Ask A Scientist Zoology Archive

name         Aaron
status       student
age          15

Question -   Fish can pull oxygen from water, they have gills made 
to do this when  moving water is going through them. My question is, with 
todays technology, could not people create a gill like machine so that 
humans could pull oxygen from water. My science teacher said it was 
possible and if I invented it I would make lots of money. So I would like 
to know how a fishes gills can take oxygen from water, like the design of 
a fishes gill. If you can send me pictures of models of how gills work 
and tell me why these structures do what they do. I am very interested on 
the subject and hope you 
reply.    
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A gill is not all that different from a lung.  Both use the basic 
principles of concentrations/partial pressures of oxygen and a carrier 
molecule (hemoglobin) to bind the oxygen and carry it to the tissues.  It 
is also a requirement to bind carbon dioxide and carry it away from the 
tissues and release it in the lungs of gills.  Hemoglobin is the central 
molecule here. A possibility would to be to look into artificial blood and 
find a way to use that in making an artificial gill.  Then the artificial 
blood once it passed through the gill could transfer its oxygen to the air 
and then to our lungs.  In essence, what you are trying to do is find a 
way to extract oxygen from water and then provide it to a human under 
water.  Lots of challenging problems.  Good Luck.

Peter Faletra
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