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Artificial gills are devices to let a human take in oxygen from surrounding water. This technology neither exists nor is in the early stages of development. ==Methods== Several potential methods exist for the development of artificial gills. One proposed method is the use of liquid breathing with a membrane oxygenator to solve the problem of carbon dioxide retention, the major limiting factor in liquid breathing. It is thought that a system such as this would allow for diving without risk of decompression sickness. They are generally thought to be unwieldy and bulky, because of the massive amount of water that would have to be processed to extract enough oxygen to supply an active diver, as an alternative to a scuba set. An average diver with a fully closed-circuit rebreather needs 1 liter (roughly 1 quart) of oxygen per minute. As a result, at least of sea water per minute would have to be passed through the system, and this system would not work in anoxic water. These calculations are based on the dissolved oxygen content of water. Other methods involve electrolysing water to produce gaseous hydrogen and gaseous oxygen. A diver needs, on average, about 1 mole of oxygen gas per hour. Water contains 88% oxygen by weight, and as two molecules of water are necessary to produce one molecule of diatomic oxygen gas, about 36 grams of water are needed to produce 32 grams of oxygen or one mole of oxygen gas. Assuming 1.0 grams/ml as the density of water, 36 ml (about 2.5 tablespoons) of water needs to be converted to oxygen per hour, assuming 100% efficiency. The reason for this large difference is the specific volume of a gas vs. a liquid. Natural gills work because nearly all animals with gills are thermoconformers, so they need much less oxygen than a thermoregulator of the same size.〔(Why don't people have gills? )〕 Another potential source of oxygen generation is plastron respiration.〔(Underwater breathing: the mechanics of plastron respiration )〕 A foam with hydrophobic surfaces immersed in water becomes superhydrophobic, which provides a water-air interface across which oxygen can diffuse into the foam. In nature, this method is used by some aquatic insects (such as water boatman, ''Notonecta'') and spiders (such as ''Dolomedes triton'') to breathe underwater without a gill. This method was experimentally proven by professor Ed Cussler on his dog.〔(Plastron respiration: Extracting oxygen from water )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Artificial gills (human)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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