Miami, March 2. University of South Florida (USF) Associate Professor Joseph Dituri plans to spend 100 days submerged in Florida waters to conduct marine scientific and medical research and study how the human body responds to long-term exposure. term at extreme pressures.
The Project Neptune 100 mission, as Dituri called it, began on March 1 and will wrap up, if all goes as planned, on June 9.
Dituri, who is 55 and a retired U.S. Navy commander with a doctorate in biomedical engineering, has been in the underwater shelter at MarineLab, a Marine Resources Development Foundation facility, since Wednesday. .
During the 100 days below the sea surface, he will live 30 feet (9.4 meters) in a 100-square-foot (9.2-meter) habitat located at the Jules Undersea Lodge in Key Largo, Florida, the official said. University of South Florida. in one version.
The note explains that a medical team will document the researcher’s health, periodically immersing themselves in their habitat to perform a series of tests.
Before, during and after the project, Dituri will undergo a series of psychosocial, psychological and medical tests, and a psychologist and psychiatrist will document the mental effects of being in an isolated and confined environment for an extended period, similar to a trip to the world. ‘space.
“The human body has never been underwater for this long, so I will be closely watched,” Dituri said in the statement.
The researcher thinks his health will improve in the attempt and mentions that a recent scientific study concluded that cells exposed to greater pressure doubled in five days.
This suggests that increased pressure has the potential to allow humans to increase their longevity and prevent diseases associated with aging, the statement explains.
“So we suspect I’m going to become a super human!” Dituri said.
The former Marine also believes the results of his mission will be important to the future of long-duration space travel, including missions to Mars, as well as underwater exploration, a memo from the Florida Keys News Bureau says. .
CLASSES OVER 9 METERS DEEP
Underwater, the professor will teach regular online classes, including hyperbaric medicine classes he already teaches at the University of South Florida and college-level biomedical engineering classes for high school students.
The 100-day mission includes testing new technologies, such as an artificial intelligence tool developed by a colleague that can detect diseases in the human body and determine if medication is needed.
He will also be joined underwater by other scientists to discuss ways to preserve, protect and rejuvenate the marine environment.
“Everything we need to survive is on the planet,” he said.
“I suspect that the cure for many diseases can be found in undiscovered organisms in the ocean. To find out, we need more researchers,” he said.
Dituri found his passion for science while serving in the United States Navy where he spent 28 years as a saturation diving officer.
After retiring in 2012 as a major, Dituri enrolled at USF to earn his doctorate and learn more about traumatic brain injury.
“A lot of my brothers and sisters in the military had traumatic brain injuries and I wanted to learn how to help them,” Dituri said.
“I was well aware that hyperbaric pressure could increase cerebral blood flow and speculated that it could be used to treat traumatic brain injury,” he added.
The record for human experience underwater at ambient pressure is currently 73 days and was set in 2014 by American professors Bruce Cantrell and Jessica Fain.