can humans live underwater?

S

Shadow1

Valued Senior Member
i know it's a silly question, but, can humans make some geneteic changes in some babies, while they still in their mothers, to make them able to breath under water when they get borned, maybe some modifications, like fish, so they can absorbe oxygen from the water, or filter it to get oxygene,
or maybe somekind of electronic gadget
??
 
They already have devices that remove oxygen from seawater and use it on submarines so why would you want to geneticly engineer a human? We have no way of doing that anyway at this time or even 100 years from now.
 
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Living under the sea, living under the sea! That's your solution to everything: to move under the sea. It's not going to happen!
 
A big problem is the skin, it can't handle being in water too long. Long distance swimmers find their skin falling off.
 
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GeoffP said:
Living under the sea, living under the sea! That's your solution to everything: to move under the sea. It's not going to happen!
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lol, solution for what, if humans were underwater, propably earth would be more polluted,
anyway, i love the idea to stay under water, not all the time effcorse, but to try an expreiance to live in underwater city, fill with water, i can swim anywhere i want, like flying, and stuff,
and about the devises , yeah, i heard about them once,thnkx for telling me cosmic traveler,
i mean, woudnt be cool, so humans can try an underwater experiance.
not with a fish tail effcorse :p
 
cosmictraveler said:
They alkready have devices that remove oxugen from seawater and use it on submarines so why would you want to geneticly engineer a human? We have no way of doing that anyway at this time or even 100 years from now.
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hmm, why engenering, just a craizy thoght, :p
 
I believe that it was in Russia that they were having some women give birth underwater, so the baby emerged into water, not air. As long as the umbilical cord is attached, that is much more like its surroundings in the womb. I'm not certain how long they kept the baby underwater, but once brought to the surface to breathe with clearing of the lungs, no going back!
 
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babies, as we know, while they are in their mothers, they are like in water, when they go out to the air, they take their first air to their lungs
maybe they can modefy him, to make his body, support the heavy water, if you know it, so when he's in the solty water, don't loose his body water,
also, maybe to modify the lungs, so when he take his first breath of water, his keep doing it, as it's normal,
 
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Walter L. Wagner said:
I believe that it was in Russia that they were having some women give birth underwater, so the baby emerged into water, not air. As long as the umbilical cord is attached, that is much more like its surroundings in the womb. I'm not certain how long they kept the baby underwater, but once brought to the surface to breathe with clearing of the lungs, no going back!
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yeah, i saw this one somwhere in yahoo.com
;)
 
Beware, this could happen!!

Creature-From-The-Black-Lagoon-classic-science-fiction-films-3846592-1122-1098.jpg
 
can humans live underwater?
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After numerous experiments the answer I can give is: no.

Gotta go, I can hear sirens.
PS any idea how to dispose of roughly 30 bodies?
 
Shadow1 said:
i know it's a silly question, but, can humans make some geneteic changes in some babies, while they still in their mothers, to make them able to breath under water when they get borned, maybe some modifications, like fish, so they can absorbe oxygen from the water, or filter it to get oxygene, or maybe somekind of electronic gadget
Click to expand...
A few smaller mammals, some of the rodents, are able to survive under water for a short period of time, by "breathing" normally. Apparently the lungs can perform their function of osmosis of selected molecules from the external environment into the bloodstream, regardless of whether the external environment is liquid or gaseous.

Humans have a cough reflex that would interfere with this process, I guess some rodents don't have it. If we cut the nerve that triggers coughing, then perhaps we could simulate underwater breathing like the rats.

But that's not really the problem. The problem is that there is not enough oxygen dissolved in the water to support our metabolism.

This is the reason that air breathers rule the biosphere rather than gill breathers. There's more oxygen in air than in water so we can convert more chemical energy into the various types of energy our life processes require. This is also why all warm-blooded animals are air breathers: gill-breathing does not provide enough energy to power an endothermic metabolism. (For you chemists and physicists, that word has just the opposite meaning in biology as it does to you.)

Ever see a fight between a dolphin and an equal-sized alligator? The gator is toast, his exothermic metabolism just can't produce enough energy to keep up. Animals that breathe underwater are at an even worse disadvantage.

It might be possible to keep a human barely alive underwater, by hyperoxygenating the water and sedating the human. But I don't think there's any way we could really make a life down there.
 
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Fraggle Rocker said:
A few smaller mammals, some of the rodents, are able to survive under water for a short period of time, by "breathing" normally. Apparently the lungs can perform their function of osmosis of selected molecules from the external environment into the bloodstream, regardless of whether the external environment is liquid or gaseous.

Humans have a cough reflex that would interfere with this process, I guess some rodents don't have it. If we cut the nerve that triggers coughing, then perhaps we could simulate underwater breathing like the rats.

But that's not really the problem. The problem is that there is not enough oxygen dissolved in the water to support our metabolism.

This is the reason that air breathers rule the biosphere rather than gill breathers. There's more oxygen in air than in water so we can convert more chemical energy into the various types of energy our life processes require. This is also why all warm-blooded animals are air breathers: gill-breathing does not provide enough energy to power an endothermic metabolism. (For you chemists and physicists, that word has just the opposite meaning in biology as it does to you.)

Ever see a fight between a dolphin and an equal-sized alligator? The gator is toast, his exothermic metabolism just can't produce enough energy to keep up. Animals that breathe underwater are at an even worse disadvantage.

It might be possible to keep a human barely alive underwater, by hyperoxygenating the water and sedating the human. But I don't think there's any way we could really make a life down there.
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yeah, that's why usually i never see fightings of underwater creatures, or, active fights,
and about the contety of oxygene, hmm, i didnt thoght about it,
i think an electronic gadget, will be better, right?
 
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