• Question: why cant humans live in any kind of water?

    Asked by georgiacharilaou to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 27 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Hi georgia,
      We can live in water, but we cannot breathe in water. So we would need to come to the surface to breathe, or have an air supply from scuba diving apparatus. We cannot breathe in water because our lungs don’t work when they fill with water.

      To breathe underwater you need gills, like fish have. Whales and dolphins also don’t have gills, so they have to come up to the surface to breathe.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      Hi georgiacharilaou

      Nothing I can add to James V’s answer, but for me water is a really interesting substance, as it is both vital for our lives and yet it can easily kill us!

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Hey georgiacharilaou,

      We could live in water is we really water to we just couldn’t live underwater without any technical help because we cannot breath underwater. We cannot get oxygen from the water the way that fish can as we don’t have gills.

      The best we could hope for naturally would be to train ourselves to be able to hold our breath for longer so that we wouldn’t have to come to the surface to breath too often

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