Intensive Care Network Podcasts

Basic Science Clinic by Steve Morgan & Sophie Connolly  “…water is the driving force of all nature….without it, nothing retains its form.” Leonardo Da Vinci Welcome to Basic Science Clinic Raw Science episode 5. Let’s get down to business and accompany oxygen on its relentless tumble from nasopharynx to mitochondria down the partial pressure staircase that explains how 160 mmHg of inspired oxygen partial pressure becomes 20 mmHg in the inner mitochondrial matrix. In this pod we will examine step one of this cascade and the science of the humidification of dry, inspired atmospheric gas, whilst paying deference to dihydrogen oxide. Water is pretty amazing stuff. It is the solvent of life characterized by anomalous idiosyncrasies without which biology wouldn’t even be a thing.  It is the only substance found concurrently in 3 phases on Earth’s surface and is a byproduct of the outpouring of stellar gas and dust produced when a star is born. NASA recently discovered a water vapour cloud surrounding a quasar 1