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WTF is Up with Breathable Liquids?
At the end of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater thriller The Abyss, oil
rig diver Bud Brigman, played by Ed Harris, dons an experimental diving
suit in which instead of air he breathes a special oxygenated liquid.
This allows him to avoid the lethal effects of extreme water pressure
and descend to the bottom of a deep ocean trench to defuse a nuclear
warhead. While certainly a memorable plot device, surely such a
technology is pure science fiction, right?
Well, not as much as you might think. The breathing fluid depicted in
the film, oxygenated perfluorocarbon, actually exists, and while scenes
with the diving suit were filmed with Ed Harris holding his breath, an
earlier scene in which a rat is immersed in breathing fluid was filmed
for real. While The Abyss is certainly the most famous depiction of
liquid breathing, the technology has been experimented with for over a
century, and while it might not be quite ready for use in deep-sea
diving, it may have lifesaving applications in the field of medicine.
Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link https://incogni.com/brainfood
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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By Cloud10
4.6
3030 ratings
At the end of James Cameron’s 1989 underwater thriller The Abyss, oil
rig diver Bud Brigman, played by Ed Harris, dons an experimental diving
suit in which instead of air he breathes a special oxygenated liquid.
This allows him to avoid the lethal effects of extreme water pressure
and descend to the bottom of a deep ocean trench to defuse a nuclear
warhead. While certainly a memorable plot device, surely such a
technology is pure science fiction, right?
Well, not as much as you might think. The breathing fluid depicted in
the film, oxygenated perfluorocarbon, actually exists, and while scenes
with the diving suit were filmed with Ed Harris holding his breath, an
earlier scene in which a rat is immersed in breathing fluid was filmed
for real. While The Abyss is certainly the most famous depiction of
liquid breathing, the technology has been experimented with for over a
century, and while it might not be quite ready for use in deep-sea
diving, it may have lifesaving applications in the field of medicine.
Sponsor: Incogni - Use code BRAINFOOD and get 60% off an annual plan using the link https://incogni.com/brainfood
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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