What happens to the body in the deep sea? You need oxygen to survive, but too much oxygen can be deadly. Also, if you rise to the surface too quickly, nitrogen bubbles can form in your body and kill you. We'll talk with author and scientist Rachel Lance, who has conducted research for the military, using a hyperbaric chamber in which the air and the pressure can be controlled to mimic what divers and submarines are exposed to. Her new book is about the scientists whose dangerous experiments about underwater pressure and injury were critical to the success of D-Day. It's called Chamber Divers. David Bianculli reviews the new series Franklin, starring Michael Douglas as Ben Franklin. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
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This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
How can the human body survive the extremes of the deep sea?
Whether it's deep sea diversity or people within the enclosed environment of a submarine, whether it's civilians or special operations forces, how do blasts and bombs underwater affect the body compared to the impact of blasts on land?
These are some of the questions my guest Rachel Lance has researched for the military and at Duke University.
This is her last semester at Duke.
She's a biomedical engineer and blast injury specialist.
For several years, she was an engineer for the US Navy, researching and testing new underwater technology, navy divers, seals and marine force recon personnel.
She currently conducts research at Duke University using their hyperbaric chamber.
It's an enclosed chamber in which the air pressure can be increased or decreased along with the levels of oxygen and other gases to simulate the extremes of underwater environments, monitor the negative impact on the body and test solutions.
Her new book, Chamber Divers, is about the research conducted by obsessive scientists before and during World War Two, which proved essential to the success of D Day, when allies had to conduct surveillance searching for traps and mines underwater and on the beach before storming the beach of Normandy on D Day.
In order to do the research, the scientists put themselves through extremes in the hyperbaric chamber and sustained some pretty serious injuries.
Rachel Lance, welcome to FRESH AIR.
What were you researching that made you interested in the world War two underwater research?
I read this paper about carbon dioxide, and it wasn't extremely exciting.
It concluded, essentially that carbon dioxide is bad for you and it hurts, which I already knew.