Making fish of men: Where are artificial gills?

Image Source: zidbits.com

There’s a certain amount of god-playing when humans deign to stay underwater for days. But to developers of artificial gills, this is a practical solution for both an economy and a scientific world that are pushing submerged explorations into deeper reaches.

USA divers, in particular, welcome this breakthrough as sea-borne job opportunities multiply. The country also prides itself in hosting an extensive network of divers who participate in marine contracting and non-profit services such as search and rescue operations for coastal disasters.

Diving has a strong hold in this country, with non-profits like Phil Newsum’s Association of Diving Contractors, International (ADCI) participating with federal agencies in a gamut of diving-related operations. One of the most compelling arguments for funding the invention of artificial gills may be search and rescue operations, such as that ADCI had to lead in Minnesota, following the collapse of a highway bridge into a river. The agency has a wealth of stories to tell its frequent partners, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Labor, about long-haul diving operations.

Image Source: businessweek.com

Artificial gills broke into the scientific imagination back in 2006, when ”LikeAFish”, an Israeli inventor’s pet project, made headlines. The aptly named invention harvests oxygen from water through a closed-circuit system that pumps breathable gas in an airbag, a more ergonomic departure from the clunky oxygen tank.

This is the first viable model for artificial gills for which the inventor, Alon Bodner, sought patents. The U.S. military took no time to swim in the idea by taking Bodner’s concept for a run of other designs while retaining the battery-powered and airbag-facilitated mechanism of the invention. The device has also been baptized as “Microfabricated Biomimetic Artificial Gill System” or MBAGS, which could subsequently rearrange the SCUBA acronym into “self-contained open-circuit breathing apparatus.”

Image Sourge: spiegel.de

If all goes well, artificial gills are set to conquer commercial markets in this decade. Bodner’s invention had been given around 10 years since its inception to survive the testing channels and be adopted for commercial use. At least, this soaks sci-fi expectations that artificial gills will break out from the sides of the human neck.  


Phil Newsum is one of the most reputable divers in the United States aiding marine operations and providing divers’ training through his leadership of ADCI. More commercial diving information could be found here.