DC's Batman/Superman 10
Lemire (w) and Kershl (a)
Superman and the Atom shrink to microscopic size to go into a blood vessel in Batman's brain.
A microscopic city found its way in Batman's brain and crashed into a blood vessel, which has rendered Batman unconscious.
Questions
1. How small is a blood vessel?
2. How small are red blood cells?
3. Can a object crashing into a brain blood vessel cause someone to be unconscious?
Answers
1.) There are many types of vascular tissue (veins, arteries, capillaries… etc). All types have different diameters and some of those can even be constricted and dilated. The largest is elastic artery, which has a diameter about 1.5 cm and the smallest is a capillary which has a diameter of about 9.0 micrometers. So, there’s a HUGE range of sizes that Superman and the Atom could be to accomplish this mission. (1)
2.) Red blood cells are about 9 micrometers. (2)
Given that; the drawing above shows that there can be many red blood cells fit the diameter of the blood vessel. Roughly 20 can fit the diameter, which would mean that the vessel is about 180 micrometers. This is closest to being an anterior cerebral artery cordial branch. Cordial branches have a wide range of diameters from 0.79 +/- 0.27 millimeters. (3)
This means the smallest is about 0.50 millimeters or 500 micrometers. This is much larger than the 180 micrometers estimated. However, with such a large +/- on the number, it is reasonable the size could be close to 180 micrometers.
3.) Can someone be knocked out by something sticking to the walls of your anterior cerebral artery cordial branch? An actual blood clot can cause paralysis. It didn’t seem like the micro-city had clotted the blood vessel, however it seemed that the artists rendering of the scene was after the city was encapsulated and being moved out. (4)
That being address, it seems this was very plausible to happen in the real world. I must congratulate the writer and artist!
Thank you all for reading… Please, feel free to comment or leave feedback. Science rocks!
References:
1- http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/Courses/bio211/chap19/chap19.html
2- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cell_Biology/Introduction/Cell_size
3- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10873213
4- http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/ebc/signs.html
Lemire (w) and Kershl (a)
Superman and the Atom shrink to microscopic size to go into a blood vessel in Batman's brain.
A microscopic city found its way in Batman's brain and crashed into a blood vessel, which has rendered Batman unconscious.
Questions
1. How small is a blood vessel?
2. How small are red blood cells?
3. Can a object crashing into a brain blood vessel cause someone to be unconscious?
Answers
1.) There are many types of vascular tissue (veins, arteries, capillaries… etc). All types have different diameters and some of those can even be constricted and dilated. The largest is elastic artery, which has a diameter about 1.5 cm and the smallest is a capillary which has a diameter of about 9.0 micrometers. So, there’s a HUGE range of sizes that Superman and the Atom could be to accomplish this mission. (1)
2.) Red blood cells are about 9 micrometers. (2)
Given that; the drawing above shows that there can be many red blood cells fit the diameter of the blood vessel. Roughly 20 can fit the diameter, which would mean that the vessel is about 180 micrometers. This is closest to being an anterior cerebral artery cordial branch. Cordial branches have a wide range of diameters from 0.79 +/- 0.27 millimeters. (3)
This means the smallest is about 0.50 millimeters or 500 micrometers. This is much larger than the 180 micrometers estimated. However, with such a large +/- on the number, it is reasonable the size could be close to 180 micrometers.
3.) Can someone be knocked out by something sticking to the walls of your anterior cerebral artery cordial branch? An actual blood clot can cause paralysis. It didn’t seem like the micro-city had clotted the blood vessel, however it seemed that the artists rendering of the scene was after the city was encapsulated and being moved out. (4)
That being address, it seems this was very plausible to happen in the real world. I must congratulate the writer and artist!
Thank you all for reading… Please, feel free to comment or leave feedback. Science rocks!
References:
1- http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/Courses/bio211/chap19/chap19.html
2- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cell_Biology/Introduction/Cell_size
3- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10873213
4- http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/ebc/signs.html