| From: Mr Data | 21/01/2001
22:11:32 |
| Subject: Breathable Liquid | post id:
212047 |
| I remember seeing a type of
liquid that has similar properties to oxygen and CO2, in that it can be
used as a substitute for normal oxygen, and when inhaled it encourages the
lungs to relax enough to open the airways and maximise oxygen absorbtion.
Can anyone give me some more details? What is this liquid called? How is it created? What are some other uses? Any help will be appreciated. | |
| From: Ordinary Person ® | 21/01/2001
22:41:05 |
| Subject: re: Breathable Liquid | post id:
212080 |
| PFC (perfluorochemicals, or
perfluorocarbon compounds). Patients Breathing Liquid in UMC Intensive Care Unit | |
| From: nomad | 21/01/2001
23:03:16 |
| Subject: re: Breathable Liquid | post id:
212099 |
| It is possible you saw this in
the movie "THE ABYSS". It is also a real substance though, used primarily
for medical purposes but also usable for diving. | |
| From: Graeme | 21/01/2001
23:32:41 |
| Subject: re: Breathable Liquid | post id:
212144 |
| Many, many years ago I read an
article in Scientific American about liquid breathing. Now this is pretty hard to remember, but I think it was water very heavily 'dosed' with oxygen. An experiment was carried out on an anaesthetised animal (a pig?). I think it also mentioned a that because water is not compressible, that a water breathing astronaut in a water-filled capsule could virtually survive a high speed crash landing without a scratch. I could be way out on that one. | |
| From: Dropbear ® | 22/01/2001
10:23:49 |
| Subject: re: Breathable Liquid | post id:
212315 |
| If water is non compressible,
then it would not offer any 'buffer' to a high speed crash, and I would
have thought that it would be next to
useless. | |
| From: Graeme | 23/01/2001
15:54:42 |
| Subject: re: Breathable Liquid | post id:
213221 |
| > If water is non
compressible, then it would > not offer any 'buffer' to a high speed crash Dropbear Maybe that is the whole point! A buffer will slow down and stop the 'front' of a moving person and the 'back' will be cushioned and brought to a a stop by the 'front'. In a high speed crash the 'front' will not be able to absord the energy and the 'back' will crash through the 'front' killing the person. Assume a person is immersed completely into a "water-breathing" environment inside a capsule. If that capsule crashes at very high speed, the water cannot be compressed which means it cannot move within the capsule nor can anything immersed in the water ie the person. Therefore the person sustains no injury. Frankly, I don't have a clue whether that makes sense or not. The person may die but I don't think his body will be shattered. | |
| From: Chris | 25/01/2001
10:11:31 |
| Subject: re: Breathable Liquid | post id:
214175 |
| There is one particular liquid
that goes by the name of Perfluorotributylamine, whose chemical formula is (excuse lack of subscripts) (C4F9)3N. It can store approximately (I think) 50% either by weight or volume (don't have the reference in front of me, so I'm doing it by memory) of Oxygen. It has been used successfully as a 25% emulsion (mixed with water and chemical to get it to mix with the water) used in an experiment to replace 70% of a dog's blood. If it can be shown to be acceptably (temporarily) used, it could become usable as artificial blood for humans. | |