Open B5 questions

[NotKosh]

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
Unless they can hold their breath for a really long time...
Maybe they're like whales and other cetaceans, that can dive for long periods without breathing.
Life requires energy, which in this planet comes from controlled combustion of food with oxygen from breathing (unless you're a photosynthesizer)... I can't think of a metabolism that wouldn't have something equivalent to breathing or photosynthesis.

Except that in the B5 universe, some species are able to make the transformation from corporeal to energy. I think the Vorlons have done this.

[Capt.Montoya]

Originally posted by Ben-Thayer Dunnthaedt
Yes, I agree. I think the scene where to Kosh and Ulkesh were battling and they phase through the hull of the station into open space addresses that issue. They didn't seem to be affected by the vacuum of space without the encounter suits, which would appear to render the question of atmosphere moot.

Unless they can hold their breath for a really long time...
Maybe they're like whales and other cetaceans, that can dive for long periods without breathing.
Life requires energy, which in this planet comes from controlled combustion of food with oxygen from breathing (unless you're a photosynthesizer)... I can't think of a metabolism that wouldn't have something equivalent to breathing or photosynthesis.

[Ben-Thayer Dunnthaedt]

Considering they were doing quite well without lungs or entire bodies in any sense that we know, I'm guessing that their whole atmosphere thing was just a sham.

Yes, I agree. I think the scene where to Kosh and Ulkesh were battling and they phase through the hull of the station into open space addresses that issue. They didn't seem to be affected by the vacuum of space without the encounter suits, which would appear to render the question of atmosphere moot.

[vacantlook]

Yeah, Kosh likes his privacy. Being surrounded by gas deadly to most other people is good for privacy.

[Radhil]

Considering they were doing quite well without lungs or entire bodies in any sense that we know, I'm guessing that their whole atmosphere thing was just a sham.

Or, considering the whole rigamole you just spat out, a really convenient way to become really inconvenient.

[Capt.Montoya]

Originally posted by AislingGrey
Okay, thanks, I'd forgotten that. So maybe the gills didn't just take in the atmosphere, but also processed it in some way. More than gills; kind of a person air purifier system?

Amy (the artist formerly known as Aisling)

That is what I would think too... I don't think JMS gave it that much thought, but the only logical explanations is that the "gills" somehow provide oxygen from some atmosphere component... unless Lyta's whole metabolism had been changed from oxydizing (oxygen breather) to reducing (I'm assuming methane is used as a source of hydrogen for reduction reactions).

The breathing masks for the methane atmosphere section also would have had some pretty interesting chemistry to do...
A possibility would be to dissociate CO2 into carbon and oxygen, challenging stuff, however if there is water vapor in the atmosphere it might be easier to dissociate that in hydrogen and oxygen. I think this is more likely.

The question and that watered answer kind of came to me as I read a novel by Peter Watts ("Starfish") which has humans living in the depth of the sea with a hydrolizing unit taking the place of one of their lungs so they can "breathe" underwater (the amount of dissolved oxygen on water would not be enough for an air breathing metabolism).

The masks can of course also have their own oxygen source built in (the canisters), and the "gills" may also use the subjects own water to create oxygen and be more of a gas byproduct excretion system than a "breathing" organ.

Any more thoughts on that?


Here's another related question:

If Vorlons need a methane atmosphere as their surroundings, how long can they survive outside their encounter suits without asphyxiating?
Do they just "hold their breath" when leaving the encounter suit?

[AmyG]

Okay, thanks, I'd forgotten that. So maybe the gills didn't just take in the atmosphere, but also processed it in some way. More than gills; kind of a personal air purifier system?

Amy (the artist formerly known as Aisling)

[vacantlook]

Who said that the Vorlons - or N'Grath - breathed methane?

Don't know about N'Grath, but as for the Vorlons, Dr. Kyle reported to Sinclair in "The Gathering" that the Vorlon diplomatic office supplied him with the required information about needed Vorlon atmosphere:

"Pretty thick stuff: high levels of methane, sulfur, CO2."

[mdm1789]

It's the vorlon bubbly.........



mdm1789

[Andrew_Swallow]

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
Here's an open question...
if G'Kar and Lyta had "gill" implants to breathe in the methane breathing section of B5 and they are oxygen breathers, and methane and oxygen don't mix...

Just what the heck were they breathing??

I do not know but I suspect that they drink hydrogen peroxide.

[mdm1789]

If so: how did the females give birth to babies with possibly very sharp horns....

Ouch!!! I suppose.



mdm1789

[AmyG]

Who said that the Vorlons - or N'Grath - breathed methane? Alternate atmospheres, to be certain - but I don't recall that those two races specifically breathed methane.

Amy (the artist formerly known as Aisling)

[Capt.Montoya]

Here's an open question...
if G'Kar and Lyta had "gill" implants to breathe in the methane breathing section of B5 and they are oxygen breathers, and methane and oxygen don't mix...

Just what the heck were they breathing??

[Radhil]

Originally posted by Z'ha'dumDweller
Sorry, Radhil, miscommunication. Just YOU need Freud.

Happy to clear that up.

Damn! Walked into that.... no witty comeback parry either.... ARGH.

*runs away madly cackling and plotting revenge*

[Dr Maturin]

Re: Sigmund Fraud would wonder...

Originally posted by Capt.Montoya
We also need to find out if Elizabeth Sheridan was named for her mother... or maybe Mother Sheridan was named Anna?

Ahhhhh...good point. What about...Anna Elizabeth Sheridan?