ABSTRACT
Of course, we were not the first to encounter this problem of limited transport area. Nature ran into the same problem a billion or so years before us and solved it successfully by using extended surfaces. Examples of extended surfaces commonly found in organisms include gills in fish to enhance the surface area available for oxygen transport and bronchioli to enhance the exchange of oxygen and carbon monoxide in the lungs of land animals. Leaves or needles on trees provide sufficient surface area for energy absorption, and capillaries and blood vessels in animals provide the necessary nutrients to cells, assist in removing wastes, and aid in regulating body temperature. Even the plates of a stegosaurus or the ears of an elephant were primarily used to enhance the surface area available for heat transfer and help the huge beast regulate its body temperature. You may wish to ponder a bit on why most fish are cold blooded and what that has to do with the tremendous surface area their gills provide for absorbing oxygen from water. Virtually every system in nature, even inanimate ones such as a river delta, exploits an extended surface to enhance or dissipate the effects of transport.
