The “Exosuit”: A wearable submarine for visiting deep water

The only diving suit that lets a human reach 1,000 feet underwater was put on display at the American Museum of Natural History on Thursday. Dubbed the "Exosuit," the system lets humans dive to regions where bioluminescent fish lurk in the darkness, with the goal of studying the fish and their environments more closely, as well as leveraging their biology for medical research.

Prior to the invention of this suit, the primary method for collecting deep sea fish to study was dredging them up from the ocean, according to John Sparks, a curator in the department of ichthyology at the AMNH. Currently, scientists are "basing their inference of [the fishes'] flashing patterns on anatomy."

Bioluminescent proteins are a burgeoning area of exploration for biomedical science. The proteins can be used for diagnostic imaging, and Vincent Pieribone, a researcher at Yale University, stated that the proteins can be used to alter a cell's response to electrical activity. This gives them potential for use in the brain, either as a probe or as a tool for developing brain-machine interfaces.