WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: What Would Space Do to the Human Body?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren boglebam here with a classic episode from our erstwhile host,

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<v Speaker 1>Christian Sager. This one gets a little intense. It's about

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<v Speaker 1>what would really happen to a person if they found

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<v Speaker 1>themselves in the nearer vacuum of space without a space suit. Hey,

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, it's Christians Sager. Do you remember that time

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<v Speaker 1>in Battlestar Galactica when that one character was blown out

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<v Speaker 1>an air lock into outer space without a suit? No,

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<v Speaker 1>what about when it happened in two thousand one, or

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<v Speaker 1>Guardians of the Galaxy or Sunshine. Yes, we all dream

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<v Speaker 1>about traveling in space, but if movies are any indication,

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<v Speaker 1>we spend almost as much time thinking about flying around

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<v Speaker 1>up there without a suit on. So let's answer this

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<v Speaker 1>question once and for all. What would space actually due

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<v Speaker 1>to a human body? Well, here's the good news. You

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<v Speaker 1>wouldn't die instantly. Yeah, you might actually survive for a

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<v Speaker 1>little bit out there. How do we know because somebody

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<v Speaker 1>tested it out on dogs. In nineteen sixty five, researchers

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<v Speaker 1>at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas exposed several dogs

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<v Speaker 1>to a near vacuum. The dogs survived for up to

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<v Speaker 1>nineties seconds, but if they went two minutes or more,

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<v Speaker 1>they died when re pressurized. And if your first thought

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<v Speaker 1>is they did this to dogs, look I'm right there

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<v Speaker 1>with you. Researchers at NASA did the same to chimpanzees

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<v Speaker 1>in the late nineteen sixties, finding that they could last

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<v Speaker 1>up to three point five minutes. And then there's been

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<v Speaker 1>a few accidents where people got d and then re pressurized,

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<v Speaker 1>like a technician at Johnson Space Center who lost consciousness

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<v Speaker 1>after twelve seconds. This was just before the moisture on

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<v Speaker 1>his tongue began to boil. That's right, his tongue boiled. Sea.

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<v Speaker 1>Without air pressure to keep your precious bodily fluids in

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<v Speaker 1>their with state, they would rapidly lose heat energy before

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<v Speaker 1>they froze and then evaporated totally. This isn't the worst

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<v Speaker 1>thing the lack of pressure can do to you either.

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<v Speaker 1>The gases inside you would expand, causing you to swell

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<v Speaker 1>up like a balloon in a Thanksgiving Day parade. This

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<v Speaker 1>includes air and gas bubbles formed from your boiling bodily fluids.

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<v Speaker 1>That effect is called ebulism, which can block your bloodstream.

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<v Speaker 1>With those bubbles and that would cause you to pass

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<v Speaker 1>out in about fifteen seconds. From the lack of blood

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<v Speaker 1>flowing into your brain, your skins blood vessels would burst.

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<v Speaker 1>Your internal organs would also swell and likely tear, but

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<v Speaker 1>you wouldn't explode like in total recall. You would just

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<v Speaker 1>stretch painfully until you died. Keep in mind, so far

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<v Speaker 1>we've only been talking about the effects to a body

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<v Speaker 1>in a vacuum. In actual space, there are even more

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<v Speaker 1>hazards to deal with. Contrary to what some inferior intellects

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<v Speaker 1>may say, it act actually isn't very cold in space

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<v Speaker 1>because there aren't enough gas particles to transfer heat. But

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<v Speaker 1>depending on your location, you could either be exposed to

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<v Speaker 1>a star's thermal radiation at around a hundred and twenty

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<v Speaker 1>degrees celsius, or your own body heat would radiate away

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<v Speaker 1>in the shade at around negative one hundred degrees. Cosmic

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<v Speaker 1>rays and solar wind would also cook you with high

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<v Speaker 1>energy photons, destroying your DNA and possibly leading to cancer

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<v Speaker 1>if you even survived. And while you're swelling and roasting,

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<v Speaker 1>you might also be hit by micro meteoroids, which are

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<v Speaker 1>those little particles of dust and rock that whipped through

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<v Speaker 1>space at high speed. Finally, there's the obvious lack of oxygen.

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<v Speaker 1>Normally you could hold your breath for several minutes, but

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<v Speaker 1>remember without pressure, that whole boiling effect would diffuse the

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<v Speaker 1>oxygen from your blood, so again, after about fifteen seconds,

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<v Speaker 1>you'd pass out. And don't try to hold your breath either,

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<v Speaker 1>it would just expand with the other gases, rupturing your lungs.

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<v Speaker 1>All in all, these things would probably kill you in

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<v Speaker 1>less than a minute. Today's episode was written by Christian

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other topics, visit our home planet, how Stuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot com. Plus. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit

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