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They Experimented on Themselves in Secret. What They Discovered Helped Win a War

The untold, top-secret story of the British researchers who found the key to keeping humans alive underwater—and helped make D-Day a success.

By the late 1800s, frequent explosions and gas leaks made mining one of the most lethal jobs in the world, and John Scott Haldane became known among the miners of the country for his willingness to clamber into the narrow, dark, coal-­filled passageways on his mission to make the air supplies safer. When Jack was 8 years old, John Scott brought him to an evening lecture about Mendelian genetics, a set of mathematical explanations of how physical traits get passed down between generations—why some siblings turn out blond but others brunette; why some pea plants have violet flowers but others white. By the end of their experimental series in January, British special operations personnel had used their scientific discoveries to lurk in miniature submarines off the coast of specific, handpicked, highly classified beach locations in Normandy.

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