Scientists Invent Oxygen Particle That If Injected, Allows You To...

[KynloStephen66515]

Scientists Invent Oxygen Particle That If Injected, Allows You To Live Without Breathing

A team of scientists at the Boston Children’s Hospital have invented what is being considered one the greatest medical breakthroughs in recent years. They have designed a microparticle that can be injected into a person’s bloodstream that can quickly oxygenate their blood. This will even work if the ability to breathe has been restricted, or even cut off entirely.

This finding has the potential to save millions of lives every year. The microparticles can keep an object alive for up to 30 min after respiratory failure. This is accomplished through an injection into the patients’ veins. Once injected, the microparticles can oxygenate the blood to near normal levels. This has countless potential uses as it allows life to continue when oxygen is needed but unavailable. For medical personnel, this is just enough time to avoid risking a heart attack or permanent brain injury when oxygen is restricted or cut off to patients.

Dr. John Kheir, who first began the study, works in the Boston Children’s Hospital Department of Cardiology. He found inspiration for the drug in 2006, when he was treating a girl in the ICU who had a sever case of pneumonia. At the time, the girl didn’t have a breathing tube, when at the time she suffered from a pulmonary hemorrhage. This means her lungs had begin to fill up with blood, and she finally went into cardiac arrest. It took doctors about 25 minutes to remove enough blood from her lungs to allow her to breath. Though, the girl’s brain was severely injured due to being deprived of oxygen for that long and she eventually died.

Microparticle Composition
The microparticles used are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids. A Lipid is a natural molecule that can store energy and act as a part of a cell membrane, they can be made of many things such as wax, vitamins, phospholipids, and in this case fat is the lipid that stores the oxygen.

These microparticles are around two to four micrometers in length and carry about three to four times the oxygen content of our own red blood cells. In the past, researchers had a difficult time succeeding as prior tests caused gas embolism. This meant that the gas molecules would become stuck trying to squeeze through the capillaries. They corrected this issue by packaging them into small deformable particles rather ones where the structure was rigid.

Potential Future Uses
Medical: There is the obvious medical uses where the microparticles can be used to save off death from a restriction in breathing due to inflammation of the lungs, collapsed lungs, and the like. It would be good to have these injections ready in hospitals and ambulances for when the time is needed.

Military: Can you imagine a navy seals capability when they wouldn’t need to surface for air and could stay underwater for over 20 minutes? If a boat was to begin to sink, you could shoot yourself as the boat is going down to ensure you aren’t drowned in the under current of the sinking vessel. How about for toxic gases when a facemask is unavailable. The military could have a number of uses for such a medical advancement.

Private Sector: Really this can be used as a precaution for anything nautical where the potential to drown is a real danger. Deep sea rescue crews could inject themselves prior to making a rescue, underwater welders can use it in case they become stuck or air is lost to their suits. The potential use for anything water related seems extremely worthwhile.

Conclusion
 In the end, this is an amazing medical advancement and I cant help but recall the movie the Abyss when they took the pill, their helmets filled with air, and they were told they can breathe the water. Well what if they really couldn’t “breathe” water” but since the urge to breathe is natural, that must take place… even if you’re not breathing air per se. But your body was provided with enough oxygen for a time period by taking a pill. It’s just goes to show that anything, absolutely anything that can be thought up, can potentially one day become reality. Thank you scientists, for reminding me that people and their ingenuity are nothing short of awesome.

Source:  http://www.techwench...e-without-breathing/

Disclaimer

I can't actually find this on any verified news source (You know, like BBC, Fox, CNN etc) or any of the big science websites.  Because of this, I am not 100% sure if this is legitimate, but felt it was clear and concise enough to warrant me posting it.

[barney]

Well, it is Abyss-like.  Apart from the Seals usage, it could be a lifesaver in mining incidents, refinery incidents, even painting situations.  However, as you note in the disclaimer, there's not a lot of converse on this (although I tend to mistrust the sources you quoted), so it might be more sci-fi than sci-fact.  One can but hope.

[MilesAhead]

Makes me think of Godzilla vs. Destroyah. Some scientist invents "micro oxygen." Naturally Godzilla sparring partners appear.  

[barney]

Makes me think of Godzilla vs. Destroyah. Some scientist invents "micro oxygen." Naturally Godzilla sparring partners appear.   

-MilesAhead (August 25, 2012, 09:36 PM)

Well, yeah ... but it's the sparring partners that make it more believable.  Without refutation, defense if you will, there's less believability  .

BTW, thanks for the link  ... cannot believe I missed that many Godzilla movies  .  He (she?) is my hero.

[superboyac]

if true...wow.

[MilesAhead]

Makes me think of Godzilla vs. Destroyah. Some scientist invents "micro oxygen." Naturally Godzilla sparring partners appear.   

-MilesAhead (August 25, 2012, 09:36 PM)

Well, yeah ... but it's the sparring partners that make it more believable.  Without refutation, defense if you will, there's less believability  .

BTW, thanks for the link  ... cannot believe I missed that many Godzilla movies  .  He (she?) is my hero.

-barney (August 25, 2012, 09:47 PM)

Same director did The Mysterians and Battle In Outer Space. Those are a couple of my favorite SciFi flicks. The Ray Gun demonstration in Battle was about 10 years ahead of the Laser and was very similar to a demo I attended of a real pulse Laser. Of course the Laser demo I saw didn't penetrate an inch thick steel plate. It was a thin slice of brass.  Still kind of cool though.

It's hard to believe those flicks were released only recently in the original language. I saw The Mysterians in the theater when it came out dubbed in the US.  Literally got in with cereal box tops. It was a toss-up which would happen first.  Toho SciFi US releases in Japanese or Red Sox winning the series.



Er, sorry for the thread hijack.
     

[cthorpe]

Seems legit...

http://stm.sciencema...ontent/4/140/140ra88

http://www.scienceda.../06/120627142512.htm
http://www.nature.co...n-injections-1.10899
http://www.huffingto...eathe_n_1634101.html
http://gizmodo.com/5...ve-without-breathing

[40hz]

Seems legit...

http://stm.sciencema...ontent/4/140/140ra88

http://www.scienceda.../06/120627142512.htm
http://www.nature.co...n-injections-1.10899
http://www.huffingto...eathe_n_1634101.html
http://gizmodo.com/5...ve-without-breathing

-cthorpe (August 26, 2012, 12:31 PM)

Thx St6 & ct! You just made my day.

It almost sounded too good to be true. And even if the headline claims are semi-exaggerated, just knowing something like this is in the works gives me reason to smile.

Ain't science a beautiful thing?

[mahesh2k]

So in layman terms that particle or organism farts oxygen and intakes something else? if nothing else it could be used for the underwater diving and also for terraforming or say in space.

[MilesAhead]

So in layman terms that particle or organism farts oxygen and intakes something else? if nothing else it could be used for the underwater diving and also for terraforming or say in space.

-mahesh2k (August 26, 2012, 02:26 PM)

Now if I could only find a goat that eats tin cans and craps gold bullion!!

[40hz]

So in layman terms that particle or organism farts oxygen and intakes something else? if nothing else it could be used for the underwater diving and also for terraforming or say in space.

-mahesh2k (August 26, 2012, 02:26 PM)

Now if I could only find a goat that eats tin cans and craps gold bullion!!

-MilesAhead (August 26, 2012, 04:21 PM)

Doesn't the US government have one of those? Wasn't that how they were going to pay for all those military expenditures in the Mideast - and the justification for not including any of it in the federal budget for the last 12 years?