Gills

L

LordAza

Quantum Freak!
Registered Senior Member
Ok i've thought about this for a long time and i've never been realy good at biology. But for a fishs gills what seperates the breathable oxygen from the water? I assume it just filters small oxygen bubbles from the water. But is it possible to do a chemical converison to that effect?
:confused:
 
fish gills pull dissolved oxygen (O2) out of the water around them. you're right, they are not breaking water down to hydrogen and oxygen, and using that. more like they are absorbing 1-molecule-sized oxygen bubbles. There just isn't a real "bubble", it's just two atoms which don't have any hydrogens involved.
 
For me, the real question is - How do we utilize the understanding of this process? And ultimately - How do we alter humans to utilize the understanding of this process?

Think of how much easier access to the oceans would be...

- KitNyx
 
kitnyx,
I have wondered before why we can't replicate what a gil does and develop something for humans. Must be something stopping us.
 
I've been wondering about why an artifical gill hasn't been made for a long time. I think the solution involves a chemical solution. Perhaps if a fliter was made to attract the oxygen molecules as it was filtered into a device. But then what about the hydrogen?

:eek:
 
The problem is unlike fish humans have many times the oxygen demands per mass, if we engineered humans with gills they would have to have many times more surface area then lungs do and would have to be very large! artificial gill equipment is not capable of matching any of those demands and even if they did it would require active power to pump oxygen out of the water and with batteries or a fuel cell would only last a few hours, advance re-breath scuba gear would provide equally long dive time, weigh less and cost much less.

Humans have gills that’s what are ears evolved from internally.
 
well i'm thinking about a device that can sieve the extra oxygen in water. while moving forward or backward the apparatus would use the force for the pumping action. While stationary a backup system would provide aux air via a small tank. This tank would be recharged by a filter on the outside that charges from forward or backward movement. Some sort of filtering unit would work i think. Using kinetic energy for the pumping action like a suit that has this artifical gills or filtering system. There has to be a way for it to work. Maybe i'm forgetting something.
 
Such a device has been developed, however it operates by chemically breaking down H2O into free H2 and O and releasing the hydrogen into the enviroment. The device has worked in field trials, but will only function in 30 feet of water(much like the early AquaLung)

But yes, the gills on a fish take up a large portion of their body...which is why Waterworld the movie wouldn't work!
 
submarines use electrolysis (what Shalashaska describes) to make oxygen, again the problem is active power.
 
Think of how much easier access to the oceans would be...
Click to expand...

I can't really see how access to the oceans would be easier. While it would help humans swim long distances underwater we would still have most of the same problems with sea exploration we have now:

1) We're buoyant
2) We don't tolerate pressure change well
3) Big things that live down there like to eat us
4) There is little to no light

I think the main use of gills (were we to work something out for humans to have them) would be for those that need to swim fairly long distances and do it stealthily (Navy SEALS and the like) or who need to swim such long distances they have to take breaks (people who like to swim the English channel, etc).
 
Yes, that is the process I describe, WellCookedFetus, however I am speaking of a personal, SCUBA like device, not one on a submarine, the active power is provided, I believe, by power cells, I'll have to look it up again.
 
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