How do marine mammals, whose very survival depends on regular diving, manage to avoid decompression sickness or "the bends?" Do they, indeed, avoid it? Any diver returning from ocean depths knows ...

The air we breathe is made up of 78% nitrogen - an inert, completely harmless gas - at the surface at least, but as we dive into the ocean depths it's another matter.... When diving, we experience ...

Decompression sickness, in which bubbles formed from dissolved gas (usually nitrogen) cause tissue and vascular injury after a reduction in environmental pressure, may occur in diving, aviation, and ...

Decompression sickness happens when nitrogen that is dissolved in the body under high pressure — for example when diving — forms bubbles when pressure reduces. Key symptoms include joint and muscle ...

Whales may be able to get the same decompression sickness that scuba divers do when they surface too quickly from a dive, despite their adaptations to a life in the ocean. The painful and potentially ...