The power of N=1

N represents the number of data points in an experiment. N=1 is the first data point.

On February 14, 2024, a 13-hour experiment was performed. The test subject took the first breath from a closed-circuit rebreather using Hydrogen. With 230 meters (751 feet) of 6°C (42.8°F) spring water separating him and his enabler from the surface. Dr. Craig Challen and test subject number 1 Dr. Richard Harris were alone at depth in a cave in New Zealand with support divers from the “don’t take us seriously” Wet Mules team. The duo had previously descended in the same cave to 245 meters (800 feet) using Trimix rebreathers. This is not the first time people have used Hydrogen to stay at extreme depths. Arne Zetterstr?m in 1945 and Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises (COMEX) in 1968-69 proved the concept using surface supplied gases. This rebreather dive is considered a “Big deal” in the diving community.

Dr. Challen (the enabler) and Dr. Harris have another N=1 experiment in their past. In 2018, Dr. Harris (Anesthesiologist from Australia) sedated the Thai football team stuck in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chang Rai Thailand. The sedated children were carried 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) through murky high flow water and air-filled sumps. This had never been done before. The children were found by another buddy team, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen. These cave divers have been breaking records and performing impossible rescues for at least 20 years together with Chris Jewell, Jason Mallinson, Josh Bratchley, Connor Roe, Ben Reymenants, Maksym Polejaka and thousands behind the scenes. Dr. Harris didn’t just break a record, the cocktail of ketamine and atropine enabled the N=1 rescue.

Colonel (USAF) Joseph William “Red” Kittinger II took one small step in August 1960 and fell 31.3 kilometers (102,800 feet) to land safely under a round parachute in the New Mexico desert. In 2012 that record was broken and broken again in 2014 with 41.41 kilometers (135,889 feet). Kittinger was N=1. Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947 and in 1961 Major General USAF Robert Michael White broke Mach 4, 5 and 6. Since 2008, SpaceX has ticked off an impressive number of N=1 boxes.

·??????? In 1953 Tenzing Norgay (N=1) accompanied by Sir Edmund Percival Hillary ascended to the top Mt. Everest.

·??????? In 2007 Jeremy Clarkson and James May (N=1) drove a motor vehicle to the north pole.

·??????? In 1992 Glenn Singleman and Nic Feteris (N=1) jumped from Trango towers in Pakistan.

·??????? Marc-André Leclerc (N=1) made the first solo ascent of The Corkscrew on Cerro Torre in Patagonia on February 21, 2015.

·??????? The first decent to 10,916 meters (35,797 feet) in the Mariana Trench was made by US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard (N=1). James Cameron (N=1) made the first solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench on March 26, 2012 with a submersible.

·??????? British stuntman Gary Connery (N=1) was the first and only person to land a wingsuit without a parachute on May 23, 2012.

The long list of achievements means that the power of N=1 spirit of exploration continues. Even in 2024, there are new frontiers.