Ask Ms. Jessica Issue 16 – SWBs with SWBabys

(The content for Ask Ms. Jessica comes from real questions from real people sent to AskMsJessica@gmail.com)

Hello Ms. Jessica, yesterday i saw a group of mutants friends walking by, one of them was a SWB & another was pregnant.

And it made me wonder about 2 things,

1, Where are the organs of an SWB located? Do they still have all the organs of a normal human?

2, Will pregnant mutants give birth to normal humans or mutants?

Two very good questions!

About SWBs, they are what we call a “reduction” mutation. This involves any mutation where more body mass is lost rather than gained. In almost all incidents of reduction mutation, all organs are retained, and the same goes for SWBs. The biggest change, however, is that the organs shrink.

If you were to see an X-Ray of an SWB you would see that they have a much smaller heart, lungs, even digestive tract. You would also see her organs distributed through her thighs, hips, and other locations, though the majority of her vital organs would be protected by her pelvis which would double as a sort of rib cage.

Why doesn’t this cause health complications? Well, an SWB has much less cellular mass than a normal human. Their heart doesn’t have to pump blood as hard to overcome gravity. Their lungs don’t need to take in as much oxygen because there are fewer cells to feed oxygen to. They need to eat less because they don’t require as much energy to fuel cellular metabolism. The smaller the organism, the less work your organs have to do. 

Have you ever heard of the Square-Cube law? It states “When an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier and its new volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier.” So, if something became twice as big, it would have four times the surface area (2 squared) and eight times as much volume (2 cubed.) This means that big animals have to work much, much harder to supply their body with oxygen and energy. It’s why truly massive creatures (Godzilla sized) are so rare.

The thing is, this law applies in reverse too. If you reduce an objects size, you reduce its surface area by the square root of the modifier and it’s volume by the cube root of the modifier. That means while SWBs look only slightly smaller than a normal human, they have VASTLY less mass, which means their organs are far far more efficient. 

In fact, scientists believe that this is why SWBs exist at all. Remember that all mutations are an attempt by your body to read a junk DNA code that should be beneficial to you. Any harmful mutations are targeted by the immune system. Well, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense how losing a good portion of your mass and limbs would be beneficial. But when you think about the efficiency of the body’s internal systems, and how that can vastly expand your lifespan and increase your physical ability, suddenly it becomes more clear.

As for your second question, about mutant babies, it’s a little more complicated. The mutant gene itself is a recessive gene. So two mutants are far more likely to have mutant offspring than two humans. However, it’s theorized that the mutant gene has existed within humanity for a long time and has only started manifesting in modern history. So it’s entirely possible that a human with no mutations has the mutant gene and doesn’t know it. For that matter, it’s entirely possible that two mutants will give birth to a baby with a mutant gene but their genetic machinery never reads any DNA outside normal human boundaries and thus she spends her whole life non-mutated. There are tons of little factors that can determine whether or not someone becomes a mutant, but in general, the more mutant parents you have, the more likely you are to be born a mutant, or mutate later in life.

Sorry one of my answers was longer than the other!

Stay curious!

Dr. Jessica Park

AskMsJessica@gmail.com