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



## Adrift (Apr 5, 2011)

"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."

LINK

Wow! This is huge. Give these guys more research funding so they can improve on the technology. Maybe they can figure out a way to quickly oxygenate the brains of stroke victims.


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## Monsieur Melancholy (Nov 16, 2012)

Well that news just takes my breath away.


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## RandomNote (Apr 10, 2013)

Interesting.....i wonder what else it could be used for.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

Wasn't that in Star Trek? Triox?

Regardless, I could imagine that this will generate support for nanotechnology which can have manelvolent uses.


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

RobynC said:


> Wasn't that in Star Trek? Triox?
> 
> Regardless, I could imagine that this will generate support for nanotechnology which can have manelvolent uses.


You need to stop being so paranoid. ANYTHING can be used for malevolent purposes. Focus on the good ones.



Anyway, I am thinking this could be used in planets where we could live without suits, but the atmosphere is poisonous. We could just wear gas masks or something to filter the air and just use this injection to "breathe".


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## Van (Dec 28, 2009)

Rented a tent, a tent, a tent...


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## Adrift (Apr 5, 2011)

This could easily be abused in endurance sports like cycling. There'd be applications in diving, lifeguard duty, flying in jets, and difficult deliveries of babies. The majority of deaths in fires result from inhalation of smoke; if every home had a supply of this substance, we could be looking at cutting those deaths down dramatically.


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## sofort99 (Mar 27, 2010)

CPR in a syringe.


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## FlightsOfFancy (Dec 30, 2012)

"I was waterboarded for about 20 minutes, but the hardest part was to pretend like I was actually needing air..."


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## Deus Absconditus (Feb 27, 2011)

This excites me in so many ways, thisnisnjust amazing.


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## jdstankosky (May 1, 2013)

What do you do with the CO2 once the oxygen has been depleted into the body?


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## Death Persuades (Feb 17, 2012)

jdstankosky said:


> What do you do with the CO2 once the oxygen has been depleted into the body?


Exhale.


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## Bardo (Dec 4, 2012)

We have reached the future. The future isn't the time that hasn't happened, it's place in time, like a bus stop. We live there now.


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## jdstankosky (May 1, 2013)

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> Exhale.


Right, but the context is without breathing?


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## FlightsOfFancy (Dec 30, 2012)

jdstankosky said:


> What do you do with the CO2 once the oxygen has been depleted into the body?


This is an interesting thought; I don't think it would just gather in the lungs by default..although it's been a long time since anatomy ha


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## Zombie Devil Duckie (Apr 11, 2012)

Oxygen Gas



> Oxygen Gas–Filled Microparticles Provide Intravenous Oxygen Delivery
> 
> We have developed an injectable foam suspension containing self-assembling, lipid-based microparticles encapsulating a core of pure oxygen gas for intravenous injection. Prototype suspensions were manufactured to contain between 50 and 90 ml of oxygen gas per deciliter of suspension. Particle size was polydisperse, with a mean particle diameter between 2 and 4 μm. When mixed with human blood ex vivo, oxygen transfer from 70 volume % microparticles was complete within 4 s. When the microparticles were infused by intravenous injection into hypoxemic rabbits, arterial saturations increased within seconds to near-normal levels; this was followed by a decrease in oxygen tensions after stopping the infusions. The particles were also infused into rabbits undergoing 15 min of complete tracheal occlusion. Oxygen microparticles significantly decreased the degree of hypoxemia in these rabbits, and the incidence of cardiac arrest and organ injury was reduced compared to controls. The ability to administer oxygen and other gases directly to the bloodstream may represent a technique for short-term rescue of profoundly hypoxemic patients, to selectively augment oxygen delivery to at-risk organs, or for novel diagnostic techniques. Furthermore, the ability to titrate gas infusions rapidly may minimize oxygen-related toxicity.
> 
> ...


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## Adrift (Apr 5, 2011)

jdstankosky said:


> What do you do with the CO2 once the oxygen has been depleted into the body?


You might get hypercapnia unless they can get you to exhale in the 20 minutes that the O2 foam buys you. 

"Hypercapnia is generally defined as a blood gas carbon dioxide level over 45 mmHg." I'm not sure how long it'd take to reach 45 mm HG by not exhaling.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

Diligent Procrastinator said:


> You need to stop being so paranoid. ANYTHING can be used for malevolent purposes. Focus on the good ones.


Nanotechnology has lots of serious dangers.

Admittedly this was a positive use


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## Playful Proxy (Feb 6, 2012)

RobynC said:


> Nanotechnology has lots of serious dangers.
> 
> Admittedly this was a positive use


So does Nuclear Energy. Cherynobl tends to stand as a landmark that you can't really argue with in terms of catastrophe. I don't see people making an all-powerful death-virus that deals more damage than we already have technology to deal. 

In terms of exhaling, I don't think you'd have to per se. I think you would feel a need to breath through your lungs, but you technically would not be required to.


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## RobynC (Jun 10, 2011)

@Signify



> So does Nuclear Energy. Cherynobl tends to stand as a landmark that you can't really argue with in terms of catastrophe.


Nuclear power is very different in that you require very specific isotopes which can be tightly controlled and are difficult to make into a weapon

Certain fabrication techniques including 3D printing which includes microscopic scale developments, the manufacture of chemicals are being looked into as well. When you put this all together you get a distinct possibility of disaster.



> I don't see people making an all-powerful death-virus that deals more damage than we already have technology to deal.


You might want to read This link particularly the last pages...


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