Monstrous: The Lore, Gore, and Science Behind Your Favorite Monsters
INTRODUCTION The magic of science In the fifth century English ruler Vortigern was attempting to build a great fortress in Wales But every time the foundation stones were laid the ground shook and the fortress collapsed When Vortigern consulted his wise advisors they told him the fortress would never stand because the land was cursed The only way to break the curse was to soak the foundation with the blood of a fatherless boy They found such a boy in a nearby village and the boy was brought before the king Upon learning that he was about to be human fertilizer the boy insisted the real problem was not a curse on the land but instead two dragons one red and one white He said the dragons were trapped under the earth and their fighting caused the ground to shake Vortigern didn’t need blood He just needed to release the dragons 4
So the king ordered the earth dug up and he found the dragons in hollow stones and released them Thereafter the fortress stood strong The king fired his advisors and made the boy his right-hand man This boy grew up to become the great wizard Merlin Was Merlin really a powerful wizard Probably not But perhaps he did know something about science Wales is known for having pockets of the gas hydrogen sulfide trapped underground Hydrogen sulfide has a pretty horrible rotten-egg smell and Merlin might have smelled it wafting through the air Sometimes hydrogen sulfide mixes with the odorless gas methane and when these gases get trapped in rocks boom Explosions happen Merlin was clever He knew he wasn’t going to convince King Vortigern that his fears were not real so instead he used science to save himself You too can use science to conquer monsters and blame it on wizardry The monstrous have no magic The real magic is science 5
THE SCIENCE OF THE MONSTROUS Millions of years ago your prehistoric ancestors roamed the open plains There were kids just like you They picked berries danced and drew pretty pictures on caves They had a blast hanging out at the local watering hole You might even know some people like that today always smiling and never scared or anxious about anything You know fearless people Yeah those people died Probably eaten by a saber-toothed tiger or bludgeoned to death by rivals while they were peacefully sleeping But that apprehensive cavewoman with her spear at the ready suspicious of every berry and with one eye open as she slept she survived She is your great-great-great-grandmother and probably a few more greats and she has passed down her lessons of survival into the most primitive parts of your brain fear keeps us alive The part of your brain that responds to fear has not changed since your prehistoric grandmother When you are scared an almond-shaped mass called the amygdala A activates a split-second Your ancestor who did survive Your ancestor who didn’t survive 6
normal left ventricle enlarged left ventricle takotsubo A B C amygdala cortex prefrontal dopamine response called fight-or flight The fight-or-flight response causes your eyes to widen and pulse to quicken It sends blood away from your intestines to your muscles so that you can either outrun the monster or stab it in the eye During this process the neurotransmitter dopamine B is released Neurotransmitters are the messengers in your brain that tell you how to feel but they are not always clear on which emotion Have you ever noticed that when someone sneaks up behind you and screams Boo your first reaction is to startle but your second reaction is often to laugh Possibly followed by plots of revenge against whomever scared you That is dopamine messing with your brain Dopamine is released when you feel fear but it is also released when you feel pleasure This is partly why we enjoy fear When we conquer our fear it gives us a huge sense of accomplishment Something has scared us but we have survived Unfortunately there is a downside to fear Some people use fear to control the behavior of others For example I could convince you that a zombie apocalypse is coming and that you must read this book to survive Then I would make tons of money buy a castle in Spain and live alone with my one eyed cat and piles of Spam while you would fear every stranger as a possible zombie contaminate But I am going to do the opposite because I know you are too smart to be manipulated by fear And I already have a one-eyed cat piles of Spam and a castle in Spain Instead I am going to activate your prefrontal cortex C That’s the part of your brain that controls reasoning and it kicks in once your fight-or-flight response has calmed down Your prefrontal cortex says Wait just a minute Spam-hoarding lady with the one-eyed cat I am not buying that vampires are going to suck my blood nonsense because blood contains a very lethal mineral p 34 And Yes the water is dark and scary but the kraken just wants to be left alone to play with his kraken friends p 85 And Sorry know-it-all author but everyone knows zombies can’t survive on a diet of brains because a brain is the least nutritious part of the human body p 50 Why Because of science Science is stronger than fear Why yoU should neVer sTress yoUr mom oUt Your brain is not the only organ altered by fear Under extreme stress your heart’s left ventricle can enlarge at the bottom and narrow at the top like a balloon animal being tied off Known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome the condition is named after a takotsubo a Japanese pot used to trap octopuses Far more women than men experience the condition but fortunately most people who have it recover 7
