The Mail Online has a mildly interesting article in regards to why salamanders can breathe underwater whereas a human being obviously cannot: apparently the answer is salamanders are part algae.From the Mail Online:
In research on salamanders they found that oxygen-producing algae have bonded with their eggs so closely that the two are now inseparable.
By studying the mechanism further, they hope that the same process could be applied to humans one day too.
Read more: [Link]
The article goes deeper than I quoted above explaining how the process could be included into our own DNA. I suspect that turning a human being into a water-breathing "chimera" or sorts is highly doubtful but perhaps there is a medicine in there somewhere?
Nonetheless, it is fun to think how cool it would be to swim a 200-meter free while being able to breath anytime you wanted without losing two-tenths-of-a-second on every turn of the head to breathe.
I found this link on Elliot P.'s Facebook page.
1 comment:
Pretty interesting, although I think I'd rather not be able to breathe underwater than to be part Algae!
Sam
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