College of Hull’s Prof Mark Lorch asks the burning query: if dragons had been actual, how would they burn us to a crisp?
In George R R Martin’s fantastical land of Westeros in Recreation of Thrones and Home of the Dragon, the spectacle of dragons respiratory hearth captivates his viewers by a mix of delusion and fantasy. For me no less than, there’s additionally scientific curiosity.
The photographs of dragons unleashing torrents of flames obtained me considering: if dragons existed, what real-world organic mechanisms and chemical reactions would possibly they use?
However first, a chemistry recap. To ignite and maintain a flame, we’d like three elements; a gasoline, an oxidising agent (usually the oxygen within the air) and a warmth supply to provoke and preserve combustion.
Let’s begin with the gasoline. Methane might be a candidate. Animals produce it throughout digestion. The photographs on the display screen of Westeros present dragons are eager on consuming sheep. Nevertheless, our methane-fuelled dragons would want to have a food regimen and digestive system extra like that of a cow to supply sufficient gasoline to burn down a metropolis.
There’s additionally an issue with the storage of ample quantities of methane gasoline. A typical methane cylinder could be rated for 150 atmospheres of stress, whereas even a bloated intestine can solely tolerate just a little over one environment. So, there’s no organic foundation for non-marine animals to retailer gasses below excessive stress.
A greater choice can be a liquid. Ethanol might be an choice. Possibly our dragons maintain a vat of fermenting yeast of their guts, or they might have a metabolic system much like Satan’s Gap pupfish, which dwell in scorching springs in Nevada, US. Beneath low oxygen situations, these fish swap to a type of respiration which produces ethanol.
Nevertheless, storage is as soon as once more a problem. Ethanol shortly passes by organic membranes, so conserving it at excessive concentrations and able to deploy on the ‘dracarys’ sign (which interprets to ‘dragonfire’ within the fictitious language Excessive Valyrian) would require some otherworldly biology.
So, if we’re sticking to explanations with no less than one foot in real-world biology, then my most popular choice is one thing extra oil based mostly. As anybody who has by chance set hearth to a frying pan is aware of, this generally is a supply of roaring flames. There’s a organic foundation for this within the fulmar gull.
They produce energy-rich abdomen oil that they regurgitate to feed their chicks. The oil additionally serves as a deterrent. When threatened, the fulmar vomits the sticky, smelly oil over predators. Fortunately, the gulls haven’t but developed a method to ignite their vomit.
Feeding the flames
Now that we’ve a gasoline supply, let’s flip our consideration to the oxidising agent. As with most fires, this may most likely be oxygen. Nevertheless, it’s going to take greater than oxygen within the surrounding air to generate a jet of pressurised flaming oil scorching sufficient to soften an iron throne. And it must be nicely combined in with the gasoline. The higher the provision of oxygen, the warmer the flame.
A dragon may draw on some chemistry utilized by the bombardier beetle. This insect has developed reservoirs tailored to retailer hydrogen peroxide (the stuff you would possibly use to bleach your hair). When threatened, the beetle pushes hydrogen peroxide right into a vestibule containing enzymes that quickly decompose the hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen.
That is an exothermic response, which transfers power to the environment, and on this case raises the temperature of the combination to virtually boiling level. The response is so aggressive it’s typically used to propel rockets. The rise in stress brought on by the speedy manufacturing of oxygen and the boiling water forces the noxious combination out of a vent within the beetle’s stomach and in the direction of its prey or menace.
If employed by a dragon, this response has just a few good options. It will create the excessive stress wanted to drive the jet of oily gasoline, the exothermic response would warmth the oils making them extra able to combust, and most significantly, it might generate oxygen that might drive the combustion response.
All of the dragon would want is a few type of organic equal of a petroleum engine carburettor to combine the oil with the oxygen and create an explosive combine. As a bonus, the erupting combination would in all probability type a superb mist of oil droplets, like an aerosol, which might ignite all the higher.
The spark
Lastly, we’d like a spark to ignite the combination. For this, I’m going to counsel the dragons have developed an electrical organ much like that discovered in lots of fish, notably electrical eels.
These can generate quick pulses of as much as 600 volts, simply sufficient to create a spark throughout a brief air hole. If these sparks discharged throughout the ducts behind a dragon’s mouth, they might ignite the high-pressure jet of oil and oxygen.
Whereas we’ll by no means see a dragon unleashing torrents of flames outdoors the realm of fiction, it’s intriguing to ponder the science behind fantasy. So, subsequent time you witness a Targaryen’s command of ‘dracarys’, take into consideration the biology behind that magical inferno.
By Prof Mark Lorch
Mark Lorch is professor of science communication on the College of Hull. He skilled as a protein chemist, finding out protein folding and performance. His analysis now focuses on the chemistry of a broad vary of organic methods together with lipids, proteins and even plant spores.
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