New wearable device shows how seals regulate oxygen flow while diving

A team of researchers, led by J. Chris McKnight of the University of St. Andrews, used a new wearable device based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to investigate how voluntarily diving seals manage their oxygen supply to their brains and blubber, and properly distribute blood, before diving into the depths of the ocean. McKnight and his team hypothesized that the NIRS technology could provide high-resolution measures of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin within certain tissues, and therefore be used to estimate blood volume changes before a dive, specifically …