Taking the body beautiful back to the drawing board
Arizona Republic
For all its wonder, the human body is a flawed life form.
We can't fly like birds or breathe underwater like fish. We can't run like cheetahs, see like hawks, sniff trails like bloodhounds.
Parrots live longer. Elephants grow larger. Giraffes stand taller.
Unlike other animals, we require protection from the elements. Lacking fur coats, we cannot live naked in Bismarck, N.D., in January.
When reptiles are sunning themselves in the desert in July, we flee indoors to air-conditioning or erect misting systems that chuckwallas and Gila monsters would laugh at — if they could laugh.
Score one for humans: the ability to laugh.
This is not to fault God for the magnificent design he created on the sixth day. But our inquisitive minds can't help but ponder: What if we started over from scratch?
What if we redesigned the human body, tweaking its form and function, mending its flaws, letting our very human imagination be our guide?
Editors at the Arizona Republic decided to ask people from various fields to envision a prototype of a new human body, probing the minds of a writer, a chef, engineers, architects, designers, physicians, a personal trainer, an expert about evolution and an imaginative child.
But they cheated a little, giving most of our experts weeks to come up with their designs.
God, they say, had only a day.
Stephen Flitman, neurologist, Phoenix In redesigning the human body's neurological system, Flitman, who is often called to testify in court, would link the brain directly to the Internet.
That would allow him and others to answer lawyers' penetrating questions by surfing the Net from inside the head. The brain would plug into a computer via a portal implanted just behind the ear in an available area of spongy tissue.
Flitman would also implant "bone phones," in which the mouthpiece is in the jaw and the receiver is in that same spongy area behind the ear.
Conversations would be transmitted via vibrations through the bones.
With an eye on mental health, he would train the brain to visualize a "slider" switch that would boost or curb the release of natural serotonin levels, thereby eliminating the need for Prozac.
Robert Del Grande, chef/owner, Houston Del Grande envies animals' snouts. With such an acute sense of smell, critters can appreciate more than humans such Del Grande favorites as south Texas antelope with Casabel chile sauce, shaved beets with truffle vinaigrette or chocolate cake with cappuccino meringue.
Del Grande's redesign of the body would give humans larger noses. The apparatus would stay where it is, perfectly positioned above the mouth, gateway to the taste buds.
But Del Grande would add a second mouth so that people could eat two things at one time, allowing them to experience two tastes simultaneously — like a piano player striking a chord comprising several notes. That would make for a more "harmonic process."
Andrew Iwach, ophthalmologist and university professor, San Francisco Iwach envies birds' eyes. The eyes of birds, he notes, have a double set of fovea centralis, those depressions in the center of the retina where the focus of the eye is most acute.
As the human eye ages, it is subject to a number of conditions that affect the ability to focus or even to see at all.
Iwach's design would give humans, like birds, one fovea set and an emergency backup, so that good sight would continue throughout the life span.
He would install a third eye on the back of the head. That would allow people who live in the past to see where they've been.
The two eyes on the face would function like mood rings, changing color to reflect emotions. Red would indicate anger. Blue would signal affection. Brown would communicate calm and contentment. Green would reveal envy. And yellow would be a warning sign of a lie.
Iwach says such windows of the soul would reduce conflict and perhaps resolve the Middle East crisis.
Prabhat Kumar Sinha, graduate student in mechanical engineering Sinha's design would add these features:
• Three eyes, 120 degrees apart, providing a view in all directions in one plane and another at the top of the head to see up.
Eyes would adjust focus so that they could see objects two miles away as easily as those two feet away.
• An internal eye that would monitor organs and spot malfunctions.
• The ability to speak and understand all languages, enhancing global communication.
• Skin that adapts to surrounding temperatures so that even in extreme cold a thin T-shirt would provide adequate protection.
• Three legs to give the body more stability.
• Ability to resize, so that the body could shrink to fit inside a car without bending, then increase in height to reach the fourth floor of a building.
• In order to accommodate our growing population: the ability to live underwater and colonize the ocean.
Thomas Omar Gray, mechanical engineering graduate student at MIT, Cambridge, Mass.
Gray envisions a shape-shifting human that could adapt to his momentary needs and environment.
Sometimes it would be a sphere — a strong, protective form with the smallest ratio of surface area to volume of any shape. That would keep organs warm during extreme temperatures.
Then it could transform into a pancake or an airfoil shape, giving it flight and gliding abilities.
Morphing into a tall, thin cylinder shape would allow a high vantage point and access to more objects.
A flexible mesh membrane would cover the body, replacing skin. It would be an "active" membrane, musclelike, allowing it to pull rigid in some areas while relaxing in others.
Internal organs would each be protected by individual casings to allow as much flexibility as possible, but kept in place with rigid links.
Receptors similar to eyes would be located throughout the body, sending information across the muscle-membrane skin and along the spinal column.
But don't think of this life form as a big blob, Gray says. Its tough muscle membrane could pull tight and shape itself to fit into a pair of jeans and a shirt.
And any part of it could become a finger, making touch-typing a snap: There would be a finger for every key, and the "head" could watch the keyboard while reading a computer screen.
Eric Fuller, associate professor of Biomechanics and Podiatric Medicine at the California College of Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco
Fuller considered attaching wings to the feet but decided that would trigger a balance problem. Instead, he would incorporate wheels onto the feet that could be removed for walking on unpaved surfaces and in the woods.
For swimmers, he prescribes wide webbed feet. For women, he would scale down the foot to a size more aesthetically pleasing to them so they would no longer try to squeeze large feet into tiny shoes.
The trade-off: difficulty walking on such small appendages.
Fuller would fuse all the bones of the toes, eliminating common toe-joint problems.
There would be one joint at the base of each toe, functioning as a hinge.
The foot would have just three large toes, all the same length, for ease in walking.
Finally, feet would be removable: a pair and a spare.
Tom Kelley, general manager of Ideo, designers of the original Apple mouse and the Palm V, Los Angeles
Kelley would make all body parts "hot swappable," which means bad and worn-out parts could be easily exchanged for fresh, new ones.
For easy access to failing internal organs, he would install a cabinet door on the front of the body with a magnetic "push push" latch — push to open, push again to close.
He wants "more RAM" in the human brain. Existing brains store an incredible amount of information, but Kelley wants quicker and easier access to long-term data storage.
And in Kelley's human product, the hands would come with fittings for attaching tools like hammers, screwdrivers and various drill bits.
Tim McClellan, performance-enhancement director at athletic training center, Phoenix
McClellan would construct a human body with knee joints similar to kangaroos and dogs — knees with inverse movement. This would increase locomotion, speed and efficiency.
He would design bodies incapable of injury. His design also gives the body the ability to breathe underwater because three-quarters of the Earth is covered in water.
Finally, on an emotional plane, McClellan would insert an extra component in the brain for common sense — an uncommon trait in humans.
Jonathan Weiner, author of "Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time"
As a boy, Weiner dreamed of turning himself into two, three or four people so that he could read, talk, climb a tree, hunt for rocks and watch "Walt Disney" at the same time.
In the 21st century, he says he could make baby clones of himself, then watch them grow up to do all of the above.
Now, Weiner is 47, and such a trichotomy no longer appeals to him.
He says he wouldn't be multiplying his freedom, he would be multiplying his responsibilities. He once also wished he could twiddle the hands of his inner clock the way you turn the knob on a wristwatch, to slow it down or speed it up.
Then he could draw out Disney entertainment and fast-forward through Sunday school. Today, he says, molecular biologists working with fruit flies can actually rewrite the DNA that makes the inner clock, so someday soon we may have all kinds of time-altering pills.
We'll pop them whenever we fly from LA to New York City or switch from the day shift to the night shift.
Keara Miller, fourth-grader at Stevenson Elementary School, Mesa, Ariz.
Miller's new body would feature two hearts because, she says, some parents don't love their children enough and don't have enough time to spend with their families.
If people had two hearts, they would be able to love each other more. There would be fewer wars and more peace in the world. People often say they will keep someone in their heart. With two hearts, they could keep twice as many people.
