By: Book review – Vampirology: The Science of Horror’s Most Famous Fiend | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 16:32:33 +0000

[…] In ten chapters, Harkup investigates a diverse range of vampiric traits or facts associated with vampire lore. For some, she does not necessarily provide a scientific blueprint for how vampires would achieve what are obviously supernatural feats but looks at how other animals achieve something comparable. Could you actually live on a diet of blood? Vampire bats can, but they have had to make all sorts of compromises to manage it. If vampire metabolism is anything like a human’s this presents problems: blood is not very energy-rich, it is poor in the needed minerals and vitamins, and it is far too salty and iron-rich. Or what of Dracula’s ability to transform himself into other animals? Given the relationship between mass and energy, Dracula would not be able to rapidly transform into a much smaller bat, which “would release the sort of energy seen in atomic explosions [which] would result in the total destruction of [London]” (p. 130). But some animals are capable of extreme feats of camouflage or mimicry of objects. Octopuses can squeeze themselves through very small openings, as long as their hard beak can fit, so that is the kind of flexibility Dracula would need to squeeze himself through small cracks. And the question of how Dracula might crawl up and down vertical walls naturally leads to a piece on the way geckos adhere to surfaces. […]

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By: Book review – Vampirology: The Science of Horror’s Most Famous Fiend | The Inquisitive Biologist