When the North American P-51 Mustang turbo prop long range fighter 1st arrived in the European theatre in the latter stages of World War 2, it was good plane. When ground mechanics conceived of marrying it with the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, it became a great plane. German pilots were shocked at the speed, endurance, and capabilities of the Mustang when they encountered it for the 1st time. The Germans though were working on their own next generation air superiority fighter. The experimental Heinkel He 178 had 1st flown in 1939-the world’s 1st turbo jet airplane. While that aircraft did not see combat, it served as a test bed for the Messerschmitt Me 262 which entered service in mid 1944 and began to see early combt in August of that year. By November the Me 262 was more fully engaged and the shock was now felt by the Allied pilots. The sheer speed of this new wonder weapon could not be duplicated. Fortunately, this introduction to jet combat did not change the course of the war drastically; it was too little too late. The turbo jet, however, was here to stay and was to revolutionize air travel and warfare.
Jet engine technology was to evolve and test engineering limits. The turbo blades spin at 10,000-20,000 revolutions per minute and must withstand temperatures of up to 1700 ° C—250° higher than the melting point of the blade material. These blades are made of a Nickel based super alloy which includes cobalt, aluminum, and titanium. To preserve internal strength, each blade is formed of a single crystal which is grown through a spiral channel to fill a blade shaped mold. Thus each is an integrated structure. To withstand the extreme temperatures, the blade has internal cooling vessels smaller in diameter than a human hair which exit by 100s of microscopic surface holes to allow temperature reduction. Each blade requires precision measured weight–when spinning at full capacity even the slightest weight variation will shake the engine apart. This technology does not come cheap and a single blade may cost from 10,000 to 30,000 dollars and during manufacturing is given a specific serial number. Each must be placed in an exact turbine slot to create perfect balance. This precision represents an example of ultimate human engineering.
However the human body takes no back seat when it comes to design engineering. A vast number of elements, proteins, formed structures and vital signs must be maintained within strict limits. There are feedback mechanisms, and means of metabolizing and eliminating worn out molecules and microscopic structures. GHB is filled with examples. If a healthy person’s arterial blood were to be checked at this moment, it would register a pH of 7.40. Not higher, not lower. Blood sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium etc. are all maintained within strict limits—and to further complicate matters, the intracellular concentrations of these will be different. A whole new set of parameters to maintain. Body temperature, blood pressures, heart rate, respiratory rate-all have limitations of normalcy. Step outside these limits significantly and you will find out why they are called vital signs. White blood cells, red blood cells, platelets–maintaining the normal numbers of them in our blood protect us from disease, transport oxygen, and keeps us from bleeding. Abnormal levels lead to fatigue, susceptibility to microbes, disorders of clotting, and perhaps to death. To maintain the healthy levels of all of these requires incredibly sophisticated feedback loops which in turn may increase or decrease the various levels to ensure good health and safety.
And we have not even talked about intracellular concentrations of materials. As a physician, I can influence blood level concentrations, although no one understands fully how such levels are maintained by the body. But I cannot even measure on a practical basis what transpires inside a cell. I have to hope that what I do on a more macular level will influence positively behavior and conditions intracellularly. There I am confronted with maintaining entirely different levels of iron,, calcium, sodium, potassium, etc as compared to blood levels–not to mention oxidation/reduction reactions, cell membrane integrity, microfilament assembly and disassembly, and protein creation and catabolism. In a single cell there can be over 2000 functionally significant different protein types all working together. That cell is not simply a tiny mushy bag of cytoplasm. It is a structure so incredibly sophisticated that humans cannot duplicate even a tiny part. The conception and engineering for everything, to be so microscopically vast and precise has to come from a mind beyond human capability. This biological phenomenon cannot possibly arise solely from cold hard physics and chemistry. The complexity and mathematical percentage chances do not work.
Professor Anthony Campbell writing about intracellular calcium, speaks for the entire panoply of biological activity when he says, “Without intracellular calcium, we would not have been conceived, born, or remained alive.” And that is only looking at calcium. Each of us is a biologic miracle.