Joseph Dituri – AKA Dr. The Deep Sea is no stranger to the ocean.
Joseph Dituri
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Joseph Dituri
Joseph Dituri – AKA Dr. The Deep Sea is no stranger to the ocean.
Joseph Dituri
A report from Christmas 2012 – and so Joseph Dituri was late on Christmas Eve.
Earlier this year he retired as a US Navy diver and captain and joined filmmaker James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenger mission to the bottom of the Mariana Trench – more than 35,000 feet below sea level.
One thing that stuck with him from reviewing the reports on that trip that Christmas Eve: the discovery that the organism at that depth contained a chemical that could potentially be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.
“And then I said in my life, “All that is needed on this planet. You just need to find it,” he told NPR’s Juana Summers.
Dituri spoke to NPR from a somewhat shallower depth of about 22 feet under the sea, in a lagoon in Key Largo, Florida. He plans to stay there for 100 days – he reached it on March 2nd, which was day two – the Guinness world record for the longest time spent in a fixed underwater habitat.
The record told other media outlets that it was only a small part of the gain. Dituri, whose website describes itself as “Dr. Sea Deep”, wants this mission to spark scientific curiosity. And he wants to collect some data (on himself) for biomedical research.
“We have to do something to find everything,” he said.
They will not be completely alone in their seat under water. Project Neptune 100 will see him visit local schools on field trips, in an effort to get more kids excited about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) studies.
He will teach the course for the University of South Florida, where he is an associate professor. And he will do an “outreach package” with well-known marine scientists who are coming down to conduct live interviews – among them, oceanographer Count Sylvia.
“I will stay here overnight with Count Sylvia, and hang out and make a vow,” he said. “How cold is it?”
His academic background is not exactly marine science. After 28 years in the US Navy, where he became a special operations officer, Dituri earned a Ph.D. in customer service. His research interests are shared by veterans; He studied treatments for PTSD, traumatic brain injury and CTE.
Dituri retired from the fleet in 2012.
Joseph Dituri
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Joseph Dituri
But in his time undersea he puts himself as a “Guinea pig” to observe the long-term effects of a pressurized environment. He says he will undergo various physiological tests before, after and during the 100 days. He pointed out that some previous research with stressful environments could produce positive results regarding the number of circulating stem cells and the length of telomeres — the ends of chromosomes associated with cell viability.
“We’re looking to expand my life and increase my ability to heal,” he said. “This is going to be great.”
At that pressure, even at a relatively shallow depth of 20-30 feet underwater, Dituri describes his home for 100 days as a “positive pressure habitat.” Air must be pumped in against the effects of water pressure.
“Basically, it’s constantly boiling,” he said. “And [the noise is] an unfortunate side effect, but it’s a necessity because I really love breathing.
I will open his book another time. The Undersea Lodge is called Jules, and it’s where the previous world was also located. He describes it as two 8-foot diameter tubes, 13 feet long, running parallel to each other. Among them is a wet room (“unfortunately, it’s very wet”) where people can enter and exit the hospital.
One tube house bunks for sleeping; the other, a small kitchen and a living room. It has a coffee machine and lots of frozen food storage. At night, he said, he looked up an online recipe for poached salmon in a microwave.
“And it really came out wonderfully,” said Dituri. “Impressed”.
Because we had to ask, it has a secret. He says that people have long been comfortable red roads under water. But in this case the pressure must be forced and sent into the correct sewers.
“We have a soaking pump that is located here and the recycler pushes it to the surface and connects to the sewer line,” Dituri says. “Yes, that’s a good question. You’ve got somewhere to go.”
Dituri says that the living area is quite bleak, but he describes himself as having created a habit, happy enough to eat like this every day. He notes that the current world record was 73 days. “Our biggest fear now is the remote, restricted, extreme environment, because I’m a little over one and a half times the pressure of who you are now,” he said.
There is a team of medical doctors, trained in hyperbaric medicine, who keep an eye on the biometric data. He has scheduled weekly psychological interviews as he expects the ticks to increase in frequency. Most people take vitamin D supplements.
“Even though guests come down here, I’m usually in a jail cell,” he said. “I mean, I can go out and swim outside of it, but I’m still going in and there’s no sun.”
He also notes that he did not see much of his family and friends at that time, and his three daughters. But he describes everyone in his corner as a little worried, and quite supportive.
“My mom literally hugged me before I left and – you know, the typical New York stereotype.” [parent] … he said, “Don’t be crazy about anything while you’re there,” he said. . But that was the fear. But you’re worried about me being in Key Largo.”
In one he asks for a little help. Light, well, the lack of natural light, Dituri asks friends and family facsimile: pictures of the sun.
“I’m a creature of the sun, right?” he says “So I wake up in the morning, I go from my workout and watch the sun rise. And then on the way home from work, I stop at the bridge and watch the sun set. So I probably just follow that sun. .
#man #plan #live #underwater #days
