Did Middle-earth’s air help create heroes? J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-earth is one

Did Middle-earth’s air help create heroes?J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle-earth is one of the great hallmarks of fantasy, and has garnered such a following that the study of Tolkien’s works have become serious academic pursuits. But Richard Walker and Alice Cooper-Dunn, researchers at the Center for Interdisciplinary Science at the University of Leicester, took their scholarship of Tolkien to another level. In a recently published article in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics, they hypothesized whether the oxygen levels in Middle-earth’s atmosphere could have bolstered the great feats of strength and endurance of Middle-earth’s human adventurers. One example of such a feat was the battle of Helm’s Deep, where the human swordsman Aragorn and other warriors of Rohan defended their keep all night against the relentless Uruk-hai. If we assume that the humans of Middle-earth (elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs, and wizards don’t count) share our physiology, it’s possible that something in the air of Middle-earth contributed to their chronicled acts of valor.To test their oxygen hypothesis, Walker and Cooper-Dunn performed some calculations using equations for arterial pressure and gas exchange. They concluded that oxygen concentrations in Middle-earth were at least 10% higher in comparison to Earth’s atmosphere. Of course, Walker and Cooper-Dunn could not take into account other physical factors such as adrenaline levels, lung capacity, and ventilation rates. They also used Aragorn as their only test subject, though he was slightly more robust than your average Middle-earth human — Aragorn was descended from a magical race of men known as the Dúnedain that gave him the mind and body of a man in his mid-30s when he was actually pushing 90.Despite these drawbacks, Walker and Cooper-Dunn’s hypothesis does in part explain why almost all humans in Middle-earth seem capable of running multiple triathlons. It also possibly explains the existence of erroneously large creatures in Middle-earth, such as eagles strong enough to carry riders on their backs, treasure-guarding dragons, and a giant man-eating spider. We can only imagine what our Earth would have been like if oxygen levels had evolved similar to that of Middle-earth’s.-DCPhoto credit: http://bit.ly/1Ibscc5More reading: http://bit.ly/1RGAcGChttp://bit.ly/1PcBBxPIn which the same authors discuss how Frodo survived a stabbing in the Mines of Moria: http://bit.ly/1HHKzzLToo much oxygen is bad for you: http://bit.ly/1GJqJsJMore oxygen in the atmosphere will not cause air to spontaneously combust: http://bit.ly/1Ke4pZyMore oxygen = more giant insects: http://bit.ly/1I0OBT2 -- source link

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