Legend come to Life

This is the speech I gave for my Speech class assignment earlier this evening. Enjoy!

The concept of vampires — undead, virtually indestructible humans who survive by drinking blood — has been around for centuries, existing in some form in nearly every major culture of the world. Though descriptions and explanations vary with time and physical location, all share many similarities. The historical persistence and geographic scope of this legendary creature cannot be ignored. I have spent the last couple of weeks piecing together information from a variety of sources, online and offline, and am here tonight to inform you about the facts behind the legends of vampires and give you a glimpse at the unique characteristics of these intriguing creatures. I will start by explaining the vampire's essential characteristic — apparent indestructibility. From there I will move on to discuss their longevity, their aversion to silver, gold, and other heavy metals, and their nocturnal habits; I will close with a brief look at their most well-known characteristic — blood-drinking. Now open your minds and prepare to meet one of the strangest and most intriguing creatures to walk the face of the earth.

First, the most significant aspect of a vampire is its apparent indestructibility. There are few ways to actually kill a vampire because their bodies are equipped with amazing regenerative qualities. Because they lack a cell growth inhibitor gene that most humans are born with, vampires are imbued with a cellular regenerative speed many times that of a normal human; damage to any tissue, organ, or bone heals quickly — even a lacerated heart or damaged brain can be fully restored within hours. Furthermore, vampires are equipped with stem cell sites located throughout the body. Stem cells are unique in their ability to specialize as any type of cell — bone, muscle, liver, eye, and so forth. This ensures that even amputated limbs and damaged or missing organs can be easily restored — an ability scientists have been trying for years to duplicate, with limited success. Indeed, the single most effective way to kill a vampire is decapitation — when the brain can no longer signal the body to function or in turn receive nourishment from it, both die.

The second remarkable characteristic of vampires is their incredible longevity. Vampires do not die of natural causes. They recover quickly from wounds, physical stress, and fatigue that would kill a normal person, and a hyperactive immune system prevents them from falling prey to almost any disease. Vampires do not exhibit the physical characteristics of aging that most humans are subjected to; the constant rebuilding of their cellular structures prevents their bodies from weakening or decaying. Though most legends hold that vampires are dead humans raised back to life in an unnatural form, the simpler truth is that while vampires may appear to die and may appear to rise from the dead, they are merely very difficult to kill.

This brings me to my third topic, the effect of silver on vampires. Though their regenerative abilities protect them or at the very least help them to recover quickly from the effects of most physical harm, heavy metals such as silver, gold, mercury, and lead can cause serious damage to vampires — as to humans. The chemical structure of these and other heavy metals denatures and effectively destroys most proteins on contact, making them dangerous to humans and vampires alike. Silver is legendary for its resemblance to moonlight, so combining fact with superstition placed an undue emphasis on this as a substance deadly to vampires. However, any heavy metal will do the job. A wound infected with one of these substances will heal at a remarkably slower rate than a normal wound, as the metal continues to disrupt the protein structures until the body is able to remove the toxin. Obviously this confirms the well-known belief that a silver bullet through the heart will kill a vampire — the muscle cannot repair itself quickly enough to prevent cardiac arrest and death.

The fourth interesting aspect of vampires is their nocturnality. Their habit of hunting at night and sleeping, hidden from the sun, during the day is an element of nearly every vampire legend in existence. The reasons for this, however, are not as mysterious as many would like to believe, but are actually very simple. Because of the high cell turnover rate in all parts of the body, including the skin, vampires are highly susceptible to sunburn — the cells do not persist long enough to create the protective melanin that shields them from ultraviolet radiation. Thus the idea that vampires "burn up" in sunlight is, in a way, accurate. Furthermore, vampires have excellent night vision, far superior to all but the most exceptional humans. Sight is enabled when light strikes the retina and excites the rod and cone cells. When this happens, the cells change shape, breaking off a chemical group and sending an electrical impulse to the brain. After a few moments, a reverse chemical reaction causes the cell to change back to normal and the process can start over again. Vampires' extraordinarily high metabolism empowered by their rapid cell development accelerates these reactions, increasing to sometimes incomprehensible amounts the perception and quality of their vision even in near pitch darkness. Not only is the sun damaging to their skin, its light is painfully bright to their eyes.

The fifth and final characteristic of vampires I'd like to discuss is that for which they are most notorious — their repulsive habit of drinking blood. Most legends hold that because vampires are mere animated corpses and therefore have no circulation of their own, they must drink blood in order to survive. However, as I have already demonstrated, vampires are in fact very much alive — perhaps more alive in some ways than humans. Why, then, does their diet solely consist of blood? Unfortunately, this topic is one for which little data has been gathered. Perhaps the liquid form of blood provides their essential nutrients in a state better adapted for rapid absorption into the bloodstream than more solid forms like meat and vegetation. However, their increased metabolism requires a much higher caloric intake level than that of the average human, and blood simply cannot provide those calories. Might they gain their energy from a yet undiscovered source? While much can be learned or guessed about these incredible creatures, there is still a vast amount that we do not know.

In conclusion, tonight I have informed you about the facts underlying vampire mythology. I began by introducing the idea of accelerated cellular regeneration and explaining how that contributes to their apparent indestructibility. In light of this idea, I discussed their longevity, their aversion to silver and other heavy metals, and their nocturnal habits, and closed with a few thoughts on their well-known habit of drinking blood. I hope that you now have a better understanding of the truth behind the legends of the vampire. Every legend is grounded in reality, and few people are aware of how dangerously real vampires are.