I recently picked up a used copy of Suffer and Survive: The Extreme Life of J.S. Haldane by Martin Goodman. John Scott Haldane was the father of decompression tables and the originator of using Canaries in coal mines as gas detectors. Anyone interested in the life of an extraordinary man and development of the earliest decompression theory would enjoy this book. It provides a detailed insight into life over a century ago.