The earth is a living planet with a perfect ecosystem, and in nature, there is such a law: things compete against the sky, and the fittest survive. The life history of the earth is about 4 billion years. In such a long life, countless kinds of creatures have been born on the earth. The evolution of life finally gave birth to intelligent life human beings.
We all know that the early life of the earth was born in the ocean, and marine life is also the largest population in the earth’s biosphere. It is precisely because water plays an important role in the evolution of life on earth that we call water the source of life, and 70% of the material in the human body is also water.
Although 70% of the human body is water, humans are terrestrial organisms and are afraid of water. We all know that 71% of the earth’s surface is the ocean. Since ancient times, the ocean has always been a mysterious place. Unfortunately, because humans cannot adapt to living in the water, we have no way to truly enter the ocean for comprehensive exploration.
Even today in the age of science and technology, with all kinds of technological equipment, the ocean area we can explore is still only 5%. 95% of the ocean area is still a blind spot for human exploration, especially in the deep sea, it is even more difficult for us to conduct various explorations. Why is the progress of human exploration of the ocean so slow? Mainly because it is difficult to maintain breathing in the sea. Once there is insufficient oxygen, it is easy to suffocate and die.
We all know that humans are mammals and need to use their lungs to breathe. When the human body inhales oxygen from the outside, the oxygen first enters the alveoli, and then reaches the blood and cells of the body. At the same time, human cells release carbon dioxide, which is then excreted from the body. This is the lung breathing method of mammals. This method allows mammals to survive well on land, but it has advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that it deprives us of the ability to breathe underwater.
Although there are more advanced oxygen supply equipment, such as oxygen hoods. However, when performing tasks, divers cannot carry too many or too heavy objects into the water, otherwise it will cause great obstacles. However, the oxygen belt is not enough, and the time to perform the task is naturally short. All in all, one of the obstacles preventing humans from entering the ocean world is the breathing problem.
If we can solve the problem of unsustainable oxygen breathing underwater, then the pace of human exploration of the ocean will inevitably speed up a lot. Last year, scientists discovered a substance called perfluorocarbon. It is understood that the chemical properties of perfluorocarbons are very stable, have a strong dissolving effect on carbon dioxide, and will not destroy active substances.
Scientists once did such an experiment, dissolving perfluorocarbon in water, and then putting a white mouse in it. As a result, 20 hours later, the white mouse was still alive and kicking. From this, scientists can draw a conclusion: living things can keep breathing in the perfluorocarbon liquid for a long time.
I believe many friends who like to watch science fiction movies have seen this kind of liquid. In some science fiction movies, astronauts are soaked in a breathable liquid during long interstellar journeys. This liquid can provide long-term breathing, and can also keep the astronaut’s body in a stable and healthy state. We don’t know what kind of breathable liquid is in science fiction movies. Now the perfluorocarbon discovered by scientists also has the function of breathing.
Scientists named the results of this experiment “full liquid breathing technology.” This technology is not only effective for mice, but also effective for humans. According to media reports, a child suffered from breathing difficulties when he was born. Doctors put it into perfluorocarbon for treatment, and the child’s condition has not only been effectively suppressed, but there is even a trend of recovery.
Such a major discovery quickly made scientists think of applying it to ocean exploration. As long as we can design a new type of underwater diving equipment that uses perfluorocarbon, we can allow divers to stay underwater for a longer time. The area that can be explored will be wider, and more importantly, through this new type of submersible, perhaps we hope to be able to dive freely into the deep sea for exploration.
You know, most of the secrets of the ocean are actually concentrated in the deep sea, but now we have to explore the deep sea only through some powerful submarines. And the time for the submarine to enter the deep sea cannot be too long, because in the deep sea, we also need to consider another important factor, that is, the strong water pressure.
With a person’s physical ability, we can only dive into shallow waters of about 20 meters at most. In deeper areas, due to the strong water pressure, we can’t go down at all. Some people may say, then why are those fish in the deep sea not afraid of water pressure? There are also some human garbage, why can it sink into the seabed of 10,000 meters?
In fact, the main reason is that the pressure difference between inside and outside is zero. The reason why fish in the deep sea are not afraid of water pressure is that their breathing structure is different from ours. The air pressure in the body of marine fish can remain the same as the external pressure. In this case, the internal and external water pressure is zero. Pressure naturally has no effect. The same goes for those household garbage.
The human body is different. Our body maintains a standard atmospheric pressure. As the depth increases, the pressure in the ocean will become stronger and stronger than the atmospheric pressure in the human body. Therefore, we cannot dive deeper into the ocean. Only when the pressure in the body can maintain a balance as the depth increases, we can ignore the pressure of the ocean.
In fact, in the long evolutionary years of mankind, there are two blank periods. The ancestor of mankind, the forest ancient ape, lived 14 to 8 million years ago, while the direct ancestor of mankind, the Australopithecus, lived 4 million to 1.9 million years ago. The apes lived between 1.7 million and 200,000 years ago. There are two blank periods in the middle: the gap between the ancient apes and the apes is 4 million years, and the gap between the apes and the apes is 200,000 years. Scientists have not found any biological fossils here.
Why are there these two blank periods? Scientists speculate that the ancestors of humans in these two periods may have lived in the ocean. Since they live in the ocean, it means that human ancestors can also breathe and live freely in the ocean. If this guess is correct, it means that human genes still have certain ocean survival genes.
It is only because humans have been living on land later, during the long evolutionary years, this part of the gene may be degraded or hidden. If in the future, we can activate these marine genes again through genetic technology, then humans will become advanced amphibious life that can live on land and sea.
For human beings, being able to live in the ocean is very important. If the Earth’s ecology continues to deteriorate in the future, the rising global temperature will cause all the ice and snow in the north and south poles to melt, the sea level will rise significantly, and a large amount of land will disappear. Human beings may have to return to the ocean again and live in the ocean. Even if the ecology has not completely deteriorated and after humans have the ability to survive in the ocean, we will be able to better explore the ocean and exploit the rich resources of the ocean.