hemocyanin writes:
"Ocean topics always interest me, and this morning I awoke to two interesting ones. First, a diving suit certainly has been done before, but this one will descend to 1000 feet and has a little power pack with four 1.6 horsepower thrusters. In the near future, it will be used to gather information on deep bioluminescent species, in particular, testing the theory that such fish use light patterns to distinguish amongst themselves for mating purposes. The diver involved has dived that deep before, and even with only 7 minutes to work at that depth, found new species. In contrast, the suit can keep a diver alive for 50 hours and it doesn't require elaborate surfacing techniques to avoid the bends, though most dives are expected to be 3-5 hours long. With a fiberoptic tether to the surface and the ability to remain at depth for hours, this is sure to result in interesting discoveries. There's also a little bit in the article about a different researcher who wants to make GM brain proteins with bioluminescent materials so he can watch brain activity directly.
Secondly, this article has a great picture of an amazingly 3D fossil of a trilobite and a neat chart of trilobite variations."
(Score: 2) by dotdotdot on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:55PM
The suit looks like what they wore in the movie The Abyss.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 06 2014, @05:44AM
I read a similar comment on another site, related to this news.
For me, the suit in The Abyss reminds me of a fighter-pilot or (realistically) more of something I wear while I scuba dive - a "drysuit" (which is was), the only difference being the helmet+hoses, designed to fully enclose the head and keep *leaks* out.
Interestingly, the uses of a suit like in The Abyss or an standard "drysuit" function don't use a hard shell designed to keep the pressure "out"/off your body.
Drysuit - just keeps you dry. The full pressure of the surrounding water still presses against you. Humans can (and have) survive the pressure at the depth (say 300m/1000ft) the Exosuit in the article is designed for, just fine. The human body, being mostly fluid, doesn't really compress, so as long as air spaces are filled (pressurized to ambient pressure) - pressure's not a problem at this depth.
The Abyss Suit - based on "liquid breathing". Designed to hold the fluid inside, so it doesn't leak out, for the wearer to breathe - the fluid providing oxygen and "pressuring" by the presence of fluid instead of high-pressure air/mix. You'd not have the same level of nitrogen build-up (think, getting the "bends") as with breathing pressurized air. Think could avoid incredible lengths of time decompressing.
The Exosuit (this news) - Really the opposite of the above (similar) "suits" and rather a flexible submarine around ones body. The pressure is kept "out", again avoiding issues with breathing extremely highly compressed air/mixes and the associated nitrogen(other gas) build-up. Like the Abyss suit, or rather driving a submarine, person could come rapidly to the surface and not require extensive decompression.
(Score: 1) by oodaloop on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:16PM
Many Bothans died to bring you this comment.
(Score: 5, Funny) by skullz on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:20PM
Well, there went another hour of my life away to Wikipedia. Thanks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:39PM
For a moment I thought they meant 1000 METERS. Even still, having only that suit protect you below with very low light, given how little we actually know about what's down there... that's pretty impressive.
I would be nervous enough in a full submersible.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Informative) by zeigerpuppy on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:04PM
Excuse me for being so negative but this is a concept not an actual suit.
I get a little frustrated with designers making pretty pictures without even going to the trouble of doing some calculations to support their drawings.
Also the article description should make it clear that no actual suit or technical description exists.
Things that would be a minimum are power and gas requirements.
There may be some very good physical reasons why small submersibles are better suited than a suit for such a mission, power/mass ratio and storage capacity for batteries are probably 2 of these.
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:19PM
If you're disappointed with the suit, you should at least check out the offhand link to the trilobite fossils [nytimes.com] because that article is pretty amazing. It might help to offset your disappointment.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2) by EvilJim on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:49PM
As Dr. Brett said, the “X-rated parts†don’t readily fossilize.
we'll that has blown the naked and petrified Natalie Portman meme for me.
(Score: 1) by hawkingradiation on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:59PM
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday March 06 2014, @12:25AM
That's exactly what is so interesting about this suit -- it is like a little submarine. In one article that snipped from the summary, http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/28/5456918/exosuit- is-a-submarine-you-can-wear [theverge.com]
The expedition is happening this summer.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/iron-man -like-exosuit-to-expand-ocean-exploration-video/ [scientificamerican.com]
This Scientific American video with Lombardi discusses the bends issue and how this suit negates that:o n-scientific-american.html [blogspot.com]
http://exosuitproject.blogspot.com/2014/03/video-
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday March 06 2014, @12:13AM
What are you talking about? There are videos of the suit in testing. Underwater. With a person in it.
(Score: 1) by TK on Thursday March 06 2014, @07:15PM
There's a documentary about the earliest life on the planet available on youtube with some excellent footage of a wide variety of trilobite fossils, plus it stars David Attenborough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsI8OgJNYAA&t=20m1 7s [youtube.com]
From the ~20 minute mark to about the 33 minute mark.
The fleas have smaller fleas, upon their backs to bite them, and those fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum