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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
- Philip K. Dick
 |
| Gillfluid | ||
| Breathable fluid that provides oxygen to the lungs, allowing greater pressure on the body. |
Interesting depiction of liquid breathing - also called fluid breathing - which has been used for experimental medical treatment.
| Taince Yarabokin floated foetal, swaddled in shock-gel, lungs full of fluid, umbilicalled to the ship, nurtured by it, talking to it, listening to it, feeling it all around her. A gee-suit half-completed the image of warrior as unborn, leaving the wearer clothed in a close second skin. Her connection with the ship was via implants and an induction collar rather than a cord into her navel, and her chest moved only faintly as the gillfluid tided oxygen into her blood and scrubbed waste gases out again. |
| Technovelgy from The Algebraist,
by Iain M Banks. Published by Orbit in 2004 Additional resources -
|
Here's how to go from air-breathing mode to gillfluid-breathing mode:
Fassin lay back, zoning out as best he could, fighting the urge to panic, the gag response of fear as the gillfluid poured into his nose, throat and lungs like the coldest drink anybody had ever taken.
This idea has been used in sf before; Joe Haldeman mentions it in The Forever War (1974). It is used to great dramatic effect in the 1989 film The Abyss.
A soft light and a gentle chime confirmed all was well. He reached for the double nozzle of the gillfluit root, took a deep breath, let it out, then placd the nozzles at his nostrils.
(Ed Harris getting ready to switch to air breathing)
If you're wondering if you can breath sea water like a fish and get away with it, you're still reading too much sf. However, take a look at this real-life effort to breathe the air dissolved in water - Breathe Like A Fish Thanks To Alan Bodner.
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
