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From: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.physics
Subject: Re: Xenon/oxygen
Message-ID: <3981@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Oct-87 17:30:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.3981
Posted: Mon Oct  5 17:30:05 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Oct-87 05:43:33 EDT
References: <18@krafla.UUCP> <566@uop.UUCP>
Reply-To: dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady)
Organization: Datalytics, Inc.
Lines: 34
Summary: Fluorocarbon blood subsitute and the inventions of Daedalus
Xref: mnetor sci.bio:685 sci.physics:2399

In article <566@uop.UUCP> robert@uop.UUCP (Robert McCaul--The Equalizer) writes:
>In article <18@krafla.UUCP>, frisk@krafla.UUCP (Fridrik Skulason) writes:
>> Can anyone tell me if a high-pressure mixture of xenon and oxygen would
>> be breathable.
>> 
>> The reason I am asking this is that it should be possible to create a mixture
>> with density just above that of water.
>
>am i the only one who remembers the guy who came up with something
>similar?? i remember mice being dropped into beakers of something
>akin to water in appearance that was breathable...

The substance in question was a halogenated hydrocarbon (can't recall
which, but some Freon relative (obviously)).  I've seen the trick with
the mouse and when they are removed and drained (by holding them up by
the tail) they look a mite peeved but OK.  (Yes, I think it's cruel and
should not be done as a demonstration.)  The substance does an excellent
job of disolving oxygen and has been used as a generic blood substitute
I believe, particularly in Japan (where donating blood, not to mention
willing organs, are very unpopular).  

As for gas so dense you could swim in it, I recall a proposal for just
such a thing in the Daedalus column of New Scientist (collected in a
book called _The Inventions of Daedalus_.  As I recall, the nitrogen
substitute proposed was uranium-238 hexafluoride, which is quite dense,
but I'm not sure it's nontoxic.  I recommend the Daedalus column for
wild, mind expanding ideas, some of which might actually pan out (like
the sock with passive cilia that would cause it to constantly crawl up
the leg as one moved...).
-- 
D Gary Grady
(919) 286-4296
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