Has science figured out how to let us live underwater like fish without actually breathing from our lungs? It seems so... Scientists at Harvard and Childrens Hospital in Boston have developed a new microparticle filled with oxygen that can be injected into the blood stream, keeping you alive even if you can’t intake air into your lungs. The microparticles are actually tiny capsules (2-4 micrometers in size) made of a single layer of lipids surrounding a small bubble of oxygen gas. The capsule is suspended in a liquid so that the bubbles don’t get any bigger, which if they did would kill you. When injected into the bloodstream the oxygen filled capsules crash into your red blood cells transferring oxygen to them. About 70% of the oxygen injected successfully makes its way into the blood stream this way. This injection method was so successful that scientists managed to keep rabbits with blocked windpipes alive for fifteen whole minutes. Oxygenating the blood by bypassing the lungs in this way could save the lives of people with impaired breathing or obstructed airways, says John Kheir, a cardiologist at the Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts, who led the team. If this method of intravenous oxygen becomes viable for human use would you use it to scuba dive or even fish?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:46:12 +0000