Scientists Invented An Injectable Oxygen Particle That Lets You Survive Without Breathing

Now you can pretend to be a vampire or a mermaid, whatever floats your boat.
This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

Recommended Videos

Oxygen is great, you guys – it’s pretty important to sustaining organic life and does particularly great things for us humans. The small caveat, though, is that we need to be able to breathe in order to make use of our atmospheric oxygen; if you can’t – a collapsed lung or blocked windpipe, say – you’d typically be out of luck. Until now.

Scientists have developed a new microparticle filled with oxygen that can be injected into the blood stream, keeping you alive even if you can’t intake air into your lungs. The microparticles are actually tiny capsules (2-4 micrometers tiny) made of a single layer of lipids surrounding a small bubble of oxygen gas. The capsule is suspended in a liquid so that the bubbles don’t get any bigger (which would make them deadly, FYI).

Upon injecting the capsule-filled liquid into the bloodstream, the capsules crash into your red blood cells, transferring the oxygen gas from the capsule to the cell. About 70% of the oxygen injected successfully makes its way into the blood stream this way. This injection method was so successful that the scientists managed to keep rabbits with blocked windpipes alive for fifteen whole minutes.

My question is, if you could just have a steady stream of these capsules injected into your blood, could you just stay underwater forever? Grab me one of those awesome mermaid tails and sign me up!

(via From Quarks to Quasars, image via Ocean Networks Canada)

Meanwhile in related links


The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Sam Maggs
Sam Maggs
Sam Maggs is a writer and televisioner, currently hailing from the Kingdom of the North (Toronto). Her first book, THE FANGIRL'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY will be out soon from Quirk Books. Sam’s parents saw Star Wars: A New Hope 24 times when it first came out, so none of this is really her fault.