New gas-switching technique could revolutionize deep-sea decompression safety

For as long as humans have descended into the deep ocean, the return journey has been as dangerous as the dive itself — nitrogen absorbed under pressure can form lethal bubbles in the blood if a diver ascends too quickly, a condition known as decompression sickness. Researchers have now developed a gas-switching technique that times strategic changes in breathing mixtures during ascent, potentially accelerating nitrogen elimination and reducing the hours-long decompression stops that have constrained divers for decades. The work is still awaiting clinical validation, but it represents a meanin