertebrate animals in the animal kingdom.

0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.200
<v Speaker 1>Many necessary prerequisites exist for carrying out this important and

0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:45.680
<v Speaker 1>at first sight impossible operation. The first stage was my

0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.880
<v Speaker 1>work on cold blooded animals, frogs and fishes. After a

0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.320
<v Speaker 1>number of experimental variants and the perfection of the operation technique,

0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:56.360
<v Speaker 1>I succeeded in transplanting to a frog a second heart

0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.320
<v Speaker 1>taken from another animal. I planted the second heart in

0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.240
<v Speaker 1>the same area is the heart of the host. Animals

0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.680
<v Speaker 1>with two hearts show no difference from control frogs, and

0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.720
<v Speaker 1>experienced biologists invited to examine them were unable to distinguish

0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.320
<v Speaker 1>one from the other. Two hearted frogs went through the

0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:15.880
<v Speaker 1>usual nuptial period in spring and cast their spawn in

0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.920
<v Speaker 1>the ordinary way, which is a delightful way of saying.

0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.240
<v Speaker 1>Two hearted frogs also did it in the baby frogs

0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:24.680
<v Speaker 1>did it just fine. Yeah, And so they weren't able

0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.320
<v Speaker 1>to tell. Scientists looking at the frogs weren't able to tell.

0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:29.880
<v Speaker 1>So to your point, an animal with an extra heart

0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:31.360
<v Speaker 1>thrown into the mix is not going to be a

0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.840
<v Speaker 1>super frog or a super animal. It's gonna work out. Yeah.

0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.840
<v Speaker 1>You could actually do the same to a human if

0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:41.000
<v Speaker 1>you were to intervene in the embryonic stage. Because here's

0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:43.920
<v Speaker 1>the deal. During the embryonic stage of development, we actually

0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.920
<v Speaker 1>do have two hearts, and this is called the heart primordia,

0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.680
<v Speaker 1>which eventually fuses together into one heart with four chambers.

0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:54.680
<v Speaker 1>And we're also outfitted with two eyes during the embryonic stage,

0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.160
<v Speaker 1>although we begin with one primordia of the eye, which

0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.400
<v Speaker 1>eventually separates to formed do so if the primorny were

0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.320
<v Speaker 1>to be kept from splitting, we would have a cyclop side.

0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.240
<v Speaker 1>How crazy, awful and great is that. I think we

0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:13.840
<v Speaker 1>could also consiuerably engineer two hearts at that early stage exactly.

0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:16.520
<v Speaker 1>But I believe they have achieved that with frogs, Yes

0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:18.160
<v Speaker 1>they did. You could do it frogs, You could do

0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.240
<v Speaker 1>it with humans, but obviously this is not something you'd

0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.560
<v Speaker 1>want to do. But there is something called heterotopic heart

0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:27.280
<v Speaker 1>transplant that we should mention, Yes, we should, because it

0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.120
<v Speaker 1>has to do with a guy human who actually does

0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:32.920
<v Speaker 1>have two hearts. Earlier this year, an older man was

0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.800
<v Speaker 1>admitted to a hospital in Verona, Italy, and doctors were

0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.320
<v Speaker 1>amazed because they could detect two heartbeats, both of which

0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.400
<v Speaker 1>were displaying signs of dys rhythmia. And what they found

0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.960
<v Speaker 1>out is that this guy had undergone a procedure known

0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.720
<v Speaker 1>as heterotopic heart transplant, which we don't really do anymore

0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.520
<v Speaker 1>because technology has gotten to the point where it's not necessary.

0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.360
<v Speaker 1>But for a while, if you were going to transplant

0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.760
<v Speaker 1>an additional organ kidney, you wouldn't necessarily take the old

0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:02.400
<v Speaker 1>organ out right because it might be too difficult to extract,

0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.399
<v Speaker 1>or there was the hope that the organ might recover

0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.240
<v Speaker 1>while the new organ took over day to day functions. Right,

0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:09.800
<v Speaker 1>it's kind of like, oh, well, we don't want to

0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:12.680
<v Speaker 1>fire this person. Let's have them train their replacement for

0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.080
<v Speaker 1>a few for a week or so, and it works out,

0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.720
<v Speaker 1>we'll just keep them both. And that's what happened in

0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:20.320
<v Speaker 1>the chest of this Italian man. Yeah, yeah, that the

0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.520
<v Speaker 1>transplant team made it his new heart with his malfunctioning

0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:25.520
<v Speaker 1>old one, and the chambers and blood vessels of the

0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.080
<v Speaker 1>two hearts were married so that the new heart could

0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.239
<v Speaker 1>support the old one. The problem though, is that you

0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.840
<v Speaker 1>can develop two independent heart rhythms, especially in a scenario

0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.040
<v Speaker 1>where one heart gets a little bit better, and in

0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:42.560
<v Speaker 1>this guy's case, to just rhythmic problems led to him

0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.240
<v Speaker 1>actually flatlining. Fortunately, though, he was jolted back to life

0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.040
<v Speaker 1>with a defibrillator and his pacemaker was replaced. But it

0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.040
<v Speaker 1>did kind of put you know, doctors on alert to like, oh, yeah, hey,

0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:56.359
<v Speaker 1>there are some people walking around with two hearts from

0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.760
<v Speaker 1>this procedure. He would have a great excuse, I guess

0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:01.199
<v Speaker 1>if he was caught by his adi looking around, you know,

0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:02.480
<v Speaker 1>and he would say, hey, what can I do? I

0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:04.280
<v Speaker 1>got two hearts? You know, Hey, I got a lot

0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.120
<v Speaker 1>of hearts, got a lot of heart Yeah, something like that. Yeah,

0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:09.840
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure he would love that joke. Seriously. It's it's amazing, though,

0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.040
<v Speaker 1>I think there are individuals out there with two hearts

0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:15.280
<v Speaker 1>in their chest. It's possible conceivable at an early stage

0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.640
<v Speaker 1>to interfere in human development and create two hearts. So

0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.159
<v Speaker 1>even these things that would factor into the existence of

0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.680
<v Speaker 1>a mythical creature we can pinpoint in the anatomical world

0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:29.320
<v Speaker 1>at large, and also like the discovery, at least for me,

0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.800
<v Speaker 1>that we did have this primordia I that separated that.

0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.360
<v Speaker 1>If it didn't, you would have a cyclopsize. So centaurs.

0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:37.640
<v Speaker 1>There you go. That's just kind of a a quick

0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:39.800
<v Speaker 1>run through what they are and some of the science

0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.160
<v Speaker 1>tied up around them. One of the more thought provoking

0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.520
<v Speaker 1>ideas I ran across. I discovered it through some of

0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.000
<v Speaker 1>the writings of author and theorist Ken Wilbur who was

0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.359
<v Speaker 1>drawing from the works of Hubert Benoir, Jane Alexander, and

0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.679
<v Speaker 1>Eric Erickson, and they used the centaur to describe the

0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.359
<v Speaker 1>integrated state of mind and body. So the idea here is,

0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.760
<v Speaker 1>especially modern humans, we tend to think of ourselves in

0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.600
<v Speaker 1>our body, our brain in our body as a rider

0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.480
<v Speaker 1>on a horse. We are the rider, our body is

0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.960
<v Speaker 1>the horse, and inevitably our horse ends up failing us.

0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:12.159
<v Speaker 1>It's not going as fast as we wanted to go.

0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.439
<v Speaker 1>It's got a bum legs trying to buck us. You know,

0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.840
<v Speaker 1>it's up, so we're whipping it. We have this relationship

0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:20.840
<v Speaker 1>where we're the mind, the body is a horse, and

0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.480
<v Speaker 1>we kind of treat the horse like this thing that

0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.879
<v Speaker 1>is subservient to us, where in reality, the state is

0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.439
<v Speaker 1>more like a centaur. It is an integrated state. So

0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:31.280
<v Speaker 1>we've discussed before we're not just a brain, and we

0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.560
<v Speaker 1>talked about the way our diet and the way whatever

0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.200
<v Speaker 1>is going on in our digestic system, how that influences

0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.040
<v Speaker 1>our state of being. Where this integrated being, where this

0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.000
<v Speaker 1>centaur when it comes to the mind body relationship, and

0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.720
<v Speaker 1>that's definitely the more healthy and the more accurate way

0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:47.120
<v Speaker 1>of looking at the relationships. So if your horsey parts

0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:51.240
<v Speaker 1>aren't happy, you're not happy, Yes, exactly, speak because you

0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:55.240
<v Speaker 1>are your horsey parts. That's that's that's the one takeaway

0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:58.560
<v Speaker 1>from this this episode. So there you have it. Centaurs.

0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.800
<v Speaker 1>If you would like to share your lots on centaur's,

0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.040
<v Speaker 1>your favorite centaurs from fact or fantasy, let us know

0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.040
<v Speaker 1>about them. You can find us on Facebook where we

0:20:07.119 --> 0:20:09.480
<v Speaker 1>are stuff to blow your mind, or you can find

0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:11.359
<v Speaker 1>us on Twitter where our handle is blow the Mind

0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.520
<v Speaker 1>and you can share any of that stuff with us there,

0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:15.560
<v Speaker 1>and you can always drop us a line at blow

0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:22.439
<v Speaker 1>the Mind at Discovery dot com for more on this

0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.080
<v Speaker 1>and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works?

0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.359
<v Speaker 1>Dot com