1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here with a classic episode from our archives. 3 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 1: This one dives into the amazing scientific research that allowed 4 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,079 Speaker 1: the creation of the underwater Sea Lab project in the 5 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and how that technology is still used today. 6 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bomb here. Even though around 7 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:31,200 Speaker 1: seventy percent of our planet is covered in saltwater, we 8 00:00:31,280 --> 00:00:33,040 Speaker 1: have a better map of Mars than we do of 9 00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:36,840 Speaker 1: the oceans that sustain virtually every living thing on Earth. Sure, 10 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:41,160 Speaker 1: ocean exploration is expensive and complicated, but so is space exploration, 11 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: and we do plenty of that. There was a time, though, 12 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,559 Speaker 1: during the early years of space exploration, that aquanauts were 13 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 1: pushing the limits of how deep humans could dive under 14 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,240 Speaker 1: the ocean and how long they could stay down there. 15 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:55,320 Speaker 1: Sea Lab, a program launched by the US Navy in 16 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four, was intended to figure out how to 17 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: send divers down into the freezing, high the pressure environments 18 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:03,120 Speaker 1: of the deep sea for longer periods of time than 19 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,280 Speaker 1: anyone had ever thought possible, and the program was a 20 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:11,000 Speaker 1: big success until it wasn't anymore. It's always challenging to 21 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: get a human body free swimming at any great depth, 22 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:15,559 Speaker 1: of the reason being that our bodies are not made 23 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: to a stand millions of gallons of water being piled 24 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 1: on top of us. Divers have to breathe pressurized air, 25 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,960 Speaker 1: which contains inert gases nitrogen mainly the dissolve into the 26 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:27,960 Speaker 1: bloodstream and tissues, which works out great so long as 27 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: the weight of the entire ocean keeps them compressed. If 28 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: a diver wants to come up to the surface, they 29 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: must do it slowly in order to avoid the gases 30 00:01:35,040 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: making little bubbles in their blood, migrating to their joints 31 00:01:38,080 --> 00:01:41,240 Speaker 1: and causing decompression sickness sometimes called the bends, which is 32 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:45,959 Speaker 1: unspeakably painful and sometimes fatal. In the early nineteen sixties, 33 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,560 Speaker 1: a Navy physician named George Bond figured out how to 34 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: let people explore the ocean in a new way through 35 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:55,360 Speaker 1: a technique called saturation diving. In his laboratory experiments, Bond 36 00:01:55,400 --> 00:01:57,560 Speaker 1: was able to saturate the blood with inert gases like 37 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 1: helium in such a way that divers could not only 38 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: go deep, they could stay down indefinitely, so long as 39 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: they had the right setup and a shelter, divers could 40 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,359 Speaker 1: become acclimated to a habitat two hundred feet that's sixty 41 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:11,360 Speaker 1: meters below the surface and free dive even deeper from there. 42 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:15,600 Speaker 1: We spoke with Ben Helworth, the author of Sea Lab, 43 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:18,160 Speaker 1: America's Forgotten Quest to Live and Work on the Ocean floor. 44 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: He described it this way, Doctor Bond's breakthroughs were a 45 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: little bit like the diving equivalent of breaking the sound barrier. 46 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: It was a quantum leap in technology over what the 47 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: diving parameters had been for more than a century. Sea 48 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: Lab one, the first iteration of the Sea Lab experiment, 49 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:36,720 Speaker 1: was housed in a steel tube fifty seven feet long 50 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:39,440 Speaker 1: that's about seventeen meters that was lowered onto the ocean 51 00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:42,400 Speaker 1: floor off the coast of Bermuda in July nineteen sixty 52 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: four at a depth of one hundred and ninety two 53 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: feet that's about fifty nine meters. Four men successfully stayed 54 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: submerged in this pod for eleven days, and the experiment 55 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:53,200 Speaker 1: went so well that Sea Lab two was submerged off 56 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: the coast of California at a depth of two hundred 57 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: and five feet that's sixty two meters in August of 58 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:01,520 Speaker 1: the next year, Sea Lab two had hot showers, a refrigerator, 59 00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: and a dolphin named Tuffy trained to deliver supplies and 60 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:08,079 Speaker 1: rescue aquanauts if necessary. After a thirty days stay in 61 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: Sea Lab two, aquanaut and astronauts Scott Carpenter spoke to 62 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:15,800 Speaker 1: President Lyndon Johnson from his helium atmosphere decompression chamber. Sounding 63 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: like a cartoon chipmunk. He might have sounded ridiculous, but 64 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,240 Speaker 1: history was made. He had survived a month at a 65 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 1: pressure of one hundred and three psi, which is seven 66 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:28,200 Speaker 1: times that of Earth's atmosphere. President Johnson told Carpenter, I 67 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:30,120 Speaker 1: want you to know that the nation is very proud 68 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,359 Speaker 1: of you. Only a few years later, though, a fatal 69 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: accident on Sea Lab three, which was situated on the 70 00:03:35,720 --> 00:03:37,680 Speaker 1: seafloor off the coast of California at a depth of 71 00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: six hundred feet that's one hundred and eighty three meters, 72 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:44,600 Speaker 1: would shut the program down. Hellworth said most people involved 73 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:46,960 Speaker 1: were aware that this was a dangerous operation. They always 74 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: knew it had been Sea Lab one and Sea Lab 75 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 1: two had gone well with no major injuries. After the 76 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: tragedy on Sea Lab three, they all expected to press on, 77 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:56,840 Speaker 1: but the Navy didn't see it that way, so the 78 00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: program was canceled. It was still a low profile enough 79 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 1: programme that there wasn't a national uproar about giving up 80 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: the race to the bottom of the ocean that you 81 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: would expect if they had tried to cancel the space 82 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: program two years earlier after the Apollo one launch pad 83 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:11,880 Speaker 1: fire that killed three astronauts. I think everyone expected the 84 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: program to go on, but for various reasons, it didn't. 85 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 1: We still use the technical breakthroughs George Bond pioneered with 86 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:20,839 Speaker 1: the Sea Lab program, mostly in the oil industry, setting 87 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: up oil platforms. Saturation divers can go to a job 88 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: site hundreds of feet below the surface and stay down 89 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 1: there for an entire eight hour shift. It's a dangerous job, 90 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 1: but it can pay around fourteen hundred dollars a day. 91 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,040 Speaker 1: Most of us have those saturation divers to thank for 92 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:37,679 Speaker 1: the fuel in our gas tanks. But George Bond's vision 93 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,800 Speaker 1: was not just industrial, it was military and civilian and scientific. 94 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: He solved the problem of going deeper and staying longer. 95 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 1: But after Sea Lab was canceled, it turned out the 96 00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: industry is where the money was. Any military application equipping 97 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: military submarines to release saturation divers as spies during the 98 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:57,400 Speaker 1: Cold War, for instance, would be highly classified and therefore 99 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: are hard to document. But there is one place on 100 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 1: Earth where sea lab type facility still exists for scientific research, 101 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,200 Speaker 1: the Aquarius Reef Base south of the Florida Keys, and 102 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 1: it's been in operation for over twenty years. Scientists can 103 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:12,760 Speaker 1: go down there sixty feet that's eighteen meters below the 104 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:14,960 Speaker 1: surface and live anywhere from a few days to a 105 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: couple of weeks running experiments on the reef. Hellworth said 106 00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: doctor Bond's vision was science related. He thought we ought 107 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 1: to have sea lab like bases set up in the 108 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: ocean wherever there might be something of interest to study 109 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,679 Speaker 1: and observe. We should get to know that environment better 110 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: because there's value to spending time in the ocean, just 111 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:33,160 Speaker 1: like there was value in Jane Goodall's being able to 112 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: sit and observe in the jungle. Once you're down there 113 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:37,440 Speaker 1: and can stay a while, you really don't know what 114 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:44,599 Speaker 1: you're going to see. That's how we discover things. Today's 115 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:46,720 Speaker 1: episode is based on the article Where Have all the 116 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: Aquaauts Gone? The Story of Sea Lab on HowStuffWorks? Dot 117 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,480 Speaker 1: com written by Jesslynshields. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio 118 00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:55,920 Speaker 1: in partnership with how stuffworks dot com and is produced 119 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:59,279 Speaker 1: by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts wyaheart Radio, visit the 120 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: airheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 121 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: your favorite shows.