Albert R. Behnke
Encyclopedia
Captain Albert Richard Behnke Jr. USN (ret.)
(August 8, 1903 – January 16, 1992) was an American physician
, who was principally responsible for developing the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute. Behnke separated the symptoms of Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) from those of decompression sickness
and suggested the use of oxygen
in recompression therapy.
Behnke is also known as the "modern-day father" of human body composition
for his work in developing the hydrodensitometry
method of measuring body density, his standard man and woman models as well as a somatogram based on anthropometric
measurements.
and settled in Whittier, California
by 1912. Behnke graduated from Whittier College
in 1925 and moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at Stanford University
. Stanford Medical School required a one year internship prior to conferring a medical doctorate
. Behnke joined the United States Navy
and completed his internship at the Mare Island Naval Hospital
in 1930. In 1932, the Navy sent Behnke to the Harvard School of Public Health
.
when he was assigned as an assistant medical officer to the USS Holland
and Submarine
Division Twenty in San Diego under the command of Chester W. Nimitz. In addition to his other duties, Behnke spent time covering medical watch on the USS Ortolan
, a submarine rescue ship
, where he performed his first hard hat dive
.
In 1932 Behnke wrote a letter to the Surgeon General
that was published in the Naval Medical Bulletin outlining the possible causes of arterial gas embolisms he was seeing related to submarine escape training. This separated the symptoms of Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) from those of decompression sickness
. This letter caught the attention of the director of the submarine medicine in the Bureau of Medicine
, Captain E.W. Brown. Brown sent Behnke to do postgraduate
work at the Harvard School of Public Health and research on diving and submarine medicine with fellow student Charles W. Shilling
. Dr. Philip Drinker
asked Behnke to stay for two additional years and the Navy allowed it.
Lieutenant junior grade Behnke was the sent to Pearl Harbor
in 1935 to the Submarine Escape Training Tower
. Later that year, Behnke et al. experimented with oxygen for recompression therapy. Evidence of the effectiveness of recompression therapy utilizing oxygen was later shown by Yarbrough and Behnke and has since become the standard of care for treatment of DCS.
Behnke also began to outline his idea for a medical laboratory in 1936. That outline would eventually become the Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI) now located with the National Naval Medical Center
. In 1937, Behnke introduced the “no-stop” decompression tables.
After being transferred to Washington, D.C.
in 1938, Behnke was assigned to medical duty at the Experimental Diving Unit
(NEDU).
The submarine USS Squalus
sank in 1939 and Behnke responded with fellow NEDU personnel Commander
s Charles Momsen
and Allan McCann
, Drs. Yarbrough and Wilmon, and Master Diver James McDonald
with more divers. They met Dr. Shilling on site to begin work. Divers from the submarine rescue ship , under the direction of the salvage and rescue expert Momsen, employed the new Rescue Chamber
he had invented years earlier but which the US Navy command had repeatedly blocked. They were able to rescue all 33 surviving crew members from the sunken submarine including future Rear Admiral
Oliver F. Naquin
. The salvage divers used recently developed heliox
diving schedules and successfully avoided the cognitive impairment symptoms associated with such deep dives
, thereby confirming Behnke's theory of nitrogen narcosis
.
Later in 1939, Behnke and Yarborough demonstrated that gases other than nitrogen also could cause narcosis. From his results, he deduced that xenon
gas could serve as an anesthetic
, even under normobaric conditions but was too scarce to allow for confirmation. Although Lazharev, in Russia, apparently studied xenon anesthesia
in 1941, the first published report confirming xenon anesthesia was in 1946 by J. H. Lawrence, who experimented on mice. Xenon was first used as a surgical anesthetic in 1951 by Stuart C. Cullen, who successfully operated on two patients.
Taking advantage of the positive public support for Navy diving following the Squalus rescue, Behnke contacted Franklin D. Roosevelt
and with Presidential interest known, received approval for the construction of his research laboratory (NMRI).
On December 7, 1941 when the attack on Pearl Harbor
began, Behnke was at sea on the USS Lexington
and immediately reassigned to medical posts around Hawaii
.
Behnke returned to Washington and soon opened NMRI as the "research executive" in October 1942. Behnke focused his interest in how physical fitness and fat content effects inert gas elimination and started projects to evaluate this relationship. His research lead us to consider him the "modern-day father" of human body composition for "his pioneering studies of hydrostatic weighing in 1942, the development of a reference man and woman model, and somatogram based on anthropometric measurements underlie much current work in body composition assessment"
When the people of Occupied Germany were suffering from starvation, Behnke focused his attention to increasing their food ration.
Behnke remained at NMRI until 1950 when he was transferred to his final assignment at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard
. His work on physical fitness and body habitus continued in projects surrounding radiological shelters
and decontamination.
In 1950, Behnke earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal
"for saving the life of a civilian skin diver who surfaced too quickly off Monterey. Behnke, then a Navy captain, spent two days in a decompression chamber with the man."
Upon retiring from the Navy in 1959, Behnke turned over command of the NRDL to Captain Harry S. Etter.
at the University of California
and Director of the Institute of Applied Biology, Presbyterian Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
Behnke served on the first Board of Advisors for the National Association of Underwater Instructors
and taught medical aspects of diving at their first Instructor Candidate Course that started on August 26, 1960 in Houston, TX.
The bends prevention and safety program for crews working in underground caissons
to build the Bay Area Rapid Transit
system was designed by Behnke in 1964.
Behnke with several other researchers founded the Undersea Medical Society (now the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society
) in 1967.
The term "oxygen window
" was first used by Behnke in 1967. Behnke refers to early work by Momsen on "partial pressure vacancy" (PPV) where he used partial pressures of O2 and He as high as 2-3 ATA
to create a maximal PPV. Behnke then goes on to describe "isobaric inert gas transport" or "inherent unsaturation" as termed by LeMessurier and Hills, and separately by Hills, who made their independent observations at the same time. Van Liew et al. also made a similar observation that they did not name at the time. The clinical significance of their work was later shown by Sass.
In 1975, Behnke was involved with experiments on cosmic particle radiation
for the Apollo program.
, Inc. to a scientist for outstanding scientific contributions to advances in undersea biomedical activity. The award carries an honorarium and a plaque. The first recipient was Dr. Behnke.
Medal and Prize is awarded annually for "the research work most valuable for the military service performed in any branch of medicine, surgery, or sanitation". Behnke was the 1941 recipient.
Dr. Behnke received the American College of Sports Medicine
's Honor Award in 1976.
The Navy dedicated the NMRI Hyperbaric Research Facility on July 1, 1981 to Dr. Behnke.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
(August 8, 1903 – January 16, 1992) was an American physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, who was principally responsible for developing the U.S. Naval Medical Research Institute. Behnke separated the symptoms of Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) from those of decompression sickness
Decompression sickness
Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurization...
and suggested the use of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
in recompression therapy.
Behnke is also known as the "modern-day father" of human body composition
Body composition
In physical fitness, body composition is used to describe the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in human bodies. Because muscular tissue takes up less space in our body than fat tissue, our body composition, as well as our weight, determines leanness...
for his work in developing the hydrodensitometry
Hydrostatic weighing
Hydrostatic weighing is a method for measuring the mass density of a body.-Method:The following method has the advantage of needing no volume information of the body...
method of measuring body density, his standard man and woman models as well as a somatogram based on anthropometric
Anthropometry
Anthropometry refers to the measurement of the human individual...
measurements.
Early life
Behnke was born August 8, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois. He moved to New MexicoNew Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and settled in Whittier, California
Whittier, California
Whittier is a city in Los Angeles County, California about southeast of Los Angeles. The city had a population of 85,331 at the 2010 census, up from 83,680 as of the 2000 census, and encompasses 14.7 square miles . Like nearby Montebello, the city constitutes part of the Gateway Cities...
by 1912. Behnke graduated from Whittier College
Whittier College
Whittier College is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. As of January 2009, the college has approximately 1540 enrolled students.-Overview:...
in 1925 and moved to San Francisco to attend medical school at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Stanford Medical School required a one year internship prior to conferring a medical doctorate
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
. Behnke joined the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and completed his internship at the Mare Island Naval Hospital
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...
in 1930. In 1932, the Navy sent Behnke to the Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...
.
Naval career
Following medical school in 1930, Behnke found his lifelong interest in deep sea divingUnited States Navy Diver
A Navy Diver refers to a member of the community of Unrestricted Line Officer Officers, Medical Corps Officers and enlisted personnel in the United States Navy who are qualified in underwater open/closed circuit breathing apparatus, deep sea type diving apparatus and saturation diving. Personnel...
when he was assigned as an assistant medical officer to the USS Holland
USS Holland (AS-3)
USS Holland was a submarine tender that served in the United States Navy before and during World War II.Holland was launched by the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington, on 12 April 1926, sponsored by Miss Elizabeth Saunders Chase, daughter of Admiral J. V. Chase, and commissioned on...
and Submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
Division Twenty in San Diego under the command of Chester W. Nimitz. In addition to his other duties, Behnke spent time covering medical watch on the USS Ortolan
USS Ortolan (AM-45)
The first USS Ortolan was a in the United States Navy. She was later converted to a submarine rescue ship. She was named after the ortolan, a European bunting....
, a submarine rescue ship
Submarine rescue ship
A Submarine rescue ship serves as a surface support ship for submarine rescue and deep-sea salvage operations. Methods employed are the McCann Rescue Chamber, Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles and deep sea diving operations....
, where he performed his first hard hat dive
Standard diving dress
A standard diving dress consists of a metallic diving helmet, an airline or hose from a surface supplied diving air pump, a canvas diving suit, diving knife and boots...
.
In 1932 Behnke wrote a letter to the Surgeon General
Surgeon General of the United States Navy
The Surgeon General of the United States Navy is the senior-most medical corps officer in the United States Navy.- Establishment of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery :...
that was published in the Naval Medical Bulletin outlining the possible causes of arterial gas embolisms he was seeing related to submarine escape training. This separated the symptoms of Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) from those of decompression sickness
Decompression sickness
Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurization...
. This letter caught the attention of the director of the submarine medicine in the Bureau of Medicine
Surgeon General of the United States Navy
The Surgeon General of the United States Navy is the senior-most medical corps officer in the United States Navy.- Establishment of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery :...
, Captain E.W. Brown. Brown sent Behnke to do postgraduate
Postgraduate education
Postgraduate education involves learning and studying for degrees or other qualifications for which a first or Bachelor's degree generally is required, and is normally considered to be part of higher education...
work at the Harvard School of Public Health and research on diving and submarine medicine with fellow student Charles W. Shilling
Charles Wesley Shilling
Capt. Charles Wesley Shilling USN was an American physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine, research, and education. Shilling was widely recognized as an expert on deep sea diving, naval medicine, radiation biology, and submarine capabilities...
. Dr. Philip Drinker
Philip Drinker
Philip Drinker was an industrial hygienist. With Louis Agassiz Shaw, he invented the first widely used iron lung in 1928.-Family and early life:...
asked Behnke to stay for two additional years and the Navy allowed it.
Lieutenant junior grade Behnke was the sent to Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
in 1935 to the Submarine Escape Training Tower
Submarine Escape Training Tower
A Submarine Escape Training Tower is part of a facility used for training submariners in methods of emergency escape from a disabled submarine. It is a tall cylinder filled with water with several entrances at varying depths each simulating an airlock in a submarine...
. Later that year, Behnke et al. experimented with oxygen for recompression therapy. Evidence of the effectiveness of recompression therapy utilizing oxygen was later shown by Yarbrough and Behnke and has since become the standard of care for treatment of DCS.
Behnke also began to outline his idea for a medical laboratory in 1936. That outline would eventually become the Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI) now located with the National Naval Medical Center
National Naval Medical Center
The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, USA — commonly known as the Bethesda Naval Hospital — was for decades the flagship of the United States Navy's system of medical centers. A federal institution, it conducted medical and dental research as well as providing health care for...
. In 1937, Behnke introduced the “no-stop” decompression tables.
After being transferred to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1938, Behnke was assigned to medical duty at the Experimental Diving Unit
United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit
The United States Navy Experimental Diving Unit is the primary source of diving and hyperbaric operational guidance for the US Navy...
(NEDU).
The submarine USS Squalus
USS Sailfish (SS-192)
USS Sailfish , a , was originally named Squalus.Her keel was laid on 18 October 1937 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, as Squalus, the only ship of the United States Navy named for the squalus. She was launched on 14 September 1938 sponsored by Mrs. Thomas C...
sank in 1939 and Behnke responded with fellow NEDU personnel Commander
Commander (United States)
In the United States, commander is a military rank that is also sometimes used as a military title, depending on the branch of service. It is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the military, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Naval rank:In the United States...
s Charles Momsen
Charles Momsen
Charles Bowers Momsen , nicknamed "Swede", was born in Flushing, New York. He was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1929...
and Allan McCann
Allan Rockwell McCann
Vice Admiral Allan Rockwell McCann, was a United States Navy officer who served in World War I and World War II.-Education to World War I:...
, Drs. Yarbrough and Wilmon, and Master Diver James McDonald
James Harper McDonald
James Harper McDonald was a United States Navy diver and a recipient of America's highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions during the salvage of the sunken submarine .-Biography:...
with more divers. They met Dr. Shilling on site to begin work. Divers from the submarine rescue ship , under the direction of the salvage and rescue expert Momsen, employed the new Rescue Chamber
McCann Rescue Chamber
The McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber is a device for rescuing submariners from a submarine that is unable to surface.-History:During the first two decades of the United States Navy Submarine Force, there were several accidents in which Navy submarines sank with the loss of life...
he had invented years earlier but which the US Navy command had repeatedly blocked. They were able to rescue all 33 surviving crew members from the sunken submarine including future Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Oliver F. Naquin
Oliver F. Naquin
Rear Admiral Oliver Francis Naquin, United States Navy was born in New Orleans, and was a 1925 graduate of the United States Naval Academy...
. The salvage divers used recently developed heliox
Heliox
Heliox is a breathing gas composed of a mixture of helium and oxygen .Heliox has been used medically since the 1930s, and although the medical community adopted it initially to alleviate symptoms of upper airway obstruction, its range of medical uses has since expanded greatly, mostly because of...
diving schedules and successfully avoided the cognitive impairment symptoms associated with such deep dives
Deep diving
The meaning of the term deep diving is a form of technical diving. It is defined by the level of the diver's diver training, diving equipment, breathing gas, and surface support:...
, thereby confirming Behnke's theory of nitrogen narcosis
Nitrogen narcosis
Narcosis while diving , is a reversible alteration in consciousness that occurs while scuba diving at depth. The Greek word ναρκωσις is derived from narke, "temporary decline or loss of senses and movement, numbness", a term used by Homer and Hippocrates...
.
Later in 1939, Behnke and Yarborough demonstrated that gases other than nitrogen also could cause narcosis. From his results, he deduced that xenon
Xenon
Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. The element name is pronounced or . A colorless, heavy, odorless noble gas, xenon occurs in the Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts...
gas could serve as an anesthetic
Anesthesia
Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
, even under normobaric conditions but was too scarce to allow for confirmation. Although Lazharev, in Russia, apparently studied xenon anesthesia
Anesthesia
Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
in 1941, the first published report confirming xenon anesthesia was in 1946 by J. H. Lawrence, who experimented on mice. Xenon was first used as a surgical anesthetic in 1951 by Stuart C. Cullen, who successfully operated on two patients.
Taking advantage of the positive public support for Navy diving following the Squalus rescue, Behnke contacted Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and with Presidential interest known, received approval for the construction of his research laboratory (NMRI).
On December 7, 1941 when the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
began, Behnke was at sea on the USS Lexington
USS Lexington (CV-2)
USS Lexington , nicknamed the "Gray Lady" or "Lady Lex," was an early aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the , though her sister ship was commissioned a month earlier...
and immediately reassigned to medical posts around Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
.
Behnke returned to Washington and soon opened NMRI as the "research executive" in October 1942. Behnke focused his interest in how physical fitness and fat content effects inert gas elimination and started projects to evaluate this relationship. His research lead us to consider him the "modern-day father" of human body composition for "his pioneering studies of hydrostatic weighing in 1942, the development of a reference man and woman model, and somatogram based on anthropometric measurements underlie much current work in body composition assessment"
When the people of Occupied Germany were suffering from starvation, Behnke focused his attention to increasing their food ration.
Behnke remained at NMRI until 1950 when he was transferred to his final assignment at the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard
San Francisco Naval Shipyard
The San Francisco Naval Shipyard was a United States Navy shipyard in San Francisco, California, located on of waterfront at Hunters Point in the southeast corner of the city...
. His work on physical fitness and body habitus continued in projects surrounding radiological shelters
Fallout shelter
A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War....
and decontamination.
In 1950, Behnke earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal
Navy and Marine Corps Medal
The Navy and Marine Corps Medal is the second highest non-combatant medal awarded by the United States Department of the Navy to members of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps...
"for saving the life of a civilian skin diver who surfaced too quickly off Monterey. Behnke, then a Navy captain, spent two days in a decompression chamber with the man."
Upon retiring from the Navy in 1959, Behnke turned over command of the NRDL to Captain Harry S. Etter.
Civilian career
Upon his retirement from the Navy in 1959, Behnke became a professor of preventive medicinePreventive medicine
Preventive medicine or preventive care refers to measures taken to prevent diseases, rather than curing them or treating their symptoms...
at the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
and Director of the Institute of Applied Biology, Presbyterian Medical Center, San Francisco, California.
Behnke served on the first Board of Advisors for the National Association of Underwater Instructors
National Association of Underwater Instructors
The National Association of Underwater Instructors is a non-profit 501 association of SCUBA instructors. It was officially CE and ISO certified in May 2007 in all three diver levels and both instructor levels.-History:...
and taught medical aspects of diving at their first Instructor Candidate Course that started on August 26, 1960 in Houston, TX.
The bends prevention and safety program for crews working in underground caissons
Caisson (engineering)
In geotechnical engineering, a caisson is a retaining, watertight structure used, for example, to work on the foundations of a bridge pier, for the construction of a concrete dam, or for the repair of ships. These are constructed such that the water can be pumped out, keeping the working...
to build the Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
system was designed by Behnke in 1964.
Behnke with several other researchers founded the Undersea Medical Society (now the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society
The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society is the primary source of information for diving and hyperbaric medicine physiology worldwide.-History:The Undersea Medical Society grew from the close associations of a small group of scientists...
) in 1967.
The term "oxygen window
Oxygen window in technical diving
In diving, the oxygen window is the difference between the partial pressure of oxygen in arterial blood and the ppO2 in body tissues. It is caused by metabolic consumption of oxygen.The term "oxygen window" was first used by Albert R. Behnke in 1967...
" was first used by Behnke in 1967. Behnke refers to early work by Momsen on "partial pressure vacancy" (PPV) where he used partial pressures of O2 and He as high as 2-3 ATA
Bar (unit)
The bar is a unit of pressure equal to 100 kilopascals, and roughly equal to the atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. Other units derived from the bar are the megabar , kilobar , decibar , centibar , and millibar...
to create a maximal PPV. Behnke then goes on to describe "isobaric inert gas transport" or "inherent unsaturation" as termed by LeMessurier and Hills, and separately by Hills, who made their independent observations at the same time. Van Liew et al. also made a similar observation that they did not name at the time. The clinical significance of their work was later shown by Sass.
In 1975, Behnke was involved with experiments on cosmic particle radiation
Particle radiation
Particle radiation is the radiation of energy by means of fast-moving subatomic particles. Particle radiation is referred to as a particle beam if the particles are all moving in the same direction, similar to a light beam....
for the Apollo program.
Behnke award
Starting in 1969, the Behnke award is given annually has been given each year by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical SocietyUndersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society
The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society is the primary source of information for diving and hyperbaric medicine physiology worldwide.-History:The Undersea Medical Society grew from the close associations of a small group of scientists...
, Inc. to a scientist for outstanding scientific contributions to advances in undersea biomedical activity. The award carries an honorarium and a plaque. The first recipient was Dr. Behnke.
Awards and honors
Established in 1916 and awarded by the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, the Sir Henry S. WellcomeHenry Wellcome
Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome FRS was an American-British pharmaceutical entrepreneur. He founded the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Company with his colleague Silas Burroughs, which is one of the four large companies that merged to form GlaxoSmithKline...
Medal and Prize is awarded annually for "the research work most valuable for the military service performed in any branch of medicine, surgery, or sanitation". Behnke was the 1941 recipient.
Dr. Behnke received the American College of Sports Medicine
American College of Sports Medicine
The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. More than 40,000 international, national and regional members and certified professionals are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and...
's Honor Award in 1976.
The Navy dedicated the NMRI Hyperbaric Research Facility on July 1, 1981 to Dr. Behnke.
External links
- Select publications from the Rubicon Research RepositoryRubicon FoundationRubicon Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization devoted to contributing to the interdependent dynamic between research, exploration, science and education. The foundation, started in 2002, is located in Durham, North Carolina and is primarily supported by donations and grants. Funding has...
- Behnke finding aid from the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society collection at Duke University Medical Center
- Behnke finding aid from the Hoover InstitutionHoover InstitutionThe Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
at Stanford University