Russia’s liquid-breathing dog
DAVID HAMBLING explains why the Russians have been plunging dachshunds into tanks of liquid
In December, Russia’s Foundation for Advanced Research Projects (FPI in English), equivalent to the US military research organisation DARPA, showed a dachshund being submerged in liquid. The dog was understandably distressed but continued breathing under the surface. Afterwards it was returned to the air and, having coughed the liquid out of its lungs, breathed normally, apparently unharmed.
A video of the demonstration caused some outcry from animal welfare groups, though the researchers claimed it was “carried out in accordance with the ethical principles of using animals for biomedical research”. Dmitry Rogozin, the Russian deputy prime minister who witnessed the demonstration, is a dog-lover with a German Shepherd called Ponchik (Doughnut). Afterwards he reportedly adopted the dachshund, known as Nicholas.
The demonstration may look as bizarre as the 1930s Soviet experiments by Sergei Brukhonenko, keeping a severed dog’s head alive. In fact, it’s a modern revival of a technique developed some decades ago for a genuine requirement.
Liquid breathing could solve the problems of deep-sea diving. The deeper you go, the greater the pressure. As the diver comes up afterwards, the high-pressure nitrogen dissolved in their bloodstream comes fizzing out like a soda bottle shaken too vigorously, with deadly effects. This is ‘caisson disease’ and can only be countered by a slow process of depressurising – divers retuning from the maximum 500m (1,640ft) need days in a decompression chamber, gradually returning to sea-level pressure. Liquid breathing overcomes this problem. Liquid is incompressible and will not enter the blood, so someone breathing oxygen-saturated liquid rather than high-pressure air could come up immediately with no ill effects.
America and Russia both experimented with this technique during the Cold War, but its lasting fame is mainly due to the 1989 movie The Abyss. At the climax, a character played by Ed Harris descends to extreme depth to defuse a nuclear warhead, aided by an experimental liquid breathing rig. Technical advice for The Abyss came from Thomas Shaffer, now Professor of Pædiatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, and was based on his 1974 work with dogs.
One of the big hurdles to be overcome is inhaling liquid. There is a strong natural inhibition; it could be compared to an extreme form of waterboarding. Volunteers involved in tests said that getting the liquid into their lungs was one of the most unpleasant aspects. Hence researchers started with anæsthetised subjects, and only working with one lung at first.
Initial attempts involved saline solution – salt water – charged with oxygen. A 1977 US Navy report on “The feasibility of liquid breathing in man” noted that this method did not provide sufficient oxygen, and the experimental subject would slowly suffocate. Temperature control was also an issue. The lung has a large surface area, and a flow of cold liquid through it rapidly cools the body. It is so effective that liquid ventilation is currently being explored at the University of Paris as a way of quickly lowering body temperature to put emergency patients into a state of ‘hibernation.’
The first person to breathe liquid in the West was a commercial diver, Frank Falejczyk, who inhaled oxygenated saline into one lung. Extracting the liquid was difficult, and he later developed pneumonia. Ejecting the liquid has always been problematic, partly because liquid is about a thousand times denser than air. One subject is reported to have broken a rib while coughing it up.
Oxygenated perfluorocarbons proved to be better at holding oxygen, but there was another problem – carbon dioxide. The new liquid delivered oxygen but did not take away the waste gas, resulting in what reports describe as “respiratory distress” and limiting breathing time to a few minutes. Adding an emulsion of another liquid solved this and, in theory, allowed safe breathing.
The big unknown is how far the work was taken after the 1970s. It is not known whether full liquid ventilation of both lungs has been safely and reliably performed with humans. There are rumours that US divers tested liquid breathing equipment, but no tangible evidence. On the Russian side there are unofficial reports that aquanauts went to the unheard-of depth of nearly a kilometre and returned safely, being awarded “Hero of the Soviet Union” status. The project was supposedly shelved for lack of funding in the 1980s, but it is far from clear whether it ever took place.
Liquid breathing was always challenging, and unmanned underwater vehicles mean there is little demand now for extreme diving. In the West, there is still some experimental use of the technique for therapeutic purposes – treating lung conditions and supporting newborn babies – but not for diving. However, the Russian military have expressed interest in an emergency liquid ventilation system to return submariners to the surface after an accident. Hence, the work by the FPI and the Liquid Breathing Laboratory established at the Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Health in Moscow in 2017. In the latest work, dogs have reportedly survived breathing liquid at a pressure equivalent to 500 metres [1,640ft] depth and returned safely without decompression. “All of the canine testers have survived and feel well after ‘submergence’ and lengthy liquid breathing session,” the FPI’s deputy general director told TASS.
There may be more uses than rescuing stranded submarine crew. A liquid-breathing pilot would be more resistant to G-forces, so it might benefit fighter crew or astronauts. One study even looks at a liquid-breathing pilot for a railgun launch to space, like Jules Verne’s cannon-launched Moon mission.
Despite the volume of work in Russia – Western scientists report seeing presentations on it in the 2000s – no scientific papers have been published. All we have to go on are news releases and demonstrations. However, a public demonstration before high-level guests suggests the researchers have a great deal of confidence that the technique works safely and reliably. So, while hard data is lacking, and while their other advances might be more questionable, this looks like an area of weird science in which Russia really is pushing ahead.