Could Humans Ever Breathe Water?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could breathe underwater? But is it even possible?

Hosted by: Stefan Chin
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[SlickNickP]

So humanity is a few steps away from building those rooms full of vaults with people suspended in liquid inside of them that you see in the movies

[Master_Therion]

They should test these liquid ventilators on prisoners, they're already... gill-ty.

[MusiCaninesTheMusicalDogs]

Next question: could humans swim in air?

[saj]

*Drops phone in pool*... "Okay, I got this. Just need to channel my inner fish".

[chadsmom]

I can’t even comprehend how many advancements we have made in science! Thanks science, and more importantly, the scientists that do research every day to help people and make our lives easier!

[GilesBathgate]

No mention of the 1989 movie "The Abyss"?

[adamgtrap]

As a person who has inhaled water before (accidentally while swimming), I can say it's a scary and heavy sensation at first that turns to a very peculiar sensation. Inhaling air, to cough out the water, feels very odd. You can feel the air mixing with the liquid in your chest. Think blowing bubbles in your drink through a straw. And it kind of hurts, I really can't suggest anyone do it. At least that was my experience.

[verdatum]

I got to play with PFCs once. Specifically a product called Fluorinert by 3M. It's the same product that was used in the film The Abyss, where the mouse was breathing it (which by the way, was real, not a special effect!). Although I didn't go quite as far as oxygenating it and inhaling it, I got to touch it. It's neat stuff; because of its low boiling point, it feels weird on your skin; cold but without the drying feeling that organic solvents have. It's used to cool Cray supercomputers.

[whatelseison]

By definition, perfluorocarbons are maximally fluorinated. That means there are no bonds left to be occupied by hydrogen. Fluorocarbons (the parent class including both types) that also have some carbon hydrogen bonds in their structure are typically termed HFC's or hydrofluorocarbons.

Every human can actually live the rest of their life under water wilhout habitat or helping technology.

[Sehara]

Thank you! Big thank you! I read about it almost 40 years ago and tried to research to find out what happened to that discovery but couldn't find it...until you posted this video! I am not crazy after all!

[damionmurray]

Colossal missed opportunity! This was the perfect topic to reference "The Abyss" or even just a quick mention of amniotic fluid and how it works during fetal development...

[dolomighty]

Maybe in the context of futuristic hi-g long travels, this could be a suspended-animation-like thing: farmacologic induced coma to lower metabolic rate, cavities filled with pfc (ALL cavities, even digestive tract), maybe a heart-lung machine to better control oxy-co needs.
You go "down", the ship's life systems take care of you during the trip, then wake you up (after "renormalizing" your body, of course) whenever there's need of you.
It would be discomfortable to say the least, but doable with current technology, i think.
Not the hi-g part though

[Omnifarious]

Perhaps we couldn't breathe water directly, but we might be able to make equipment that could extract the oxygen for us. It'd have to have a system for pulling in a lot of water because the oxygen content is so much lower than air. But, I suspect it could be done.

[gartengeflugel]

Well, maybe a solution could be to mix many different fluids together, kind of like it is with different gases in air. One fluid would serve the role of an excellent oxygen transmitter, another one would rapidly bind to carbon dioxide and as easily release it in the process of exhaling. Given the right mixture this could be a more efficient fluid and maybe even full liquid ventilation would be possible.

[movesguy]

And not one mention of the movie The Abyss where the actor breathed in the orange liquid to go really deep underwater.

[hustlehank]

I once got thrown in jail for breathing water

[Lizuma]

I would love to be able to breathe underwater, if things were as simple as that there would be so many new discoveries in the ocean!

[sebastianelytron]

Great so waterboarding is here to stay.

[Restilia_ch]

Someone watched either The Abyss or Neon Genesis Evangelion too many times.