See? Oh, two!

    Don't worry, this won't be about the rising levels of carbon dioxide and climate change, itself an issue so polarizing that we may as well start labeling it CQ2.  But as a quick primer, here is how Britannica sums up the definition of CO2: Carbon dioxide, (CO2), a colourless gas having a faint sharp odour and a sour taste.  It is one of the most important greenhouse gases linked to global warming, but it is a minor component of Earth’s atmosphere (about 3 volumes in 10,000), formed in combustion of carbon-containing materials, in fermentation, and in respiration of animals and employed by plants in the photosynthesis of carbohydrates.  The presence of the gas in the atmosphere keeps some of the radiant energy received by Earth from being returned to space, thus producing the so-called greenhouse effect.  And if you happen to want the latest data (and see the graph), there's always NASA's site.  But this isn't about any of that, at least not in that manner.  This is actually about what we need, what our bodies and our breathing needs; and after reading James Nestor's book on breath, we may need to both have and get rid of more CO2 in our bodies...

    We inhale too much oxygen is but one of Nestor's conclusions (he did ten years of research for the book).*  Okay a quick primer...did you ever wonder how it all works, that is how our heart beats and our lungs keep breathing even while we sound asleep or knocked out during surgery?  A short version came from Wikipedia: The lungs are not capable of inflating themselves, and will expand only when there is an increase in the volume of the thoracic cavity.  In humans, as in the other mammals, this is achieved primarily through the contraction of the diaphragm, but also by the contraction of the intercostal muscles which pull the rib cage upwards and outwards...During heavy breathing (hyperpnea) as, for instance, during exercise, exhalation is brought about by relaxation of all the muscles of inhalation, (in the same way as at rest), but, in addition, the abdominal muscles, instead of being passive, now contract strongly causing the rib cage to be pulled downwards (front and sides).  This not only decreases the size of the rib cage but also pushes the abdominal organs upwards against the diaphragm which consequently bulges deeply into the thorax.  The end-exhalatory lung volume is now less air than the resting "functional residual capacity".  However, in a normal mammal, the lungs cannot be emptied completely.  In an adult human, there is always still at least one liter of residual air left in the lungs after maximum exhalation.  Yikes, sort through all the anatomical wording and one is left with pure wonder.  This marvelous design we call our lungs is "lifeless" without help; picture an accordion just sitting there not being played.   

    But back to Nestor's book.  As he says in one section, "shut your mouth."  We inhale too much, not only in general but through our mouths instead of our noses.  Not that we think about it much with our everyday normal breathing but the truth is that we rarely use our diaphragm.  Stop and think about your breathing by taking a peek at your belly...is it moving in and out?  If so, you're basically breathing inefficiently (what should be moving is your chest going up and down).  One way to practice this (and according to Nestor, these are ancient or studied practices) is to exhale more than you inhale.  Said Nestor: In each exhale, we expel about 3,500 compounds.  Much of this is organic (water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases), but we also exhale pollutants, pesticides, chemicals, and engine exhaust.  When we don't breathe out completely, these toxins sit in the lungs and fester, causing infections and other problems.  Ironically,  he also cites studies that show musicians who play wind instruments (which one would think forces excess exhalations) does almost the opposite, the pressurized air often damaging the lungs and appearing "...to increase the risk of chronic upper airway symptoms and even lung cancer."  What??  Make up your mind...(he does have breathing exercises of all sorts near the end of his book).

    So I began to think about what else we may be missing, not only in our breathing but in our lives.  As I walked through a few stores for bird seed and such (my wife feeds feral cats and I feed semi-wild ducks, a gosling and dozens or hundreds of songbirds gathered at an irrigation holding pond at the local cemetery, going though about 100 lbs. of seed in a week), I noticed such things as showerheads with built-in speakers (really?), and elliptical pedal exercisers that you place at your feet while you watch TV (wait, really??).  What's happening?   My wife and I watch some shows with host Graham Norton who introduces singer after singer who has gone multi-platinum or broke records on a tour or sold 200 millions albums and yet, we've not heard of any of them even after they perform their "hit" song.  No worries, we think, we're older and likely falling behind the times and not keeping up with the latest and greatest.  Yet even as I try to reduce my carbon footprint by buying only soy or almond milk (1/3 less sugar, for one), I discover that I may be doing more harm to the environment since it takes a gallon of water to make just a single almond...convert that to the dairy shelf and my half-gallon on almond "milk" took about 250 gallons of water to produce.**   

    So much of what we see --and don't see-- is more or less taken on blind faith.  Our parents teach us, our schools teach us, our government agencies teach us (dietary, medicinal, science, etc.) and our societies and religions teach us.  But overall our "learning" progresses slowly as we find comfort in just staying together; as but one example, let's jump to two categories with which humans are sometimes categorized, sheep and cows ("herd" immunity?).  Back in the day when cow pox was making the rounds, it was noticed that the women who often milked the cows rarely developed the scarring and debilitating pustules that came from the virus, which led to (in a roundabout way), the start of vaccines.  But early on, one of the "testers" of variolation wasn't welcomed with this discovery and was forced to flee with his family for fear of being shot by the towns people, many of whom felt that he was instead on the verge of creating human beasts with horns, wrote Michael Kinch in his book about the history of vaccine development.

   Not so for the children of two Turkish immigrants who settled in Germany; it was their combined work that has led to one of the leading vaccines against Covid-19, that of the mRNA co-developed by BioNTech and Pfizer.   Said Bloomberg: Their journey as Turkish Germans cannot have been easy. Discrimination, overt or subtle, is rife in German society...It shouldn’t matter what background innovators have.  But the disproportionate success of immigrants, especially in the science and technology industries, is noteworthy.  What is it about their experience that’s different?  One theory is that immigrants benefit from “self-selection,” because only the most motivated and adventurous pack up and embark on the difficult journey from home.  Another is that immigrants become self-employed and entrepreneurial precisely in response to the discrimination they face in their adopted nations, which bars other career paths.  But the theory that might fit the likes of Sahin and Tureci best is that there’s something in cross-cultural experiences that often makes people open-minded, creative and focused.  One piece of research suggests that the constant switching of perspectives that comes with having a multicultural background helps identify new and good ideas.  Sahin and Tureci are now, thanks to BioNTech’s soaring share price, among the richest Germans, at least on paper.  And yet they still bike to work and live with their teenage daughter in the same simple apartment in a smallish German city.  They are science geeks in the best possible sense.  On the day they got married in 2002, they went to their lab first, then the ceremony, and then straight back to the lab.

   Their story is but one of many unnoticed or unrecognized people, people we miss as the headlines blast past us.  Have you heard of these names, per chance?  Youyou Tu (brought ancient medicinal practices into the modern world and was awarded a Nobel Prize), Maurice Hilleman (considered by many as the "father" of vaccines), or Mutlay Sayan, just one of many to be recognized by STAT as a 2020 "wunderkind."  There was an episode of This American Life on magic, one that had the normally silent Teller (of Penn & Teller) talking about the difficulty and years of work it took to create his "red ball" trick.  The show also explained how David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear from the waters of New York, an illusion done before both a live and a television audience (he then had it "magically" re-appear).   Both of these were less the telling of how the tricks were created than it was the realization of how many human traits we share, and how as a group such commonalities can be used to distract and divert us, as Teller told Smithsonian.   

   During these strange times when holidays and getting together and bringing gifts take on new meanings and will likely bear little resemblance to times past, perhaps we need to look at what is there just ahead; it may be hidden in the background but it is there, and that is hope.  I happened to hear a remix of a song originally made popular by the Five Stairsteps and later recorded by Nina Simone among others.  But it was the remixed song that led to a video done by dj and producer, Nickodemus who turned Ooo Child into something memorable for these times (in my opinion anyway...you can view the video remix here).  We sing songs of comfort to calm and soothe us, to assure our children that all is well and that there is more to learn, and that our children should trust us...and it is worldwide.  As National Geographic put it, we call them lullabies, and in today's world they are proving quite revealing.

    Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said: We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now...Only in the darkness can you see the stars.  Just as with these illusions, the Covid-19 virus may be difficult for us to figure out but there's hope, and now may be a good time to look up and perhaps see what is before us.   Again, here's how National Geographic writer Andrew Fazekas put it: Late Sunday, look toward the northeast for the annual Geminid meteor shower to kick into high gear.  With the moon out of the sky during peak hours, even faint meteors may be visible.  The Earth will plow into the thickest part of a cloud of debris left by an asteroid named Phaethon from late Sunday night into pre-dawn Monday, producing from 60 to 120 shooting stars per hour.  That’s a lot of wishes to make!  If you’re up at dawn Saturday, you’ll see the crescent moon sliding by super-bright planet Venus.  On Monday, a stunning total solar eclipse graces skies along a narrow strip across central Chile and Argentina, while most of South America can see a partial solar eclipse.  As author James Nestor would say, that should take your breath away.

*A quick reminder that air, or our atmospheric air that we breathe anyway, is only a little over 20% oxygen; here's how NASA puts it: Air is all around us, but we can’t see it.  So what is air, exactly?  It’s a mixture of different gases.  The air in Earth’s atmosphere is made up of approximately 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen.  Air also has small amounts of lots of other gases, too, such as carbon dioxide, neon, and hydrogen.  A quick interactive introduction to our atmosphere and its layers (and composition) can be found at Smithsonian...your kids (and the kid in you) will enjoy the tour!  And while you're at it, grab three 10-lb. sacks of potatoes...that's how many pounds of air we breathe in every day.

**The battle of wording is an ongoing one, the most recent long-term fight being that over the titles of "meat" and "milk" as substitutes enter the fray.  Cattle farmers and ranchers are fighting dearly to guard their land (mostly federal or homesteaded from generations ago), meat (raising beef produces nearly 70x more CO2 than a car's emissions), and milk (as Moxie LaBouche wrote in Your Brain on Facts: A seven ounce glass of milk brings with it twenty-one ounces (or 0.6 kilograms) of greenhouse gases rom the world's 270 million dairy cows.)  Disclaimer: I love milk and cheese, and my wife enjoys her meats every now and then.  No judgements, just the facts (or data as taken from her book) for your own decisions.