# Breathing Underwater? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820 "2000-10-21T22:00:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dangermouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Dangermouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangermouse)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/1 "2000-10-21T22:00:27Z")
In the movie The Abyss they use that fluid (which they demonstrate on the mouse first) that allows breathing underwater? Someone showed me this photo [http://www.gbphoto.com/items/024.html](http://www.gbphoto.com/items/024.html) Is this fluid real then? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/2 "2000-10-21T22:18:37Z")
Yes. It’s called Flourovent, and it is a liquid polymer that is ultra-saturated with oxygen. It is used to help premature babies with damaged lungs breathe without the damaging pressures involved in standard respirators. The scene you saw on _The Abyss_ with the rat was real: The rat did breathe the liquid. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/3 "2000-10-21T22:26:35Z")
There is a good site [here](http://www.fluoros.co.uk/flutec/medical/liq-brth.htm) about liquid ventilation. It gives an accounting of the treatment and the chemical. By the way, the first experiments with liquid ventilation was with ultraoxygenated saline (saline is salt water in an exact ratio of salt to water used in medical fields). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/4 "2000-10-21T22:28:49Z")
The initial research was done in the 60’s, and I remember references to this guy’s liquid-breathing mice from decades before the movie was made. Here’s a link with the background: [http://www.scienceweb.org/movies/abyss.html](http://www.scienceweb.org/movies/abyss.html) See “Early Experiments” part way down the page. It was kind of hard on the mice in those days: > [@](#): > > All animals in the earliest studies suffered pulmonary damage, but whether that was due to toxic impurities of the fluorocarbon, chemical interaction of the fluorocarbon with the lung, or some unknown effect was undetermined. This mystery of the pulmonary damage, as well as the problem of carbon dioxide elimination and the fact that the fluorocarbon tended to be retained by the body tissues, would have to be solved before the process could be attempted on human subjects. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2000, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/5 "2000-10-21T22:44:05Z")
Yeah, I saw the press kit from The Abyss, they had lengthy technical details on Fluorovent. All the scenes in the movie are real. The actors really did breathe the stuff. The scenes where the guy coughs up the liquid from his lungs and starts breathing air again, that’s real too. They had all sorts of liquid breathing experts working on the movies, but since the film was not shot at great depths or pressures, it wasn’t very risky for the actors. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/6 "2000-10-22T02:08:31Z")
Never believe \*\* anything \*\* in a movie press pack. The rats were fed the pink stuff, but the actor just had a suit filled with pink water and had to hold his breath. If he had used fluorovent, then the lining of his lungs would have been stripped and he would have had to been put on high dodes of antibiotics for several days, if not weeks. Practical for premature babies, but not deep sea divers (or actors). if I can just find that link … [http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0096754](http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0096754) isn’t quite there And an underwater drilling rig? Pleeeeease. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/7 "2000-10-22T02:14:26Z")
Colin is right. The scene with the rat was real, but the actors were, eh, acting. If you get the DVD version of the movie, there’s a lot of documentary info on how they pulled it off. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/8 "2000-10-22T03:56:17Z")
I remember reading about this as a kid in the 1960s. Hal Clement wrote a science fiction vovel about an entire community living in fluorocarbon fluid. It’s called “Ocean on Top” and it came out about twenty yars before “The Abyss”. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/9 "2000-10-22T15:03:02Z")
Yeah, but babies in the womb can breathe womb liquid. One would think that if they could make a similar liquid, we should be able to breathe in it? ---
**Author:** ![Dangermouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Dangermouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangermouse)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/10 "2000-10-22T15:10:39Z")
Cheers for all the links. Excellent stuff The blurb under that photo mentions a `blood substitute` and the name Leland Carter. Neither of which I can find any mention of though ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/11 "2000-10-22T15:13:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\* > Yeah, but babies in the womb can breathe womb liquid. One would think that if they could make a similar liquid, we should be able to breathe in it? \*\* Except the babies aren’t really getting any oxygen out of the liquid in their lungs- that comes via the placenta. Arjuna34 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breathing-underwater/37820/12 "2000-10-22T20:43:29Z")
**Arjuna** is right. Fetuses don’t breathe anything. They get all they need through the placenta. That was one of the big annoyances I had with the film.