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Advanced Nutrition
Advanced Nutrition
Macronutrients, Micronutrients, and Metabolism
Third Edition
Carolyn D. Berdanier
Professor Emerita
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Lynnette A. Berdanier
Lecturer, Department of Biology
University of North Georgia – Gainesville
Oakwood, GA
Third edition published 2021
by CRC Press
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
and by CRC Press
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Second edition published by CRC Press 2015
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Berdanier, Carolyn D., author. | Berdanier, Lynne, author.
Title: Advanced nutrition : macronutrients, micronutrients, and
metabolism / Carolyn D. Berdanier, Lynne Berdanier.
Description: 3rd edition. | Boca Raton : CRC Press, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2020052945 | ISBN 9780367554583 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780367554606 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003093664 (ebook)
Subjects: MESH: Nutritional Physiological Phenomena |
Dietary Carbohydrates–metabolism | Dietary Fats–metabolism |
Dietary Proteins–metabolism | Micronutrients–metabolism
Classification: LCC QP141 | NLM QU 145 | DDC 612.3–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020052945
ISBN: 978-0-367-55460-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-55458-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09366-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Authors
Chapter 5 Energy
Definition, Terminology
How Energy Is Assessed (Intake, Output, Storage)
Energy Intake
Energy Need
The Energy Equation
Energy Terminology
Energy Retained
Energetic Efficiency
Utilizable Energy
Thermogenesis
Uncoupling Proteins
Summary
Chapter Nutrigenomics
10 Genes
Gene Expression
DNA Structure
Mutation or Polymorphisms
Epigenetics
Synthesis of Purines and Pyrimidines
Transcription
Mitochondrial Gene Expression
Translation
Effects of Diet on Genetic Diseases
Nutrient–Gene Interactions
Genetic Diseases of Interest to Nutrition
Summary
Chapter Protein
11 Amino Acids
Chemistry
Stereochemistry
Acid–Base Properties
Reactions
Amino Acid Derivatives
Creatine Phosphate
Choline
Polyamines
Peptides
Protein Structure
Protein Denaturation
Classification of Proteins
Classification by Solubility and Prosthetic Groups
Glycoproteins
Lipoproteins
Nucleoproteins
Other Conjugated Proteins
Classification by Function
Classification by Nutritive Value
Protein Analysis
Biological Value of Dietary Protein
Protein Use
Digestion
Absorption
Metabolism
Functions of Proteins
Proteins as Enzymes
Proteins as Carriers and Receptors
Proteins as Regulators of Water Balance
Proteins as Biological Buffers
Proteins as Structural Elements
Proteins as Lubricants
Proteins in the Immune System
Proteins in the Endocrine System: Hormones
Proteins as Signaling Molecules
Protein Turnover
Protein Degradation
Protein Intake Recommendations
Age
Environmental Temperature
Previous Diet
Physical Activity
Protein Deficiency
Kwashiorkor
Marasmus
Protein and Amino Acid Interactions with Other
Nutrients
Vegetarian Diets
Renal Disease
Gluten Sensitivity
Integration of the Metabolic Features of Protein Nutrition
Summary
Chapter Carbohydrates
12 Classification
Structure, Nomenclature, and Sources
Monosaccharides
Stereoisomeric Forms
Anomeric Forms
Oligosaccharides
Disaccharides
Polysaccharides
Storage Polysaccharides
Structural Polysaccharides
Mucopolysaccharides
Sources of Carbohydrate
Digestion and Absorption
Metabolism
Glucose Homeostasis
Abnormalities in the Regulation of Glucose
Homeostasis: Diabetes Mellitus
Prevalence of Diabetes
Glucose Tolerance Test
Genetics and Diabetes Mellitus
Type 1 Diabetes
Autoimmune Disease
Diabetes Secondary to Viral Infections
Mutations Associated with Diabetes
Insulin Release
Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young
Genetic Errors in Insulin Structure
Mitochondrial Diabetes
Peripheral Insulin Resistance
Animal Models for Humans with Type 2 Diabetes
Population Surveys Relating Diet to Diabetes
Prospective Studies Linking Food Intake to a Reduction
in Type 2 Diabetes
Dietary Intervention in Diabetes
Overall Management of Both Type 1 and Type 2
Diabetes
Other Health Concerns in Carbohydrate Nutrition
Fiber
Ethanol
Carbohydrate Needs
Summary
Chapter Lipids
13 Classification
Structure and Nomenclature
Simple Lipids
Fatty Acids
Triacylglycerol (Oils and Fats or Triglycerides)
Sources of Lipids
Digestion and Absorption
Transport
Exogenous Lipid Transport
Endogenous Lipid Transport
Genetic Basis for Lipoproteinemia
Defects in Exogenous Fat Transport
Diet Effects on Serum Lipids
Nutrient–Gene Interactions in Lipid Transport
Fatty Acid Function
Essential Fatty Acids
Eicosanoid Synthesis
Fatty Acid Autooxidation
Aging and Free Radicals
Marine Oils and Health Concerns
Lipids and Membrane Function
Membrane Phospholipid Composition
Disease Effects on Membrane Lipids
Hormonal Effects on Membrane Lipids
Age Effects on Membrane Lipids
Membrane Function
Cancer and Dietary Fat
Other Diseases
Summary
Chapter Macrominerals
14 Sodium
Regulation of Serum Sodium
Function
Potassium
Chloride
Function
Calcium
Sources
Food Mixtures
Bioavailability
Apparent Absorption
Physiological Status
Mechanisms of Absorption
Calcium Transport and Blood Calcium Regulation
Function
Bone Mineralization
Cell Signaling
Calcium and Cell Death
Muscle Contraction
Calcium Deficiency
Need
Phosphorus
Function
Magnesium
Absorption, Metabolism, and Excretion
Function
Deficiency
Need
Summary
Glossary
Index
Preface
NUTRITION SCIENCE
TABLE 1.1
Journals That Publish the Results of Nutrition Research
ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS
Nutrition research has identified the essential nutrients. What are the
essential nutrients? By definition, an essential nutrient is a dietary component
that cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities to meet the body’s need.
In some instances, the body can synthesize some of a nutrient but not
enough to meet the needs of the consumer. For example, niacin (vitamin B3)
can be synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan. If the person consumes
a high-quality/high-protein diet, there should be ample amounts of
tryptophan available for this synthesis. Unfortunately, this is not always the
case and so the vitamin must be provided in the diet. There are also
“conditional” essential nutrients. These are nutrients that must be provided in
the diet because there is a drug treatment or a disease condition that
increases the need for this nutrient that exceeds the body’s ability to
synthesize it. An example is carnitine. Carnitine is an essential nutrient for
fatty acid utilization. Normally, the body makes ample carnitine but in
severely traumatized individuals, endogenous synthesis is insufficient.
Carnitine must then be provided in the diet if individual is to survive this
trauma.
There are species differences in the list of essential nutrients.1 There are
also species differences in how foods are processed internally to provide the
needed nutrients. Ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats, and deer) are herbivores
and consume plants. They have four-chambered stomachs that serve as
fermentation vats. Within this structure are vast quantities of microorganisms
that ferment the plant material, and through this action provide the ruminant
with amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins. The needs for the
essential minerals are met through direct consumption either from the plants
they consume or from mineral supplements. There are some species (horses,
donkeys, rabbits) that use the cecum or an enlarged gastrointestinal tract a
fermentation vat.5 These animals are “quasi-ruminants.” These species are
also herbivores. Ruminants, in general, do not tolerate fat-rich diets.
Other mammals are omnivores. They tolerate fat-rich diets very well.
Some of these also have distinct nutrient needs. For example, felines require
the fatty acid, arachidonic acid, in their diets while other species do not.
Humans, dogs, rodents, and other species can synthesize arachidonic acid
from the essential fatty acid, linoleic acid. Most species can synthesize
vitamin C (ascorbic acid), but humans and other primates, guinea pigs, and
fruit bats cannot. Thus, for these species, vitamin C must be provided in the
diet. The essential nutrients for humans are listed in Table 1.2. The essential
nutrients for other species can be found online using the National Academy
website, http://books.nap.edu. To locate each of the species publications,
type in the nutrient requirements and click on the species of interest. Added
to the lists of the needed nutrients should be the need for water and energy.
The latter need must be met before any other need can be met. The
importance of the need for energy is discussed in Chapters 5, 6, and 8.
In addition to the species differences in nutrient need, there are also age
and gender differences. For example, growing individuals be they humans or
pigs or mice will require more of the essential nutrients than mature
individuals. In the tables for human nutrient need, these needs are divided
into age and gender groups. Infants, children, adolescents, and adults are
indicated. The groups are subdivided into males and females. The adult
female group has a subgroup for those who are pregnant and those who are
lactating. These physiological states demand additional nutrients to support
the growth of the fetus in the pregnant woman and to support the growth of
the suckling infant. Extra nutrients are needed by the adolescent male as he
develops bone and muscle as part of his progress toward maturity. The
muscle and bone growth of females of the same age and activity is not as
great yet adolescent females also need more of the essential nutrients than
do mature females. Lastly, the aged human is now being studied in greater
detail as this population of adults is growing larger. Some of the
recommendations for nutrient intakes by the aged adult are under study as
the aging process and associated age-related disease states may influence
nutrient needs. Many of the recommendations for intakes by this group of
humans are in a state of flux.
Although there are species, age, and gender differences in nutrient need,
there are also some similarities that are useful to the nutrition scientist.
These similarities have allowed scientists to use small, short-lived species to
test various nutrition-related hypotheses. Rats and mice are commonly used
in this work. They are short lived (a rat can live up to 3 years) and have very
rapid metabolic rates. Short-term experiments can provide much information
about nutrition that has application to longer-lived species, that is, the
human. There are species similarities in the internal organs, and in the brain,
that are informative with respect to human metabolism. Lastly, the rat is an
omnivore (like the human) with a similar digestive tract. Meaningful dietary
manipulations can be used to test hypotheses about the specifics of diet
influences on metabolic response using the rat and many of these results
have application to the human.
TABLE 1.2
Essential Nutrients for Humans
Protein: protein containing sufficient amounts of the essential amino acids (see Chapter 11)
Essential fatty acids: fatty acids that cannot be synthesized in the body (linoleic acid,
linolenic acid) (see Chapter 13)
Fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K (see Chapter 16)
Water-soluble vitamins: ascorbic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, pantothenic
acid, biotin, folic acid, vitamin B12, and some compounds that are conditional vitamins:
carnitine, choline, inositol, and perhaps other compounds yet to be fully studied with
respect to essentiality (see Chapter 17)
Minerals: sodium, potassium chloride, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, selenium,
iodine, molybdenum, manganese, and cobalt (see Chapters 14 and 15)
To these must be added: sufficient energy and water.*
* Although essential, intake recommendations have been difficult to predict.
USES OF DRIS
Intake recommendations are used in a variety of ways. They are used to
monitor the health of a population, as a basis for further research, and for
food labeling. They are also used as a basis for assistance programs and food
policy decisions, and as a basis for military food planning and support. The
food industries also use this information in the development and marketing of
their food products. Also there are global uses in that different countries use
them to set their own health and nutrition standards.
It is important to remember that people eat food not nutrients. Thus,
although we might know what nutrients should be consumed in the food that
is eaten, this does not always mean that nourishing food is actually
consumed. Food choice is more a matter of satisfying individual likes and
dislikes, cultural dictates, social and economic dictates, and other nonfood
considerations. In addition, the regulation of food intake by internal and
external signals can quantitatively affect what food is consumed and how
much. These signals apparently are integrated ones that signal hunger or the
initiation of eating and satiety or the signal(s) to stop eating. A review of
what is known about the regulation of food intake is provided in Chapter 9.
As a general rule, if the individual consumes a wide variety of fresh and
cooked foods sufficient to sustain an ideal body weight, then the needs for
the macronutrients and the micronutrients “should” be met. Having this in
mind, it is surprising to learn that some people may be well fed but poorly
nourished. Indeed, some may develop one or more nutrition-related diseases
either through excessive intake or inadequate intake of one or more essential
nutrients and/or destruction of essential nutrients during preparation.
Today, few people prepare all of their food from raw ingredients. Instead,
they purchase some foods that are partly or fully ready to eat. Food
manufacturers have devised products that are tasty, reasonable in cost, and
easy to prepare. These so-called convenience foods are a regular component
of the shopper’s grocery list. To provide such convenience, food
manufacturers have used a variety of additives that stabilize the food
product, extend its shelf life, and improve its quality and flavor. All food
additives must be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA publishes a list of approved food additives called the generally
recognized as safe (GRAS) list. Approval is based on a detailed review of the
scientific literature reporting on the clinical and toxicological responses to the
additive. Some additives are naturally occurring substances that have been in
general use for long periods of time and are accorded GRAS approval due to
that history.
FOOD COMPOSITION
An important component of nutrition research has been the determination of
the nutrient composition of food. Much of this composition analysis has been
determined by the Food Composition Analysis unit of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA). These data have been compiled and are
available online (www.usda.gov). Other compilations have also been made as
shown in Table 1.3. Many of these are also available online.2
TABLE 1.3
Websites for Information on Food Composition
NUTRITION ASSESSMENT
The adequacy of one’s diet can be determined by assessing the quantity and
nutrient value of the foods consumed in relation to the age- and gender-
determined nutrient need. There are several ways of doing this. One is called
the Food Recall Method. In this method, the subject recalls and lists the
amounts of all the foods consumed during a specified period of time. This
method depends on the accuracy of the recall. For large surveys the period is
usually 1 day. Smaller surveys might use a 3-day period. A variation of this
method consists of having the subject to make a written record of the food
consumed and the quantity of that food over a 3-day period that includes one
weekend day. Weekend menus are often quite different from those of a
weekday. A third method is to have a trained observer to make this record.
This is very time-consuming and labor-intensive; however, it may be needed
in instances where the subject is unable to compile a record. The subject
might be blind or unable to read/write or too young to make the record or be
unable to recall the food consumed.
There are a number of computer programs designed to help the individual
assess intake adequacy (Table 1.4).2,3 As mentioned above, one can calculate
diet adequacy by tabulating the nutrient content of the foods consumed
versus the nutrient needs of the consumer. This assumes that the estimate of
intake is correct and that the food is prepared with a minimum of loss of
nutrient content and that there are no interfering substances that hinder
nutrient availability and use. For confirmation of diet adequacy, the subject
can then be assessed using a variety of biochemical, physical, and
anthropological measures such as those used by scientists involved in the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) studies. There
are also a number of websites that provide nutrient-intake recommendations
(Table 1.5).
TABLE 1.4
Tools Useful in Assessing Diet Adequacy2,3
Web Address
www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/individual-dietary-assessment
www.riskfactor.gov/tools/instruments/asa24
www.sph.uth.tmc.edu/reseach/centers/dell/fias-food-intake-and-analysis-system
www.esha.com
www.nutrition.com
Most of these software systems use the USDA food composition database4 as well as other
compilations of the nutrient content of foods not covered in the USDA database.
www.nutrigenie.biz/
www.nee.umn.edu
www.nutritionistpro.com
http://hcl.cbord.com/products/product_193
Most of these software systems use the USDA food composition database4 as well as other
compilations of the nutrient content of foods not covered in the USDA database.
Most of these software systems use the USDA food composition database4
as well as other compilations of the nutrient content of foods not covered in
the USDA database.
TABLE 1.5
Websites for Food Intake Recommendations
POPULATION STUDIES
TABLE 1.6
Laboratory Tests Useful in Clinical Nutritional Assessment
TABLE 1.7
Normal Values for Micronutrients in Blooda
Note: For more information on blood analyses, see NHANES Manual for Nutrition
Assessment, CDC, Atlanta, GA; ICNND Manual for Nutrition Surveys, 2nd edn, 1963; US
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC; Sauberlich et al., Laboratory Tests for the
Assessment of Nutritional Status, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1974.
TABLE 1.8
Normal Clinical Values in SI Units for Blood Components
Component SI Units
Ammonia 22–39 mmol/l
Calcium 8.5–10.5 mg/dl or 2.25–2.65 mmol/l
Carbon dioxide 24–30 meq/l or 24–29 mmol/l
Chloride 100–106 meq/l or mmol/l
Copper 100–200 mg/dl or 16–31 mmol/l
Iron 50–150 mg/dl or 11.6–31.3 mmol/l
Lead 50 mg/dl or less
Component SI Units
Magnesium 1.5–2.0 meq/l or 0.75–1.25 mmol/l
P CO2 35–40 mm Hg
pH 7.35–7.45
Phosphorus 3.0–4.5 mg/dl or 1–1.5 mmol/l
P O2 75–100 mm Hg
Potassium 3.5–5.0 meq/l or 2.5–5.0 mmol/l
Sodium 135–145 meq/l or 135–145 mmol/l
Acetoacetate <2 mmol
Ascorbic acid 0.4–15 mg/dl or 23–85 mmol/l
Bilirubin 0.4–0.6 mg/dl or 1.71–6.84 mmol/l
Carotinoids 0.8–4.0 mg/ml
Creatinine 0.6–1.5 mg/dl or 60–130 mmol/l
Lactic acid 0.6–1.8 meq/l or 0.44–1.28 mmol/l
Cholesterol 120–220 mg/dl or 3.9–7.3 mmol/l
Triglycerides 40–150 mg/dl or 6–18 mmol/l
Pyruvic acid 0–0.11 meq/l or 79.8–228.0 mmol/l
Urea nitrogen 8–25 mg/dl or 2.86–7.14 mmol/l
Uric acid 3.0–7.0 mg/dl or 0.18–0.29 mmol/l
Vitamin A 0.15–0.6 mg/dl
Albumin 3.5–5.0 g/dl
Insulin 6–20 mU/dl
Glucose 70–100 mg/dl or 4–6 mmol/l
These measurements are in blood from healthy people who have been
fasting for 8–12 hours.
Urine analysis (Table 1.9) can also provide information about the
nutritional status of adults. The values can indicate nutrient excretion as well
as the excretion of toxins such as lead. Measurements of blood and urine
creatinine can be used to calculate creatinine clearance, a measure of renal
function (glomerular filtration rate). The equation for this calculation is as
follows: (140-age) × weight (kg) × 0.85/72 × serum creatinine (mg/dl).
TABLE 1.9
Normal Values for Micronutrients in Urine
Note: For more information on urine analysis, see ICNNO, Manual for Nutrition Surveys, 2nd
ed. US Gov. Printing Office Wash. DC, 1963; NHANES Manual for Nutrition Assessment,
CDC, Atlanta, GA; Gibson, R.S., Principles of Nutrition Assessment, Oxford University Press,
NY, 1990.
The NHANES surveys are not the only health and nutrition surveys that
have been conducted over the years.16–17 There have been a number of
other studies directed toward specific population groups such as the
Framingham studies on heart disease and the Nurses Study on women’s
health that were directed toward understanding the etiology of cardiovascular
disease and other chronic diseases.17 Each of these surveys provides a
glimpse of factors that have relevance to the nutritional health status of
people in a variety of situations. Comparisons of the data sets from these
studies to the NHANES sets have enlarged our understanding of factors that
contribute to the health and well-being of people in the United States.
One might ask the question as to how these surveys aid health planners in
improving the health of the U.S. population. The accumulated data have been
useful in many ways. For example, the measurements of fetal growth in
pregnant women and neonatal growth have provided data that allow
healthcare workers to compare fetal and neonatal growth to a population
average. This comparison can indicate whether normal growth is occurring.
Other accomplishments of the NHANES surveys relate to the assessment of
the nutrient needs of specific population segments. Iron deficiency anemia
was identified as a common health issue early in the history of the NHANES
surveys. So too was the identification of the role of folacin in the neurological
development of the fetus. Each of these problems alerted scientists of the
need to add iron and/or folacin to the diet through enrichment. When this
was done, iron deficiency anemia was reduced in the subsequent NHANES
survey. Likewise, folacin supplementation resulted in a reduction of early
neurological deficits such as spina bifida in newborn infants.
TABLE 1.10
Websites for Information from Health-Oriented Organizations
SUMMARY
Nutrition science is a hybrid of all the sciences that contribute to our
understanding of what nutrients are needed by the living body. Not all living
things require the same panel of nutrients and not all living things consume
the same food to provide these needed nutrients. Assessment of the many
species in terms of the use of the nutrients in the food they consume
provides insights into how humans use their food. Population surveys have
provided information about the health and well-being of people in relation to
the foods they consume. Government and nongovernment organizations
provide information about nutrient need and this information can be accessed
online.
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Finally, in midafternoon, a thickening line of black showed against
the southern horizon. We reduced our speed, and sinking closer to
the ground, sped down toward the black line.
It seemed to grow as we came nearer, loomed larger and larger, until
at last we hung above the black mass, gazing down at it in silent
awe. And it was a wall.
But what a wall! A gigantic, mountain-high and mountain-thick barrier
of solid black metal, extending as far as we could see, from the
eastern to the western horizon. A colossal barrier of metal, all of a
mile and a half in height, with a thickness at the bottom of nearly a
mile and at the top of half that much. A smooth-sided, dully gleaming
mass beside which the walls of mighty Babylon would have been
toylike, microscopic.
And with that wall, the ice stopped. On the northern side of the
barrier, the fields of ice stretched away as far as the eye could reach.
But on its southern side there was no ice. Grass of dull green, and
small trees, gnarled and twisted by the glacier's cold, lay to the wall's
south, a vista of rolling, bleak plains that extended down to the
southern horizon.
Hanging above the mighty, flat-topped barrier, we surveyed it,
stupefied. All around us was no sign of life. No sound, no movement.
Only the white expanse to the north, the green one to the south, and
between them, separating and defining them, the titanic wall.
Lantin spoke, excitedly. "You see its purpose, Wheeler? It has been
built here as a dam to hold back the glacier, to stem the tides of ice.
But how built? To think that men can do things like that!"
I saw now that Lantin spoke aright, and that it was to dam the
engulfing, southward-flowing ice that the wall had been built. And I
was struck with awe at the achievement. What were the great
Chinese wall and Martian canals, to this? Here in the far future,
fifteen thousand years ahead of our own time, we were seeing
another step in the conquest of nature by man. He had leveled
mountains and turned rivers, and here, below us, had thrust forth a
hand and halted the resistless glaciers.
An hour we hung above the colossal barrier, fascinated, and then
remembered our mission and sped again south.
CHAPTER 16
BEFORE THE COUNCIL OF KOM
Through a throbbing, pain-racked darkness, light came down to me,
stronger and stronger. There was a dull, monotonous sound that
seemed to float down to me from great heights. I turned, struggled,
opened my eyes.
I was lying on a soft mat, set on a low, narrow platform of metal.
Above me was a high, white ceiling, and as I half-raised myself on
one arm, I was able to survey the rest of the room in which I lay.
It was a bright, airy room, white-walled and sunny. At one end of it
were high, open windows, without glass or shutter, and through them
streamed the sunlight and the soft air. Except for the bed on which I
lay, and two metal chairs of simple design, the room was quite bare,
but it was an austere, clean bareness that was pleasing to the eye.
Now memory rushed back to me, and sudden fear came with it.
Where was Lantin? Had he survived the crash? I began to struggle
up from my reclining position, but sank back for a moment as a door
in one of the walls slid aside, and a man entered the room.
Tall and commanding of appearance, with dark hair and clear
youthful face, yet something about the eyes stamped him as a man
of middle age, almost elderly. He was dressed in a short white tunic,
bordered with three narrow stripes of purple. When he perceived that
I was awake and regarding him, he paused for a moment in surprize,
then came on toward me.
A friendly smile illumined his face as he spoke to me, in the Kanlar
tongue.
"You are awake, Wheelaire? And your friend, too, has just
awakened."
"Lantin!" I exclaimed. "He is all right? He was not hurt?"
The other smiled. "No more than yourself. Would you like to see
him?"
I assented eagerly, and made to rise, but he pushed me back. "It is
not needful," he said, and reaching down to the foot of the metal
platform on which I lay, he touched a concealed button. At once, the
platform rose gently from its supports until it swung in the air four
feet above the floor. When my new-found friend laid his hand on its
edge, it moved gently through the air under the impetus of a slight
push.
He saw my astonishment, and explained, "The metal is clorium, the
same material we once used for our air-boats. It is weightless, under
the influence of certain forces." Then, as an afterthought, he added,
"My name is Kethra."
Pushing my platform easily through the air before him, he was
moving toward the door of the room when I stopped him with a
gesture. "Can I look from the window there a moment?" I asked,
indicating the high openings. By way of answer, he stepped over to
the window in question, his hand on my platform's edge bringing me
there also. I raised myself, gazed eagerly out.
I saw at once that I must be near the top of the great cone-shaped
building we had been making for when we crashed. Below, and all
around, the white buildings extended to the horizons, looking like
thousands of huge geometry-models cast down indiscriminately,
cones and spheres and cubes. High above them as I was, yet I could
discern swift movement in the streets, crowds of pedestrians surging
to and fro, flashing vehicles of strange design, that followed the
broad thoroughfares, rising in the air here and there to pass over
each other. Glancing away down the long, slanting side of the cone
near whose summit I stood, I saw at its base other great crowds,
who massed and swirled aimlessly around the building. I turned to
Kethra.
"And this is Kom?" I said.
He nodded. "It is Kom."
I pointed toward the teeming crowds that eddied around the
building's base. "You must count your people here by the millions?" I
queried.
His face grew somber as he too looked down at the masses of
humanity below. "It is seldom there are crowds like that," he said.
"But this is a time of great events, and our people gather around this
building, which is the seat of the Council of Kom, that they may learn
what decisions have been made."
He turned from the window, face solemn and unsmiling now, and
with a slight push sent my platform drifting toward and through the
door. Conducting me down a long corridor, he turned in at another
room, similar in every detail to the one I had just left. And there,
standing up and gazing down through an open window as I had just
done, was Lantin.
He turned and saw me, came toward me anxiously. At a touch from
Kethra, my platform sank down to the floor, and assisted by my
friend, I rose weakly to my feet.
"You're all right, Wheeler?" he asked quickly. I assured him that I
was, for the weakness and dizziness I had felt were rapidly leaving
me. Lantin laughed ruefully. "What a fool's trick of mine, to smash
straight down into that roof!" He pointed upward, toward the blue sky,
and walking over to the window beside him, I looked up curiously.
There was the same flicker in the sky that I had noticed from above,
an elusive, wavering flash of light that I knew now was caused by the
sunlight glinting off the flat, transparent roof.
"The roof," I said to Kethra, "does it cover all the city?"
"All of Kom lies beneath it," he said. "Without it, could we live like
this?" He swept an arm around in a wide gesture that included the
soft, warm air, the open windows, and the white city below, laced
with the greenery of gardens.
"But how is it built?" I asked. "How supported? Is it glass, or what
material?"
"It's no material at all," he replied, astoundingly. "It's force."
I looked at him, a little incredulously. "Force? It was solid enough
when we crashed into it."
"Yes, it is force," he smiled. "That's the reason it is almost invisible,
from above or below. It is a perpetual sheet of electric force, drawn
over the city from end to end. It is so designed and projected, from a
ring of stations around the city, that it excludes some vibrations of
the ether, and allows others to enter. For instance, it excludes the
vibrations called matter, such as air, or such as your car. All of the
city's air is pumped in through special vents in the force-shield. On
the other hand, it allows the vibrations of light and of radiant heat to
enter, and so our city is lighted and heated by the sun itself. Without
such a shield, we would be living in a city as bleak and cold as the
plains that surround it."
"So we crashed into an invisible field of force," I said, and shook my
head. "Well, it seemed solid enough when we hit it."
"The most powerful force in the world could not crash through it,"
said Kethra, "and it is fortunate that you were not going at high
speed or you would have been annihilated. As it was, we found you
both lying unconscious in your car, up on the force-shield, and as we
can neutralize it at will, at given spots, we were able to bring you
down to the city."
"But the car!" I cried. "It is not destroyed, is it? It was not completely
smashed?"
He shook his head. "It was hardly damaged at all," he assured us.
"The point, or prow, was bent back, but that has already been
repaired." He paused a moment, then said an astounding thing. "The
car does you credit, in its design. It is too bad that, after making it
and coming so far into the future, you have been unable to find your
friend."
I gasped and looked at Lantin. His face reflected utmost surprize,
and he said, "I didn't tell him, Wheeler. I'll swear I didn't."
Kethra smiled. "Neither of you told me," he said. "But you have lain
unconscious for a day, and in that time we learned all your story, my
friends, and learned how you came here to warn us of the peril
beyond the ice, that peril of an evil being, whom you call the Raider."
"But how?" I asked helplessly.
In answer, he touched a button set in the wall, and motioned us to
seat ourselves in the chairs beside the window. A green-robed
servant entered, in a moment, with a metal cabinet. He handed this
to Kethra, and then departed.
The cabinet was an oblong box of black metal, a yard or more in its
greatest length. Our companion touched a stud in the floor with his
sandaled foot, and a small square section of the floor sprang up on
four legs, or supports, forming a little table. Setting the cabinet on
this table, our friend opened it.
Inside was a small, gleaming apparatus, consisting of a squat little
box on which was set a small horn like that of a radio loud-speaker,
but much smaller. From the box a flexible cord led, splitting at its end
into three separate cords, each of which was metal-tipped. Setting
this on the table, Kethra then drew from the cabinet three or four
small, shapeless objects, gray and withered and deeply wrinkled,
smaller in size than a baseball, the nature of which I could not guess.
He turned to us, now. "This mechanism," he said, indicating the
gleaming apparatus, "is what we call a brain-reader. As you know,
the brain preserves in its convolutions an indelible, unchangeable
record of every word and action. When we remember a thing, we
simply refer to that record, which we call memory, but which is in
reality a very tiny change, but a lasting one. And this apparatus,
when connected to a human brain by way of the nervous system,
reads, from the myriad convolutions of that brain, the record of
memory which is stamped on those convolutions."
With a swift movement, he fastened three clamps of metal to his
body, one above the forehead, one around the neck, and the other
along his spine. "These clamps make direct contact to the nervous
system, through the skin," he explained, "and to them I attach the
three cords from the brain-reader," suiting the action to the word.
This done, he snapped a switch in the little box beneath the horn,
and at once a nasal, metallic voice began to speak from that horn, in
the Kanlar tongue.
Kethra's own voice came to us above the twanging one from the
brain-reader. "It is giving a record of my experiences within the last
few hours," he explained, "and will go back farther and farther as it
continues, back to my very first memory, if allowed to run. Or I can
use it to concentrate on any given period of my own life, and it will
read with unvarying accuracy the impressions and sensations of my
brain during that period. A mechanical, perfect memory," and he
snapped off the switch and removed the clamps from his body.
"Nor does its usefulness stop there," he added, while we stared
dumfoundedly at the little mechanism. "Here," he went on, picking up
one of the withered gray objects, "is a human brain, the brain of one
of the great men of our people, who died five centuries ago. And yet
every memory and every thought and sensation in his life, imprinted
unchangeably on his brain, is available to us by using the brain-
reader."
He rapidly fitted over the withered brain a hollow hemisphere of
metal, and attached to it the cords from the apparatus. A snap of the
switch, and again the same nasal voice broke the silence, from the
horn, speaking in the Kanlar tongue, and reading steadily on from
the brain it was connected with, reciting the inmost thoughts and
ideas and aspirations of a man dead for five hundred years. I
shuddered, involuntarily, and Kethra snapped off the apparatus.
"It seems strange to you," he said, "but you will see the wisdom of
such an apparatus. When a great man dies, a man of mental ability
above the rest of us, his brain is removed, especially prepared, and
then filed and indexed in a building reserved for that purpose. There
are thousands of brains preserved there, and every one of them is
available at all times, by means of the brain-reader, to aid us with its
knowledge, its experience, its memories. Thus when a man dies
among us, his intelligence does not die, but remains as a record for
us to consult at will, a record of that man's ideas and achievements."
"And while we were unconscious," I broke in, "you used the brain-
reader on us? Learned our story, learned why we came here?"
"It is so," he said, and his face darkened. "We sought to know who
you might be, the first strangers ever to approach us. And from the
brain-reader came your amazing tale, and we know all that you
came to tell us, concerning that creature of evil you term the Raider.
And it is that knowledge that has brought those crowds below to
await the decision of the Council."
"But the Raider?" I cried. "What is it, Kethra? Do you know?"
"I know," he said simply, and a brooding expression dropped on his
face. "I know," he repeated, "and all here in Kom know. And that you
too may know, who have had dealings with this same Raider, I will
relate to you what we do know. Soon the council meets, and you will
be questioned further. But now—"
He was silent a moment, then spoke in a voice vibrant and low-
toned.
All of that day the fleet raced on, while, in the time-car, Lantin slowed
our pace to keep beside them. Sunset came, an arctic sunset, with a
crimson globe of fire falling down behind the boundless steppes of
ice, suffusing the sky with a glare like blood. Abruptly Lantin uttered
a low exclamation, seized binoculars and gazed north through the
window beside him.
I sprang to his side, and when he handed me the glasses I saw, far
ahead, a little cluster of black dots that stood out jet-black against
the crimson sunset. But already Kethra too had seen them, and a
score of cars leaped forward from the main body of the fleet, in
pursuit, our own time-car among them.
We flashed up toward them, and they grew in size, resolved
themselves into air-boats much like those around us. As we neared
them, they turned and fled north. Two of them, much swifter than the
others, were out of sight almost in a second, safely beyond our
pursuit, but the others, seven in number, saw that escape was
impossible, so they turned to fight.
For a moment, the fight was on their side, for they turned quite
unexpectedly and raced straight toward us, in a solid mass. Lantin's
hands flashed over the controls and our car slanted up above the
onrushing seven with the speed of lightning, but as it did so a blue
flash leapt from the foremost of them and barely missed us.
The air-boats behind us were not so fortunate, for as the streaks of
blue light from the enemy touched them, four plunged down to the
ice, in flames. The seven attackers, unscathed thus far, passed
under them in a swooping dip, turned, and came racing back for
another blow.
But now the surprize of our forces was gone, and they struck back. A
sudden sound smote our ears, even in the time-car, a low thrumming
sound that rose in pitch higher and higher. I could see the men on
our air-boats pointing blunt-nosed metal objects toward the
oncoming cars of the enemy, and abruptly the significance of it
struck me, and I understood that they were using the sound-ray
Kethra had mentioned.
The seven air-boats rushed on toward our own, and I had a flashing
glimpse of their decks, crowded with armored guards and with a few
of the brilliant-robed Kanlars directing them. Blue flashes leapt again
from the seven, and two more of the air-boats of Kom cometed down
in bursts of fire, but now, as the seven dipped again under the air-
boats of the Khluns, the thrumming, high-pitched sound increased
sharply in intensity, and I saw five of the seven Kanlar cars literally
break up into small pieces and fall, tumbling down toward the ice-
fields below them in a shower of men and small pieces of metal. It
was the power of sound, which causes a steam-whistle to shake a
house to its foundations, a thousand times amplified by the
apparatus devised by the men of Kom.
The remaining two air-boats of the Kanlars attempted to flee, but in a
moment they too broke up and fell, as the men of Kom altered the
vibration-frequency of their apparatus to affect the two remaining
cars.
Behind us, now, the great main fleet of our air-boats was coming up,
and there was a short halt in midair. Kethra's air-boat swept up
beside us, and I opened the door in the top of our time-car, and
stood up to hear him.
"Those were scouts," he cried to us, "a patrol of the Kanlars' air-
boats. And two got away! They'll warn the Kanlars of our coming."
"But what do you intend to do?" I asked. "You'll not give up the
attack?"
"No!" he shouted. "We'll go on, and meet them if they come out. But
there will be no surprize now."
"But what of our friends?" I asked. "We were to rescue them from the
pit."
"We'll send an air-boat for them," he said. "It can speed up to the city
of cylinders, and since the Kanlars will come down to meet us now, it
can sink down into the shaft you spoke of without interference, and
get your friends. I will need you with me, to guide us to the city of
Kanlars, in case their fleet doesn't come out to meet us."
And so we swiftly decided. At an order from Kethra, an air-boat
slanted up toward us and hung beside us. We gave the pilot of it,
and his two assistants, precise information that would enable them to
reach the temple and get down to the pit, where they could rescue
our comrades from the roof-top where they would be awaiting us.