Sunday, November 24, 2013

Something similar to air sale


Once in a little while, these days, a revolutionary discovery rocks the Internet especially, and then every other place. These discoveries range from cosmetic regalia that feed into our own satisfactions to in this case medical discoveries that will undoubtedly improve the health sciences by more than a nudge. Currently I read a phenomenal medical discovery that I cannot desist from thinking about. Imagine being able to supply yourself with oxygen without the daily hassle of chest heaping, air sucking and lung- capillary interchange. Lung cancer becomes an issue of “well let's prevent the cancer from spreading"- without wasting time thinking about access to oxygen by the rest of the body. Indeed the results of such a discovery can be fairly concluded as consequentially beneficial but before I dive into my highly quintessential notion of mechanically or manually available oxygen let me explain the discovery itself. I was recently reading TechWench, a website that deals with quidnuncs in their terms like me by providing news about gadgets and etcetera, when I came across the topic -Scientists Invent Oxygen Particle That If Injected, Allows You to Live without Breathing.


 If really I am a quidnunc and of course one with an interest in medical science you can imagine the rush of hormonal excitement that blasted through my grey matter and the bulge that showed the whiteness of my eyes. But of course I am exaggerating, yet I was very tantalized and begun to think of how this was possible and what this really meant.
 The great benefit for reading my report here is the unconventional mixture of perspectives that fully dissect issues such as these in order to avoid inundating with unnecessary conclusions, which may turn out to be redundant, or does it?
So the body obtains energy through a sequence of chemical activities that involves oxygen, that said, any active occurrence within the human body will require oxygen. Most of us probably learned that we obtain oxygen by breathing, but considering the air we breathe is composed of a variety of gases other than oxygen it will be enlightening to divulge the rather complicated process oxygen finds its way from air into our cells. When air finds its way through the nostrils it goes through the larynx and then the trachea which branches into the left and right lungs. Connected to the branches, or the bronchioles, are small air sacs, called an alveolus. It is here that lung capillary interchange occurs. There is a rich supply of capillaries covering the alveolus that makes diffusion of oxygen in and carbon dioxide out relatively simple.
 Fortunately the gases in air are proportionally distributed so as to make life a possibility in the biosphere. The largest gas volume of air composition is nitrogen with a whopping 78.08%, then oxygen with a surprising 20.85%, followed minutely by 0.95% argon, 0.033% carbon dioxide and infinitesimal amounts of neon, helium, krypton, nitrogen (1) oxide, hydrogen, xenon and ozone. Yes all these are present! And to throw in questions that would keep your neural guards in disarray - is there a possibility that these percentages can change and what will this mean for the existence of life? 

Then to cause more shamble, there is news of 'air pollution' which is really a euphemism for changes in gas proportions that are necessary for the sustenance of life on earth. The NY times reports that there is a fearful increase of carbon dioxide emission by 400 part per million a day which may look small on a larger scale but is akin to a doctor finding a genetic disposition to a cancerous gene which has the grandest possibility to disintegrate a complete progeny generation. Clearly this seems a little further from the topic but it ties into one perspective.
Nevertheless the human body being as exceptional and equipped as it is, filters air for oxygen through the use of partial pressure. Oxygen and the other gases bounce off the walls of the alveolar at specific rates depending on their concentration, which for oxygen is known as the partial pressure of oxygen (PO2). At a certain partial pressure oxygen is allowed across the membranes of both the alveolar and capillaries with carbon dioxide facing a similar ordeal but in an opposite path. The mechanism that maintains gaseous exchange is known as diffusion which requires a concentration gradient in order to be initiated. Typically a PO2 of 100 mm Hg  and PCO2 of 40 mm Hg signifies rich oxygen within the alveolar, which merits an exchange from a rather low PO2 = 40 mm Hg and PCO2 of 45. So oxygen diffuses from the highly concentrated region which is from the alveolar to capillaries and then Carbon dioxide diffuses likewise but in an opposite direction.
Incidentally we can conclude that it will be brilliant to live completely devoid of these processes described above, yet have access to oxygen whenever necessary.  The discovery of readily accessible oxygen for respiration is by most accounts more a blessing than it could ever be a bane. The oxygen is collected in small lipid pockets that can freely flow in any blood vessel. Aside the many health benefits, military uses have already been projected as pointed out by Damien of tech wrench. Just allow your imagination to take you through a world where you do not have to breathe to live. I am positive your mind may miss one other essential aspect of the discovery that this may lead to an epoch of air sale. This however is what we do not see coming... Should indeed our balance of 'clean air' become compromised as time is evidently leading to, there will be a point where people will live completely on injected oxygen for basic survival. Time leads to such a situation slowly like a snail, and until prevented will surely be a reality just as injected oxygen now is. Of course the Boston doctors that made the discovery had their motives embroidered in the medical sciences. One of the doctors even told the story of how a young girl with pneumonia died due to complication with her lungs that was not quickly resolved.
Now if people are living on injected oxygen for basic survival the worse that I can conjure happening is the annihilation of a complete race because they are either deprived or do not have access to oxygen. And for that I will desist from elucidating as politics tends to end up being nasty and grandeur.
To be vividly clear this unfortunate ordeal has already been set in motion so this medical discovery is not the trigger for a world where air is sold, but if care is not taken and our actions revised - it may not be today but a generation will inevitably depend on injected oxygen. Coupled with the greed and disparity in human characteristics many will surely die. So if you will, help save the world, from this particularly inescapable demise. This is a situation where prevention helps save from a dangerously evasive method of cure.

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