Can underwater living turn Dr Deep Sea superhuman?
Adverts
A previous saturation diver is attempting to live in an underwater habitat for an unparalleled 100 times, but environment a earth history is not his main motive – for the reason that he hopes to arise a better gentleman.
Joseph Dituri, 55, now performs as an associate professor at University of South Florida (USF), and being submerged for much more than three months does not mean having time out from his job. Regarded as “Dr Deep Sea”, he is continuing to teach his biomedical engineering class online, whilst at the very same time conducting investigation into the outcomes on the human body of lengthy-time period exposure to severe force.
Subsequent up on a prior scientific examine that indicated that system-cells could double inside of 5 days when uncovered to elevated tension, Dr Dituri is checking out the risk of these types of an undersea practical experience lengthening the human lifespan and combatting age-similar diseases. “We suspect I am going to arrive out superhuman!” he says.
His dwelling for a lot more than 3 months is 9m down in Jules’ Undersea Lodge, the 9sq m habitat in Essential Largo where the present entire world history for underwater dwelling was set in 2014. At that time two lecturers stayed down for 73 days but Dr Dituri is living alone – albeit anticipating plenty of readers.
“The human system has never been below drinking water that extensive, so I will be monitored closely,” he states. Prior to and just after his 100-day stint he has to undertake a sequence of psychosocial, psychological and professional medical exams, which include blood panels, ultrasounds and electrocardiograms, as properly as stem-cell tests.
The tests also has to be finished at regular intervals through his underwater experience, with the support of a scuba-diving professional medical staff tasked with checking his bodily wellbeing and exercise, and a psychologist and psychiatrist to evaluate his psychological problem.
Brain accidents
Dr Dituri was a saturation diving officer in the US Navy for 28 yrs, retiring as a commander in 2012. At that level he embarked on a USF doctoral diploma, finding out the kind of brain injuries that he had noticed many others maintain in the military services.
“I realized perfectly that hyperbaric stress could raise cerebral blood-movement, and hypothesised that it could be made use of to take care of traumatic brain accidents,” he states. That led him to discover the application of hyperbaric medicine in managing “a broad spectrum of diseases”.
“Everything we want to survive is listed here on the earth,” he claims. “I suspect the overcome to a lot of conditions can be identified in undiscovered organisms in the ocean. To discover out, we require additional scientists.”
Other tasks to maintain Dr Dituri occupied in the habitat involve tests an synthetic intelligence device designed to display screen a human overall body for disease and figure out no matter if medication is necessary.
And aside from the medics checking his health and fitness, he is expecting a stream of other guests to dive down to be part of him. As section of an outreach programme, adults and chaperoned youngsters will keep for 24 hrs at a time to analyze the analysis process, even though fellow-scientists will dive in for conversations on ways of defending and rejuvenating the maritime setting. These talks will be streamed on the Dr Deep Sea YouTube channel.
Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Emerald Lagoon opened in 1986, initially as a analysis facility. It became the USA’s only underwater resort, requiring visitors to scuba dive to their accommodation and supplying home company in the kind of diver-shipped pizza.
Also on Divernet: Proteus: Undersea Habitat Of The Future, Bid To Dive Aquarius Reef Foundation