Reverse-Engineering the Robustness of Mammalian Lungs

This chapter is devoted to reverse-engineering the cause of a dramatic increase in the total oxygen uptake rate by the lung, wherein oxygen is supplied to the blood to meet the increasing energetic demands between rest and exercise. This uptake rate increases despite a much smaller increase in the oxygen partial pressure difference across the lung’s exchange tissues (e.g. alveolar membranes), thought to mainly drive the oxygen-blood transfer in a similar way that electric currents are driven by voltage differences according to Ohm’s law. As we explain below, a full understanding of this special property has the potential to improve various engineering processes, such as stabilizing chemical yields in heterogeneous catalysis, improving the efficiency of heat-transporters, and improving energy generation in electrochemical reactors.