Massimo Marino's Blog: The Ramblings and the Rumblings, page 18
July 1, 2014
Love, Honor, & Hope
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
8 Authors. 8 Labors of Love. One Fantastic Cause. Publication Date: June 24, 2014 Genre: Romance Anthology Find out more at: The Authors and their Stories Jennifer Theriot, Out of the Box Awakening Swept from her perfect paper-doll life in Houston, Olivia finds herself in Chicago, alone, betrayed, and far from home. […]
June 26, 2014
Sex in Romance: Black Orchid by Abigail Owen
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
Abigail: As a reader of romance for the last 25 years (I started young, what can I say) – one of the trends that I’ve found particularly interesting is the evolution of sex in romance. When I first started reading romance at the age of 12 I started with teen books. You remember those historical […]
June 22, 2014
The Science in the Breathing Membrane of "Once Humans"
[image error]Why can’t we breath under water the way fish do? They need oxygen just as we do. Fish, though, don’t breath the oxygen in the water molecule (H2O), they breath the free oxygen that’s dissolved into water. And the waters of our lakes and oceans contain plenty of it.
Newborn mammals can survive in water for long periods of time. Newborn rats submerged in water at 37 degrees continue to make respiratory movements, can survive underwater for at least 40 minutes, recover when taken out of water, and develop normally into adult rats.
The ability of newborn mammals to survive in an aquatic environment is partly explained by their tolerance to anoxia. In principle, the administration of the necessary enzymes to adult mammals could restore this initial tolerance to hypoxia. On the other side, If you want to kill a fish, just put it in water that’s been boiled for some time, then cooled without exposing it to air. Dissolved oxygen will’ve been driven out through boiling, carried away by steam bubbles. If you put now a fish in the water, since fish do not extract oxygen from the H2O, it’ll suffocate.
According to Henry’s law, the mass of a dissolved gas in a given volume of solvent at equilibrium is proportional to the partial pressure of the gas on the gas-liquid interface. The consequences of Henry’s Law are fairly straight forward. Double the pressure, double the concentration (mole fraction) of dissolved gas.[image error]
A common measurement often taken is the amount of dissolved oxygen (DO), which is a measure of how much oxygen is dissolved in the water – DO can tell us a lot about water quality. The oxygen dissolved in lakes, rivers, and oceans is crucial for the organisms and creatures living in it.
At atmospheric pressure, a small amount of oxygen, up to about ten molecules of oxygen per million of water, is dissolved in water. Oxygen enters a stream mainly from the atmosphere and, in areas where ground-water discharge into streams is a large portion of streamflow, from groundwater discharge. Rapidly moving water, such as in a mountain stream or large river, tends to contain a lot of dissolved oxygen, whereas stagnant water contains less, and cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water.
Medical technology has produced ‘artificial lungs’ in which the blood of a patient is made to flow in the artificial device and be oxygenated in a process similar to what happens in gills. A gas exchange modelled after the gills of a fish could enable humans with liquid filled lungs to obtain the necessary oxygen from sea water.
The body must also eliminate carbon dioxide. Without this ability the blood’s acidity wound increase and damage occur. Silicone rubber gas-exchange membranes can absorb carbon dioxide and match the CO2 elimination rate which the human body needs.
Fish gills include feathery structure membranes that offer a large area capable to deal with a great amount of water flow. As water passes through, dissolved oxygen flows into the membranes just as it flows into the membranes of our lungs. People working on artificial gills are developing techniques for processing the gas that crosses the membrane to make it more oxygen-rich. There is another problem, though. Very little nitrogen dissolves in water. Without it, pure oxygen becomes toxic at pressures thirty feet below the surface. Even with an artificial gill, a diver would still need nitrogen.
Gill membranes not only acquire new oxygen; they also scrub out CO2. If the system could also provide the required amount of nitrogen, we could spend indefinite time under water.
So far, a truly breathable membrane is still in the realm of science fiction but researchers know what to look for and what the desired goal is. In Once Humans: Daimones Trilogy, Vol.2
we encounter such technological exploit,
I undressed and entered the water room; the bluish fluid globe rotated slowly in the middle. I put on a breathing membrane and waited for it to mold to my face before entering the globe and shutting the world out.
The membrane also enhances Dan’s ability to breath by penetrating the skin and delivering oxygen directly to the brain. The membrane also operate to cause a breakdown of the blood–brain barrier, thus opening an additional way to supply the brain with oxygen enriched blood.
No doubt we will see artificial gills work in reality sometime in the future, but I honestly cannot see them becoming popular in sports diving in my lifetime!
The post The Science in the Breathing Membrane of "Once Humans" appeared first on § Author Massimo Marino.
The Science in the Breathing Membrane of “Once Humans”
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
Why can’t we breath under water the way fish do? They need oxygen just as we do. Fish, though, don’t breath the oxygen in the water molecule (H2O), they breath the free oxygen that’s dissolved into water. And the waters of our lakes and oceans contain plenty of it. Newborn mammals can survive in water for long periods of time. […]
June 17, 2014
Getting Personal … with Misty Watts
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
Today we welcome on stage Author Misty Watts. Misty was born and raised in Cayce, a small farming town in West Kentucky. With very little to do in a small town, she let her imagination get the better of her and always dreamed of being a published author. She attended college at the University of […]
June 16, 2014
Details, Details, Details
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
Details give color and music to our prose and a grip on reality. Or should I say they make writing red, sassy, and jazzy. Name it, name it, name it, name it. It’s not a flower – it’s a rose, a petunia, a skunk cabbage. It’s not a tree, but a pine, palm, or oak. […]
June 14, 2014
Massive ‘Ocean’ discovered towards Earth’s core
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
A reservoir of water three times the volume of all the oceans has been discovered deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The finding could help explain where Earth’s seas came from. The water is hidden inside a blue rock called ringwoodite that lies 700 kilometres underground in the mantle, the layer of hot rock between Earth’s […]
June 12, 2014
FIFA WORLD CUP & THE DAIMONES TRILOGY
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
Subscribe to the NewReleases mailing list, enjoy the free collection of short crime/horror stories “Stranded Love” (Portuguese version on demand) and EVERY MATCH DAY, guess the winner of the daily matches and the goal differential to WIN AN EBOOK from the DAIMONES TRILOGY: Daimones: Daimones Trilogy, Vol.1 Once Humans: Daimones Trilogy, Vol.2 The Rise of […]
Kill Your Lazy Darlings
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
During the editing process you need to cut, cut, cut. In writing, economy is gold: too many words can spoil a sentence and distract the reader. In my novels I end up cutting from 10,000 to 20,000 words from an average first draft of 100,000 words. Everybody is guilt of lazy writing and that’s fine with your first […]
June 7, 2014
A Year in the Making …
§ Author Massimo Marino - ... A scientist envisioning Science Fiction
Today marks a milestone for me as a person and as a writer. Today I’ll open my heart to you, I’ll show you my doubts, my frustrations, and my dreams, too. An author, a writer, a person, a husband, a father. How many hats do we wear every day? Ah, yes, also a professional, a […]
