by Isaac Asimov
But you'll notice that I have left man out of the table.
That's because I want to treat him separately. He lives at the proper speed for his size. His heartbeat rate is about that of other animals, of similar weight. It is faster than the heartbeat of larger animals, slower than the heartbeat of smaller animals. Yet his maximum age is 115 years, and that means his maximum number of heartbeats is about 4,350,000,000.
An occasional man can live for over 4 billion heartbeats!
In fact, the life expectancy of the American male these days is 2.5 billion heartbeats. Any man- who passes the quarter-century mark has gone beyond the billionth heart beat mark and is still young, with the prime of life ahead.
Why? It is not just that we live longer than other mam mals. Measured in heartbeats, we live four times as long!
Why??
Upon what meat doth this, our species, feed, that we are grown so great? Not even our closest non-buman rela tives match us in this. If we assume the chimpanzee to have our heartbeat rate and the gorilla to have a slightly slower one, each lives for a maximum of about 1.5 billion heartbeats, which isn't very much out of line for mammals generally. How then do we make it to 4 billion?
What secret in our hearts makes those organs work so much better and last so much longer than any other mam malian heart in existence? Why does the moving finger write so slowly for us, and for us only?
Frankly, I don't know, but whatever the answer, I am comforted. If I were a member of any other mamxnalian species my heart would be stilled long years since, for it has gone well past its billionth beat. (Well, a little past.)
But since I am Homo sapiens, my wonderful heart beats even yet with all its old fire; and speeds up in proper fashion at all times when it should speed up, with a verve and efficiency that I find completely satisfying.
Why, when I stop to think of it, I am a young fellow, a child, an infant prodigy. I am a, member of the most un usual species on earth, in longevity as well as brain power, and I laugh at birthdays.
(Let's see now. How many years to 115?)
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