Â鶹´«Ã½

Heart to heart

28 January 2015

Why do animals have organs? Surely it would be more efficient and robust for us to have a thousand tiny hearts distributed round our bodies rather than one big one in the middle?

Adrian Bowyer, Foxham, Wiltshire, UK

This article appeared in print under the headline “Heart to heart”

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with Â鶹´«Ã½ events and special offers.

Sign up

To continue reading, today with our introductory offers

or

Existing subscribers

Sign in to your account

More from Â鶹´«Ã½

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Biologist John Craig Venter poses for a photo inside a Reuters studio in New York's Times Square May 26, 2010. Venter is president of the J. Craig Venter Institute, which conducts research in synthetic biology and the human genome. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi (UNITED STATES - Tags: SCI TECH SOCIETY)

Health

The rich but complicated legacy of genome pioneer Craig Venter

News

UK-Spanish partnerships are solving pharma’s toughest challenges

Sponsored

UK-Spanish partnerships are solving pharma’s toughest challenges

Advertising

The best new popular science books of February 2026

Comment

The best new popular science books of February 2026

Culture

Lichen: Image made using visible light (sun or Xenon flash), the two

Environment

How lab-grown lichen could help us to build habitations on Mars

Features

Popular articles

Trending Â鶹´«Ã½ articles

1

We have figured out a new way to send messages into the past

2

Thought-provoking photographs capture what it feels like to have ADHD

3

Human heads have changed shape a lot in the past 100 years

4

The best new science fiction books of May 2026

5

100-year-old assumption about the universe may soon be overturned

6

An unorthodox version of quantum theory could reveal what reality is

7

Your oral microbiome could affect your weight, liver and diabetes risk

8

Weird 'transdimensional' state of matter is neither 2D nor 3D

9

Ann Leckie continues to shine with new sci-fi novel Radiant Star

10

The rings of Uranus are even stranger than we thought
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop