Deep water and the unprotected human body dont play well together—like, at all. But what if there were a way to get around the bodys chemical limitations, a means of deep diving without the bends or lengthy decompression? Actually, there is. And weve almost figured out how to do it without killing ourselves in the process.The Dangers of DeepThe recommended absolute limit for recreational SCUBA divers is just 130 feet, and technical dives using Trimix bottom out at 330. Even then, youve got less than five minutes at depth before requiring monitored decompression to avoid getting the bends the not-scary word for when nitrogen dissolves into your tissue under the massive pressure of the water column, is ejected into the bloodstream during ascent, and you die of a brain embolism. Interestingly though, once your body hits its nitrogen saturation limit, it doesnt matter if you stay down for an hour or a month; your decompression time effectively maxes out.This technique, known as saturation diving, is how recovery divers working on the K-141 Kursk were able to spend hours 300 feet below sea level amidst 10 atmospheres of pressure and how the crew in The Abyss were able to do their jobs.
