A Breath of Fresh, Water?

When we think of our lungs, we think, spongy air-filled organ that allows us to breath and live. What if this wasn't the only case?

Think a little deeper, before we're born we live essentially in a fluid based water bed. It is also pretty common for women to undergo water births, where the baby is born underwater usually in a baby pool. We never think about if adults are able to surpass the same process. Are our lungs able to still allow us to breathe underwater? Is it all in our minds once our heads are submerged?

Yes, these questions were brought to my attention and of course I find myself challenging this notion. I was informed that the human lungs can actually breathe underwater if we relax and don't panic. Seems absurd, right? Well, it kind of is.

The chemical compound H2O is in fact useless to our lungs. When the oxygen atom is attached to 2 hydrogen atoms, our lungs cannot break down the compound enough to where we can safely use the oxygen supply and "breathe".

When you think of fish, they are not breathing in the oxygen from the H2O compound but instead they are breathing the O2 i.e. oxygen gas that is dissolved in the water. This process is a lot more difficult than it sounds. Water is much heavier and denser than air which means in order for the fish to breathe they need more lung surface area and strength. Being cold-blooded also helps too since this reduces their bodies demand for oxygen.

Our lungs lack the amount of surface area necessary to successfully absorb enough oxygen from the water. The lining of our lungs is also il-equipped to handle the density of water to absorb the oxygen.

On the contrary, something that Scientists are dabbling in is called "liquid breathing". This is intended to be the respiratory process of a normally air-breathing organism breathing an oxygen-based liquid rather than air. This liquid is also called fluorocarbons or PFCs. This is an extremely experimental process and still in the works for more exploring.

Maybe sometime in the future we'll know what it's like to be a majestic fish for a day but for now, it's land-ho to us humans. Enjoy a fresh cup of air based oxygen today! ;-)