A nutty professor with a passion to make himself a human experiment has finally told us the result of his crazy stunt.
The University of South Florida professor decided to test the boundaries of what his body could hack, and it made for a crazy event.
Joe Dituri, also known by his handle as Dr Deep Sea, made it his mission to make the sea his 'habitat' all the way through to summer.
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Why did Joe decide to go underwater in the first place?
Dituri wanted to live underwater for 100 days and began his bizarre experiment on the 1st of March last year, for a first-of-its-kind biology study.
In an official press release from the University of South Florida, Dituri conducted the experiment in a hopes to search for new 'ways to revive marine environments'.
Alongside this, the researcher also wanted to 'test medical technology that could prevent a myriad of diseases in people'.
‘But’ the release explains, ‘there’s one catch: he’s doing it all 30 feet underwater — and he's trying to do it for 100 days.’
What exactly was the experiment about?
The retired U.S. Navy Commander-turned-professor swam into his new 100-square foot habitat approximately 'two-thousandths of a league under the sea' at Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo.
The professor then began to live in 'isolation' for the entire duration of the mission, which has since been titled 'Neptune 100'.
The release explained: "Part of the work will see a psychologist and a psychiatrist monitor the effects he experiences while in an environment similar to extended space travel.
"It's an isolating confined extreme environment. And and as humans, we really need to figure out how we're going to be living in that (environment) if we're going to expand our planet, if we're going to go interplanetary, if we're going to find all the cures that we need to find."
What happened when Joe was underwater?
According to the science buff, the experience underwater made him 'younger'.
The scientist closely monitored how the long-term extreme pressure was affecting him and, when he wasn't working on that, he taught school kids online from his watery digs.
Just one month into his experiment, Dr Dituri and his team even discovered a species - a single-celled organism that is now being studied by microbiologists.
Talking to The Independent at the time from his underwater tank room, Dr Dituri said: "We believe [it] is a brand-new species to science.
"People have dived in this area thousands and thousands of times - it’s been here, we just didn’t look."
What effects did being underwater have on Joe when he came out?
When he resurfaced in June last year, he went on to claim that a lot of areas of his health had improved, including longer telomeres - which are structures on chromosomes that are often linked to extending life.
Dr Dituri told WKMG News in Orlando: "I'm 56 now. My extrinsic [biological] age was 44. When I got out of the water, my extrinsic age was 34.
"So, my telomeres lengthened. I actually got younger when I was under the water."
When he emerged from his underwater mission, Dituri claimed that blood tests showed a 50 percent reduction in every inflammatory marker in his body.
He also managed to become the Guinness World Record holder for the most days spent living underwater, beating the old record of 73 days.
Topics: Science, US News, Good News, Environment, Education
Britt Jones