SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Whales, seals, and other marine mammals seem to do alright in the chill waters of the arctic seas, so the US Navy is developing a type of "artificial blubber" to allow divers to work in freezing conditions for hours on end. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the collaboration between MIT and George Mason University uses an off-the-shelf wetsuit permeated with inert gases to triple a diver's resistance against the threat of hypothermia.
[...] The modification involves replacing the air trapped in the neoprene foam that provides heat insulation with heavy, inert gases, such as xenon and krypton, which make the neoprene act like fat-concentrating blubber. This is done by putting an ordinary neoprene suit into a bespoke pressure tank the size of a beer keg and pumping in the inert gases. After several hours, the gas permeates the suit, forcing the air out.
According to ONR, this makes the suit effective at 10° (50° C)[sic see note] for hours instead of minutes. The treatment isn't permanent as the gases leak out over 20 hours, but the team points out that this is much longer than the time divers spend in the water.
Why not recruit divers with more blubber?
[Note: This conversion error appeared in the original story; it should have read: 10°C (50° F). Story updated 20180907_011649 UTC --martyb]
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Friday September 07 2018, @02:40AM (2 children)
There aren't that many Intuit (Eskimos) who want to become Navy divers. By the same token they could just use 'average' US/European who has become morbidly obese, but getting them in a wet suit is too difficult without a pound of butter and a gallon of vegetable oil. Not to mention that your average fatty is far too buoyant to be a diver. :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit [wikipedia.org]
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 07 2018, @07:53AM
Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 07 2018, @10:24PM
Weight belt. Put enough lead on his belt, he's going straight down, no matter how fat he might be. He could even be the first person to get the bends on the way down!