What happens to your body at the top of Mount Everest - Andrew Lovering
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TEDEd Animation
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If you teleported from sea level to the top of Mount Everest, things would go bad fast. At an altitude of 8,848 meters, you would likely suffocate in minutes. However, for people that make this journey over the course of a month, it’s possible to survive at the peak for hours. So what happens in our bodies that allows us to endure this incredible altitude? Andrew Lovering investigates.
Humans have several ways to adapt to low oxygen or high altitudes, but animals have many unique ways to adapt to high altitudes. For example, some fish like the crucian carp have advantageous metabolic pathways that allow for them to use anaerobic pathways without negative consequences like producing excess lactate. Similarly, some diving mammals store oxygen in myoglobin. Can you think of other real or imaginary ways humans and animals could adapt to survive low oxygen conditions?
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Andrew Lovering
- Director Vitalii Nebelskyi, and action creative agency
- Narrator Addison Anderson
- Storyboard Artist Alexandra Bolotova
- Animator Alexandra Bolotova, Vitalii Nebelskyi, Volodymyr Boiko
- Art Director Vitalii Nebelskyi
- Composer Salil Bhayani, cAMP Studio
- Sound Designer Amanda P.H. Bennett, cAMP Studio
- Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
- Producer Anna Bechtol
- Associate Producer Abdallah Ewis
- Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
- Editorial Producer Dan Kwartler
- Fact-Checker Charles Wallace
