🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <iouiTB1w165w@iowegia.uucp> quest@iowegia.uucp (Steve J. Quest)  
writes:
>         From my earlier experiments with such an apparatus, I knew 
> that a glass of water can be made to boil- as room temperature is 
> warm enough to boil water at very low pressures.  The results with 
> the mice were striking- they puffed up like they were made 
> instantly obese.  The eyes bulged out unnaturally, and they were 
> dead almost instantly.  Returning pressure returned them to their 
> normal size.  This has proven to be the most humane method for 
> mice, as we can kill almost 100 at once.  I have not seen anything 
> such as ruptured or torn flesh- in fact they stay better intact 
> than they did swimming in the liquid nitrogen (sometimes they 
> would crack like glass).  This is not to say that if I were to 
> pump down the tank even more (using a mercury pump instead of the 
> mechanical reed valve pump I am now using) that they would not 
> explode, but under the very low pressures I was able to subject 
> them to, they did not explode, tear, or rupture.........sq


It would seem then, that if we subjected a human to a similar situation  
which would actually be a combination of the two (extremely low,  
approaching zero pressure and near 3K temperatures, and at any rate, far  
below that of liquid nitrogen, both of which occur in space), the person  
would probably die instantly, regardless of whether or not he would  
explode.  If the sudden and rather violent (I would guess) volume changes  
of the gases in his body didn't kill him, then the temperature probably  
would.  Unless (and I think this is unlikely) there was enough thermal  
radiation from the sun or his own ship or somewhere to make the _local_  
temperature MUCH higher than "space normal"  Indeed, a naked person would  
die in a matter of seconds from hypothermia when exposed to temperatures  
as low as -50 degrees C (unless treated IMMEDIATELY, and even so would  
suffer from EXTREME frostbite).  It is quite obvious from your work with  
the mice that the *body* would not "explode" or turn to jelly unless the  
expanding forces resulting from the pressure differential (evidenced by  
the fatness of the mice) exceeded the elasticity of the skin and/or the  
tensile strength of the muscles and other internal connective tissues.  At  
any rate, if the pressure drop didn't kill him, he would die a rather  
disturbingly pleasant (and quick) death of hypothermia.
--
Mark Underwood
EE Student, University of Kentucky
Lab Assistant, UK Library Microlabs
Internet address:  msunde01@mik.uky.edu

"Cogito, ergo Sum." - Descartes
"Non Cogito - poof!" - Anonymous

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