After living underwater for 13 days, Lloyd Godson started to feel a little weird. His blood pressure went through the roof, he struggled to fall asleep at night, and he had an unsettling feeling that the walls of the metal box he was living in were closing in around him.
Unpleasant as it had become, the 29-year-old marine biologist was literally living his dream. He wanted to study the physical and psychological aspects of underwater isolation, and winning a "Live Your Dream" competition from Australian Geographic magazine in 2006 gave him the opportunity to finally do it.
The $50,000 (AU) prize money allowed Godson to build his 20 cubic meter, windowless "biosub." During his 18 months of planning, he designed it with a biocoil containing microalgae that would produce some of the oxygen he would need to breathe, and an exercise bike that generated electricity.
One day, he lowered the ...
