Dalton wrote:weemadando wrote:It was part of a touring science program. Rat probably died of shock backstage.
Still, though. I remember thinking when I saw Abyss..."That'd never work!"
In theory its sound. Another reason for experimenting on rats is that they lack the concious thought of humans when it comes to this. The human body would be automatically rejecting the fluid (gag and cough reflex), but the problem is that on both the concious and the subconcious level the human brain would be attempting to stop the fluid from reaching the lungs, possibly even leading to a pre-emptive state of shock.
With a rat and other "lower" creatures once the body makes its "autobreath" reflex (at about 1.5-3 minutes for humans) and takes in the fluid which begins passing oxygen to the lungs it will stop panicking.
There are several BIG problems with the system though...
1) Even in the big suit like in the Abyss the total breathable O2 content is still going to be less than in your standard "88" SCUBA tank.
2) Breathing fluid is SIGNIFICANTLY harder than breathing gas, hence why many drowning victims will often die on the beach because their body can not adequately circulate the fluid from the lungs via a cough reflex. This could cause problems as one may not be adequately circulating the fluid leading to "shallow water blackout syndrome" where the brain falls below workable levels of O2 without realising it.
3) As mentioned previously, the obvious psychological issues.
4) Big'un this, the Abyss used it as a plot device to gain access to deeper areas, that conventional diving could not take you too. Ummm... Problems still remain. The suit would have to use a SIGNIFICANT amount of power on heating in order to keep the fluid inside at a temperature that prevent the diver from dropping into hypothermia. Which would take far shorter times to come into effect because, hell your taking in this near freezing fluid and holding in your lungs.
5) It'll never be used in a practical manner because of all of these issues.