ebullism
EB-yuh-liz-um
Definition
The formation of gas bubbles in body fluids caused by a rapid decrease in ambient pressure, specifically when the pressure drops low enough for body-temperature water to boil into vapor.
Etymology
Derived from the Latin 'ebullire,' meaning 'to bubble up.' The suffix '-ism' is used here to denote a medical condition or state resulting from this boiling process.
In the news
The article uses the term to distinguish the immediate, violent physical trauma caused by extreme vacuum exposure from the slower, nitrogen-based 'bends' experienced during routine spacewalks.
Before every spacewalk, astronauts spend hours breathing pure oxygen inside their own bodies for one specific reason — to stop their blood from doing to them exactly what nearly happened to test subjects inside vacuum chambers on Earth
Read the full article ↗Space Daily