Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Rob.
From the ancient Roman sea god,
Neptune, to myths of mermaids,
to modern Hollywood films
like Finding Nemo, people throughout
history have been fascinated
by the idea of living
underwater. In this programme, we'll be
hearing about projects to
create liveable underwater
habitats and the challenges they face.
We'll be finding out how realistic it is
to believe that in a few years we could be
eating breakfast whilst watching fish
swim outside the kitchen window,
before heading
off to work in an office under the ocean...
... and we'll be learning some related
vocabulary as well. But first it's
time for our quiz
question. One of the first adventure
stories to fire the public's
imagination about the
underwater world was the 1870 novel,
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under
the Sea. But who wrote
this underwater classic? Was it:
a) H G Wells?, b) Arthur Conan Doyle?, or
c) Jules Verne?
I think I know this one, Neil.
Wasn't it a) H G Wells?
OK, Rob, we'll find out later if you're
right. Now, one of the
most ambitious designs
for an underwater city is Ocean Spiral,
a huge transparent globe attached
to the seabed -
the solid ground which lies
deep below the sea level.
The top of the globe stands above the
surface of the ocean and
running through the centre
is a tower to add strength, and to provide
space for homes, offices
and even an amusement
park for five thousand
underwater residents.
Ocean Spiral has been dreamt up
by the Japanese Shimizu Corporation.
Here's Shimizu engineer,
Maksaki Takeuchi, explaining to BBC
World Service programme,
CrowdScience, the motivation
behind the idea:
At the moment the world is facing a lot of
serious problems regarding
food, energy, water,
natural resources... however we are trying
to solve the issues just by using our land.
Our idea is to connect the sea surface
and the deep sea vertically
and that way we believe
that we can utilise the capability of the
deep sea and that's the purpose
of this whole project.
The effects of human activity on the land
have led some to look to the
oceans for natural
resources - naturally existing things
such as minerals, oil, coal
and other energy sources
that can be used by people.
This search deep underwater is
happening vertically - at a ninety
degree angle straight up or
down from the ground, as opposed to
horizontally, or flat across the
Earth's surface.
But as yet, Shimizu Corporation's plans
for an underwater city
are still in the planning
stages - no part of the project has yet
been built and the total cost
is thought to exceed
26 billion dollars.
In fact, the longest anyone has spent
living under the sea is only 73 days.
That record
was set by Roger Garcia, ex-military diver
and head of The Aquarius,
currently the world's
only underwater research station.
Here's Roger Garcia, explaining to BBC
World Service programme,
CrowdScience, what happens
to the human body after living
underwater for so long:
... perhaps a change in their voice, not
much 'cos we're not very deep,
that's because
the air becomes denser. Physiologically
the most important thing though,
is that since
you are in this case at two and a half
times atmospheric pressure
you do take on more inner
gas, and in this case - inside The Aquarius
we just breathe normal air - you're gonna
take on more nitrogen and depending on
how long you stay in The Aquarius,
that's going
to incur some sort of
decompressed obligation.
In addition to engineering challenges,
living underwater for long periods
of time also affects
the human body. One example is the
bends - or decompression sickness,
a serious medical
disorder created by nitrogen bubbles in
the muscles when returning
to the surface of the
sea too quickly.
The bends, and changes to the voice,
are examples of how underwater
living changes the body
physiologically - relating to how the
bodies of living humans
and animals function.
As divers descend deep below the
ocean's surface, there is
an increase in atmospheric
pressure - the normal air pressure
within the Earth's atmosphere.
The deeper they dive,
the higher the pressure. Physiological
reactions like the bends are
caused by divers incorrectly
readjusting to normal
atmospheric pressure.
Well, Neil, with so many difficulties,
it's no surprise that HG Wells’s
fantasy of living
under the sea is still science-fiction.
Ah, but are you sure it was H G Wells,
Rob? In my quiz question
I asked you who wrote
the classic underwater adventure
Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea.
Yes, and I said a) H G Wells.
Which was... the wrong answer!
It was, in fact, c) Jules Verne,
the French author who also
wrote Around the World in Eighty Days.
In this programme, we've been discussing
the challenge of living underwater, going
down vertically - at a 90 degree angle -
to the seabed - the solid ground hundreds
of metres under the sea.
Ocean explorers search underwater
for natural resources - useful
materials like coal and oil.
But they face many physiological
problems - problems relating
to how the human body
functions, such as the bends - a painful
medical condition caused by returning too
quickly to atmospheric pressure -
the Earth's usual air pressure.
That's all for this programme,
but we hope
you'll be diving back into 6 Minute English
very soon. Bye for now!
Bye!